So many things we dreamed of! But in our lives, we were like travellers who do not know where we’re going. Our life did not have stop signs and everything seemed so simple but it was not. It was painful to move, like a train that has no brakes and no stops at all. Every station was just a resting stop and back on the road we would go if things got too hot to handle.

We asked ourselves if it was the parents we had, or were we adopted by them? We could not believe that parents could be so cruel and irresponsible with their own children and with our future too. And how could a human being treat his or her own blood like they were nothing to them? How could they not care how their children got hurt in the process? What was wrong with them? This was not how normal people treated their own flesh and blood.

We lived there for five years and thought we were going to stay for good. But no, my father had to go and mess our future up because he could not behave and be a responsible husband and father figure to us. He travelled and we were the victims of this chaos because he would fight and leave us and go away and come back. After months of this, we did not know what would happen next because he was full of surprises and did not admit when he was wrong.

Life was beginning to be hard again because of the obstacles we were facing. I started to be treated badly because of my father’s behaviour and neglect towards us. His wife and children, who supported him through hardship and loved him no matter what, were always there for him and stood by his side through thick and thin. We were his pillar but he did not see that and kept hurting us and his wife.

She was a good Christian wife and mother to us and the only thing that changed were obstacles. Our journey came to an end because of a man who could not control his inner human emotions. She had had enough pain and suffering and decided to let him go. She let us go too because she could not afford to take care of so many children and she did not have job.

“Some things are better left behind,” she said in pain, tears rolling down her beautiful yellow-bone cheeks.

I could not take it anymore. I wrote a suicide note saying: “I am going to kill myself is he leaves us!”

I thought he loved us enough that my letter would change his mind about leaving. But no. He said, “Go ahead, it would mean less problems for me and less stomachs to feed.”

I sat down and cried like a baby. I could not believe what my ears were hearing from my own biological father. I wished I could die, or that he would die because he was treating us so badly like we are not his blood.

We were badly hurt and we had this pain and anger inside our hearts. We could not love easily anymore. We were left broken and alone because nobody cared about us and how we felt that time. Even now we have each other and we promised to love each other no matter what challenges come.

***

Tell us: What advice would you give our narrator?