“Hey, wake up, girlfriend,” my friend Linkie said, nudging me in the ribs. We were sitting on the edge of the sports field, waiting for athletics practice to start. Sports Day was only three weeks away. We’d arrived early. We always wanted to scout out the talent. But today I just watched the grasses blowing in the breeze.

“Those guys are looking at us, again,” Linkie said excitedly.

“So what if they’re looking this way?” I said in a bored voice.

“Who got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” Linkie asked.
I was just about to say something really nasty back to Linkie, but I stopped myself in time. It wasn’t her fault my parents were having problems. Problems? I nearly laughed out loud at the idea. Who was I trying to fool? My parents were having more than just ‘problems’.

“They’re coming over! I can’t believe it.”

“Esther, Linkie. How’s it?”

I didn’t have to turn around to know it was Samora talking. I’d know his voice anywhere. His friend Thabo was with him.

“Hi guys,” I bravely put on my brightest voice. “Are you coming for athletics practice today?”

“No,” Thabo replied. “We’re playing in the soccer finals this weekend. We’re getting in plenty of that kind of practice.”

“That’s cool,” Linkie said, looking at Thabo. She liked him a great deal. So, of course, she wanted me to like Samora.

I did like him! But right now I wasn’t in the mood for flirting. I had so many worries; they were like huge weights pressing on my shoulders. My parents were constantly fighting. Dad hardly bothered to come home anymore. Like last night. He rang to say good night to my little sister Lizzie and me. But Ma grabbed the phone and shouted into the receiver. Then she went into the kitchen and threw the dinner she was preparing into the dustbin. If I hadn’t stopped her then, she would have broken every plate in the cupboard. Lizzie just stood at the kitchen door, watching Ma’s angry face.

Later she had crawled into bed beside me. “I hate it here. I’m going to run away!”

I shook my head to get rid of the memory. I realised Samora was speaking. Then I heard Linkie’s reply.

“We’d be delighted to come and watch the soccer match, wouldn’t we, Esther?”

Oh, no! I hadn’t heard the boys ask us to the match. Lizzie was so upset about all the arguments my parents were having that she followed me around when I was home. I really ought to stay with her.

“If you don’t want to come, I’ll understand Esther,” Samora said quietly. What was wrong with me? All the senior girls liked Samora.

“It’s not that I don’t want to go with you, Samora. I have to look after my little sister.” I tried to smile to show him I meant it.

“Well, why don’t you bring her along?”

“Okay, I’ll try to make it,” I said, trying to sound more enthusiastic.

Normally I would have been delighted to have been asked out by Samora. But my parents were upsetting my life. I didn’t want to go out with a boy. It might be fun at first, but look what had happened to Ma. She kept telling me that boys were “trouble with a capital T” and I must not start dating them.

The thought of Ma made me sad again. She’d changed since she and Dad started fighting. But maybe I was just being too hard on her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Ma just wanted her old family back.

***

Tell us what you think: Has Esther been too hard on her Ma?