1983
“Mom! What are you doing! Stop it please!” She doubted her mom would listen to her small little voice, but she didn’t want to let anybody know what her mother was about to do. “Stop it!!!! Don’t do it mom! I love you!” Adeela screamed and begged with tears streaming down her red appalled face. “Mom, listen to me! Don’t do it!”
The mother finally broke down and gave out a painful moan, slowly weakening the grip of her tightly shut palm, which held a small bottle of rat’s poison. Adeela quickly snatched the poison from her hand and hugged her mom as tight as she could. The woman was shaking with fear. She was ashamed of what she was about to do. Moreover she was ashamed to be a single mother in this country, listening to every soul in the little village.
She was young and beautiful, and now a widow, and that gave all the reason for the men to give her disgusting comments of her character, beauty, and potential of being a wife again. She was never able to go out alone to do grocery or find a job because she always felt like she was being watched. Even when she was at home with Adeela. Young men would throw stones and bricks on her bedroom window just to get her attention. She missed her husband. Sometimes her in-laws were not the only ones to blame her for his death. She admitted she had bad luck. She couldn’t even get a job anywhere without being harassed by the boss or other people around the area. At least if she had a son, she would have some hope of being safe in the future, because sons are supposed to look after their mothers, in contrary to daughters who leave them to take care of their in-laws. She was hopeless. Her family thought of her as a burden. All she could have thought of was suicide.
Adeela was 8 years old, though she sure didn’t act like one. Despite the fact of not really grasping the concept of women being “unfortunate” she sympathized to see her mother in such circumstance, but she hated how unfair it was for her to see all this while the other girls her age played hopscotch and tag without a single concern in their hearts.
She missed him more than anything. Especially when all her other friends went home with their dads, or when their dads bought them new toys and took them to the city. She missed her dad. She doesn’t quite remember everything about him, but she knew that if he was alive he would have made one awesome dad.
She didn’t understand why her mom wanted to kill herself. It frightened her and it led to so many sleepless nights. She didn’t want to be an orphan. Besides, nobody else in her family really liked her.
A couple of months passed and Adeela’s mother got a proposal from a family. Her marriage was being arranged again to an engineer who was previously married as well. He was a distant friend of Adeela’s father. He lived in the city. Not just any city, but the big apple. Her mom accepted the proposal. Within 2 years, she got the visa to go to America. It was her only choice, she said.
Unfortunately, mom couldn’t take her daughter with her due to some lengthy complicated immigration policy. Not yet, at least. On the bright side, mom won’t try killing herself again, she thought. With this thought, she loosened her grip from her mother’s hand, still crying like it was the end of the world, while they sat in the airport with 2 suitcases that had her mom’s small little life packed inside.
“Don’t cry my baby. We will come back to get you as soon as we get all the paperwork done. For now, you only focus on studies.” The mother said, holding her little girl tight in her arms. She didn’t have the guts to look into her own daughter’s eyes. Those eyes had a story of their own. She had big bold light-brown eyes, just like her father’s.
“Your new father has registered you to a very good boarding school in Dhaka. It will be lots of fun there! He really cares about you dear.” She hated the man for stealing her mother away from her, no matter how much he helped out. If he was her dad’s friend then why would he separate her from her mom?
That night in the airport, her mother’s family came for the farewell. They took Adeela back home with them. She was to temporarily live with her oldest aunt in the city before she started boarding school.
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