One & Half Mother -Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Antony’s Aileach bungalow was a beautiful world for Elisha. Gradually, Jacqueline’s disappointment turned into the love of a mother. She started loving her like her own baby. Little Elisha thought about a day back in Moses when she sat alone. It took a long time for that butterfly to fly like before.

Antony started calling her Ellen from the first day. Little Elisha wondered who Antony was calling, looking at her face. She then realized that was her new identity. She loved her new name; it was sweet for her to listen to. Elisha’s memories of Moses started to fade. She loved to sleep inside her white linen cover now.

Jacqueline showed Ellen much more care than before. Slowly, Jacqueline became a mom in Ellen’s mind. The family spent the weekend evenings on the green lawn near the swimming pool. Antony and Jacqueline enjoyed those moments when Ellen flew around them like a butterfly. Unlike other kids, Ellen didn’t scream inside the house for any reason. She didn’t cry for anything, and she didn’t cry for any reason. Jacqueline and Antony were surprised by Ellen’s nature of suppressing her sorrow inside. They wondered and worried about her mature character at such an early age.

That evening, Antony came home early from his office. Ellen always ran outside home when she heard a vehicle sound inside the compound, as she knew that would be Antony. She didn’t say anything to Antony or Jacqueline except the answers to the questions they asked her. She looked at them from a distance. Her mind always screamed and jumped when Daddy was home. Her imaginations hugged her mom, pulled her hair. Antony entered the big hall of the bungalow. Ellen stood on the last step of the stairs holding the railing of the stairs.

Antony sat on his knees and called her with his waving hand. In that white dress with embroidered red roses, she resembled a baby angel. She came closer to Antony. She put her fingers in her mouth and looked down to Antony’s knees. He lifted her face toward his face. He stopped her from chewing her fingers, “Good kids do not do that.”

Jacqueline came down with a novel in her hand. The End of Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher, a best seller in those years. After marriage, Jacqueline quit her modeling field, as she knew the dissent of Antony’s family toward the profession. Most of the time, she killed her afternoons reading novels on the balcony.

“Look what Daddy bought for you,” he gave Ellen a red pouch. She opened it, her face brimming with nervousness. She was getting a gift from Daddy. She began opening it with her delicate hands. An inflatable red life raft and a swimming suit.

Antony saw Ellen watching Jacqueline swimming in the pool with curiosity every time. He saw little Ellen standing near the pool and playing with water. He comprehended her desire to play in the water. Ellen was so glad; her enormous eyes filled with joy. She knew what the swimsuit was but took that deflated red-tube-like float in her hands and started looking at it with curiosity. She had seen rafts coasting in the neighboring home pool below the church in Maple Valley; she was confused about the flat red tube.

“You have to blow air into that black pipe,” Antony pointed at the valve of the tube.

She painstakingly kept her mouth on the plug to start blowing air. Her strength was not enough to open the valve and fill the air inside. After a few hard tries, she grasped it in her hand and showed it to Antony with an innocent face. Antony was still sitting on his knees watching the kid’s expressions, and Jacqueline too joined him on the floor. He took it from her delicate hands and blew air into it. It started inflating to a red round tube; Ellen screamed and went crazy after seeing it inflating. For the first time, that kid’s laughter echoed inside Aileach.

Jacqueline took the fully inflated tube and Ellen toward the pool. She was excited to see the baby’s happiness. Antony sat on the sofa. He thought about the joy that Ellen had shown just a moment back. He felt satisfied inside. Jacqueline changed Ellen’s clothes and got her into a swimsuit for the first time. She was doing it for the first time after Ellen came to Aileach, her nanny Abeba took care of Ellen’s every need.

Nanny Abeba was a middle-aged fat African woman. She was an immigrant from Ethiopia. She was a widow and had two children studying in high school. Five years back, her husband had passed away. Since then, she had been working as a nanny for families. Apart from that nanny job, Ababa could read and write proper English. That was the main reason Jacqueline had appointed her as Ellen’s nanny. Abeba knew thousands of stories for kids; Ellen always used to listen to her stories with her curious eyes.

When Jacqueline removed Ellen’s dress, she saw three big sores on Ellen’s back. She placed her fingers on the sore. It was deep, and she felt it. “What happened to your back, baby?”

“A big dog bites little Eisha,” Ellen said with her cute facial expressions and folding her fists like paws. She always called herself Eisha, saying Ellen was difficult for her.

Father Gabriel told her about the pooch story when she asked why few elder Moses children were calling her a puppy. Jacqueline kept that in her mind, and she dressed her in that delightful blue swimming dress. Jacqueline put the soft red tube through Ellen’s legs and moved it to her chest. She ensured it was tight and close to her body. Ellen was very happy to play in the water with Mom. Jacqueline took her to the side of swimming pool that was shallow.

Jacqueline went down to the swimming pool. The water was just above her knees in that place, and she took Ellen to the swimming pool. Little Ellen started floating. She was astonished and began chuckling noisily. Her laughter was like a heavy rain inside Jacqueline’s heart. Ellen hadn’t experienced something like this before. She began thumping on the water with her little hands. Jacqueline joined her game, Antony watched everything for some time from the balcony. He also joined them with black shorts. Antony was a swimming champion in his school days. He started backstrokes with Jacqueline.

Ellen watched their romantic games in the water with her eyes wide open; she also wanted to swim like them.

Antony put her on his shoulders. “Hold Daddy’s head tightly,” he said and started floating around the pool like a dolphin.

Ellen was laughing loud and enjoyed the ride on her daddy dolphin. Jacqueline sat on the step and watched them; they delighted in the games till the lights went down. The little angel began getting adoration and favor from her new family, an echo of Ellen’s chuckle came back again to them from different corners of the house. Antony and Jacqueline seem to be very happy that day. Ellen had defeated the struggle to call them Dad and Mom.

The last two weeks, Abeba had given Ellen company in another room. Abeba stayed there on Antony’s request until Ellen familiarized herself with the home. At night, Jacqueline told Antony to bring the child to their bedroom. They walked to the next room. Abeba was reading a kids’ storybook loudly for Ellen. She was listening to the story with much interest.

Antony carried her on his shoulder, and they walked toward their bedroom. She looked at Abeba’s face from his shoulder; the disappointment of interruption of the story was on her face.

“Go, sweetheart. Your mommy knows more stories than a nanny,” Abeba walked behind Antony and said.

They walked to their bedroom with the baby. Antony kept her in the middle of the bed, and they both lay on both sides of that little angel.

“Mommy,” she called with a delicate voice with fear.

“Mmmmmmmm,” Jacqueline replied.

“Why is the nanny black?”

They didn’t have an answer to that simple question the little kid asked.

“Nanny worked many years in the hot sun, that’s why Nanny turned black,” Jacqueline said that much.

“I will not allow the nanny to go out in the sun again.”

Jacqueline was astonished at how much care that little infant had, in her psyche for somebody she loved, at this early age.

Long hours of silence ended with Antony’s snoring sound.

As usual, Antony woke up earlier, before Jacqueline. He saw the little angel awake and looking at Jacqueline’s face. She was trying to comb Jacqueline’s hair with her small hands. She was touching her nose. Antony got out of bed. When he stood up on the floor, Ellen saw him and started acting like she was sleeping peacefully. Antony grinned at her. That was a beautiful morning for Antony. He felt he got all that he was missing from in his life. He hadn’t thought the little Ellen would be a naughty girl. He always saw a quiet and sad kid until yesterday. But today, he saw a little naughty Ellen.

Time didn’t cease for anyone; three more years passed very fast. Antony was building up his business world. Jacqueline started managing a few of his organizations. They made Ellen study in one of New York’s best schools. Nanny Ababa turned into a part of the family in three years. Abeba and Ellen became best friends. Most of the time, only they both were at home. Abeba told her a lot of stories, sitting in the garden in the evenings. Ellen was keen and very interested in cooking with Abeba without Jacqueline’s knowledge. She learned many recipes from Abeba during her free time. Abeba was surprised each time she saw this little child cooking so wonderfully like a perfect culinary specialist. She always discovered new tastes while preparing dishes, and they were all served to Abeba.

Ellen was not great at studies. Some folks ceaselessly insulted Ellen by calling her “vagrant” in school. She used to contend with them inside her mind, but she kept quiet always. She was an orphan. She was adopted. Her days in school became difficult with those chafing senior boys who knew she was an orphan.

Slowly, the entire class got to know she was an orphan. Iqbal was Antony’s best friend, and he was present in that function when Elisha came into the family. Iqbal’s son Althaf was studying in the same school as Ellen’s senior, and that’s how the news got there, and she got that name in school.

On that day, little Ellen cried in the school transport due to her companions’ abuse. They were telling her to go back to the orphanage. They said her dad and mom were going to sell her for money when she grew up, many things.

The little angel ran home with a broken heart from the school bus. There were few guests at home. They were Jacqueline’s parents, cousins and Antony’s family. There was something unusual happening in the family. Little Ellen entered the corridor with her watery eyes. Before being noticed, she wiped her tears and figured out a way to move to her room through a corner. All of a sudden, Nanny Abeba came before her and took Ellen’s school pack from her and said, “We all were waiting for you.”

Why? She asked the question in her mind. Are they going to sell me? Antony and Jacqueline were dressed exquisitely. Abeba took her to her room and showed her a new dress, which looked like what Cinderella wore in the stories kept on the bed, asked her to take a shower and get ready with the dress. She didn’t say anything to nanny; even Abeba didn’t ask her anything. She went to the washroom and washed her face two or three times. She was not interested in taking a shower. She dressed up like an angel.

Abeba accompanied her in a perfect white dress and strolled alongside her to the lobby. Antony was talking to his father-in-law. A big cake with was kept on a decorated table. She remained beside Ababa close to a doorway.

Antony saw Elisha and called her. She went next to him; she knew most of the family members by face. She had seen many faces in the album, and many had visited them in all these years. But little Ellen’s mind was loaded with questions. Today is not any one’s birthday, then why have they kept a cake on the table? She didn’t have any idea about the celebration going on. Antony raised his champagne glass.

“Dear, all I have is a toast to this happy event.”

Everyone was silent and stopped talking. Jacqueline walked to him with an elegant red dress, which was her most favorite. Her face was filled with joy.

The three stood close. “We have been waiting for years to tell you this happy news. Before that, you know our Ellen came to our life two years ago.” He lifted Ellen and put her on a chair next to him. Now little Ellen could see everyone’s faces. Her heart was beating hard with anxiety.

Antony continued, “And those three years, we felt the happiness of life. She came to our lives like an angel, blessed us with all the good things. I have two beautiful and successful years behind me; I enjoyed being the best father to her. Jack and I didn’t have any sorrow until this moment because of her. Now after three years, we are going to be blessed with another baby in this family, yes. I am going to become a dad again.”

Jacqueline grinned and placed her hands on Ellen’s shoulder. Little Ellen did not get the significance of what they were talking about. She stood there with questions in her mind.

“We will be blessed with a baby in six months.” Jacqueline giggled with a little shyness on her face.

There was applause for some time. Then, Antony continued. “Ellen came to our life as a gift from God, and we are happy to give her a little baby as a gift.”

I am going to become a big sister. The distress in her mind flew away in a second. Her face became plain like a clear sky after a substantial rain, and she began grinning like an angel. She sliced the cake and gave it to her daddy and mommy. Relatives were very happy to see that. Except for one person. Nanny Abeba. She was watching everything from a corner. Thinking about Ellen. She was clapping her hands with the crowd, but thousands of questions were rising in her mind.

Antony was very careful in the coming days. He appointed two more maids to help Abeba and to take full-time care of Jacqueline. There were visitors in the home almost all days, after hearing the news.

Ellen began disregarding the people who called her orphan, and no one among them could teach Ellen the lesson of survival. She knew to progress in her life even before opening her eyes. Slowly, the people around her also lost enthusiasm to call her that, as they did not get the reaction they expected from her.

Daisy and Lindsey were Ellen’s best friends in school. They were in the same class from grade one. They used to share everything in their little lives. They promised each other they would stay friends in each moment of life. They were Ellen’s supporters, and they even used to fight with the folks who threatened Ellen. There was a significant bond between those friends.

Ellen saw her mommy walking with great difficulty. She enjoyed touching and feeling the baby kicking her face from her mom’s womb.

As expected, Jacqueline became the mother of her own baby boy. Antony and family celebrated the arrival of the new champ like nothing before, and they named him Daniel.

It gave Ellen immense pleasure to play with her little baby brother. She ran home every day to meet her little baby brother after getting off the school bus. In fact, the hours she spent in school were a long wait to go back home.

She loved to carry Daniel around with Abeba. Sometimes, Nanny Abeba was amazed to see the baby girl acting like a perfect mother. He didn’t cry even a single time in Ellen’s hand. He smiled showing his gums to Ellen, and the whole family was happy to see the fondness between brother and sister except the real mother, Jacqueline!

Jacqueline started ignoring Ellen after she became a biological mother. Daniel grew up as the naughtiest boy of all time and loved to roam around and play with his big sister. In his little mind, she remained his own sister. His curly golden-brown hair and blue eyes and extreme fairness made everyone around lift him up in their hands.

Ellen turned into an ideal overseer of Daniel. She even cried when her little brother fell somewhere or when he got hurt from something—they had a significant connection between their hearts. Jacqueline didn’t have much time to take care of the baby. She was busy and engaged in business, and she always got relaxed seeing Ellen taking perfect care of Daniel.

***

Ellen moved to another school after her seventh grade with her best classmates. She hadn’t requested Antony or Jacqueline to take her to the school where her companions had joined. Her friends joined the same school where Ellen got admission; Daniel began heading off to school with his sister.

Antony designated a driver for them. Bob was an old man retired from the transport department. He approached Antony to help the higher education of his daughters. Bob held a perfect driving permit at this age too. He was great at engaging kids the distance to school and back with stories. Ellen was keen to hear stories, and her doubts made Bob create new stories, skipping her questions.

Kitty party gossip made Jacqueline take the hard decision of treating Ellen awfully. After Daniel’s birth, the mother inside her changed a lot toward Ellen. Jacqueline even told Daniel about his sister being adopted and that Ellen wasn’t his real sister. Jacqueline asked him to stay away from her. Apart from these activities, she treated her like a maid many times. Jacqueline was frightened about Antony’s reaction, yet at the same time, nothing ceased her carrying on discourteously to that angel. Daniel was more attached to his sister than his mother. She was the only one who took unequaled care of him. From the moment he identified people around him, his sister was his most favorite.

 The innocent boy child asked her about what Mom said to Ellen. Ellen told all the stories which she knew from others about her to her little brother like a story. In the evening, she cried a lot in the lap of Abeba saying she was losing her little brother from her life. Abeba considered Ellen’s future in Aileach, and she understood that which she dreaded would happen was happening now.

It didn’t affect kids like Jacqueline thought they would. They grow up like two butterflies around Aileach. But with the mind of a boy growing up, Daniel kept his sister away from the family in his thoughts.

Jacqueline became the busiest businesswoman, and she was least bothered about the home and kids. Abeba and Ellen were running the family smoothly. Signing progress cards and attending parent meetings in school were the only things they did as parents. They tried to be with family, but their pressure and tension in business always separated them from the kids.

Ellen turned out to be excellent in cooking. In her early adolescence, she created different sorts of tastes from a similar recipe. Abeba was happy and astounded about the blessing Ellen got in her life.

Ellen cared for her brother like a mother, she always loved to comb his hair, to pack his tiffin box, and she acted like a perfect mother in her early teens. She didn’t argue or fight with her brother. She was always considerate and helped him with whatever she could. She cried only when he cried.

Ellen entered her sweet sixteen. Antony’s hair began turning white. He still looked good with white and dark hair blended in his head. His vitality levels didn’t descend. Jacqueline started an independent company related to the modeling field, new cosmetics and new trends of fabrics. She proved a successful businesswoman. Antony was happy to see his business developing more than he expected, and he didn’t contemplate the concealed distress and separation in the family.

Ellen was bold enough to go alone and get back home on public transport. She liked to stay back for more time after school hours, chatting with her closest companions. Chatting with them was the only thing that made Ellen move forward despite the loneliness in Aileach.

A few years back, Abeba had moved out from Aileach as result of her knee pain. After Abeba left the family, Ellen became the all-rounder in the family. She didn’t care about the distance maintained by Mom, and she smiled and accepted everything that Jacqueline said to her. Her subconscious mind was powerful enough to make her survive in any situation. She was a good mother to Daniel.

Daniel was turning toward drugs in his early teens. Antony and Jacqueline gave him plenty of pocket money to show their love and made him the leader of the local lousy boys’ gang. Ellen knew little of her sibling’s activities, and she dreaded to contend with him since she dreaded she would lose her favored position in his psyche. Jacqueline was not aware of all these things happening in her home. Increased separation from Jacqueline and Antony’s ignorance due to their business pressure made her a suffocated secret keeper.

Daniel’s voice started changing from that of a kid to an adult when he was fourteen years old. A young man. He even dared to smoke in front of Ellen if no one was at home. She watched him move toward bad things with pain in her heart and with her watery eyes. She realized her sibling was inaccessible to her.

His awful associates introduced the mystical universe of drugs to him. He was an excellent junior football player in school, yet he swung to a criminal existence with young ladies and those terrible boys. A significant portion of the days, he entered home at night, stoned. He acted as usual before Ellen and acted like he was dozing before the parents come back. He created situations to sit with Ellen or next to her.

She was happy to help her brother any time he called her for help. However, he was enjoying her beauty. He smelled her hair without her noticing. Fear about the family made him stay calm, but in his mind, evil and good were fighting each other with their own perspectives. Evil always won, saying she was not a real sister. And good failed, saying she was a good sister and mother. He turned into a drugged immature evil boy.

It was a raining vigorously since afternoon. Surprisingly, Ellen saw Daniel doing his homework in the corridor while strolling toward her room in the evening. She had gotten a little wet during the walk to home from the transport stop. Her golden-brown hair was stuck to her dress. Ellen smiled at him and walked into her bedroom. She was thinking about the dinner she was going to make before Mom and Dad came home.

Daniel was watching her with an evil smile on his face when she went in with wet clothes. The moment she closed her door, he went and locked the main entry door. Daniel came toward Ellen’s door and stayed outside, peeking through the keyhole to see something. His mouth was dry, and he shivered. He pushed and opened her door, which he altered that afternoon to ensure it stayed unlocked always.

Ellen was removing her clothes when he entered the room. She crossed her arms around her and looked at him with her frozen mind. She was deadened for a moment. Her heart ceased for a moment. She turned toward the wall to hide her body from him. She was trying to grab a cover for herself. It was a hard embrace of a wild creature from behind. She felt sweat all over her body in that second.

Ellen didn’t know the wild beast inside her sibling. She had always watched him with the adoration of a mother. She hadn’t observed his abhorrent face till that fraction of a second. He was trying hard to hunt his victim. However, her hormones reacted faster than his drugs. She pushed him away and slapped him hard right on his face. Daniel fell on the floor, his sight became blurred, and he ran out with fear and frustration of failure.

She began crying loudly. She wore her wet dress back in a hurry. She lay on her bed. Her pillows were wet with her tears. She was thinking about those days she took him and strolled around the home like a mother. She was sobbing until night, Antony and Jacqueline got back home late in the night, they found the kitchen empty. Jacqueline came to Ellen’s room to ask why she didn’t make anything. But after she saw Ellen crying in the bed, Jacqueline didn’t ask what she had really come for.

“How you got a cold?” Jacqueline asked with disappointment in her voice.

“I have an enormous migraine, Mom, no need to worry, it will go,” she replied to Jacqueline with her red, watery eyes.

“Take rest; we will call the doctor if it increases. I will find some medicine for you,” Jacqueline said it without interest in her words, but just to show she cared.

Jacqueline came back with a glass of water and a painkiller tablet. Jacqueline didn’t know the agony in a soul would not be cured with this painkiller. Ellen acted as if she was alright in the wake of taking the pill. When they cleared out the room, she washed her face over and over. However, the distress in her psyche was not going away with the cold water.

Daniel was afraid to face Ellen for a few days. He didn’t dare to talk to her. One day, he came to her and apologized for what happened that day. Daniel reviled himself. He held her arms and apologized. He made Ellen believe his sincere expressions of remorse. He continued to weep on her lap like a baby, but he smelled her body with his stoned, evil mind. Ellen discerned the abnormal behavior of her brother during his apologies. She behaved calm and kept a distance from him afterward. A gap between sister and brother had formed. Jacqueline observed it, and she was happy to see that.

That day, Jacqueline took Daniel and went to his junior football state selection. She had some meeting near that place. Antony returned home earlier than anticipated after his business visit. He reached the house in the afternoon and decided to spend time in the pool with liquor bottle and snacks in a floating basket, to unwind after a tiring journey. He started his drinks in the afternoon. Antony was lying in the coasting airbed in the pool; Ellen came out after her work in the kitchen. She called Antony to have lunch. He was getting high and didn’t want to come up from the pool. He asked her to wait for some more time for lunch. She sat near the pool, waiting for him to come up. Ellen was reminiscing about her life in Aileach.

Ellen was looking at the endless sky; she didn’t notice Antony’s piercing eyes on her body through her dress with the high of alcohol. He was thinking about the little girl he adopted from Moses, now grown into a full-sized lady. He asked her to get some more snacks for him; his voice was very loud. She hadn’t heard Antony talking so loud any time; that was the first time Antony had had more than six shots. The hot sun and cold water confused his mind, and he enjoyed the sips of alcohol and forgot his count. She strolled inside the home. Antony watched her hips moving like a lap-dancer. High of liquor. He overlooked the promises he had made in his mind about his adopted daughter.

Alcohol pushed him out of the pool. Antony strolled inside the home with his wet dress and lazy advances; Ellen was returning from the kitchen when she saw Antony sitting on the couch. He made that wet as well. Antony asked her to sit next to him and asked her for the reason for her nervousness on that day. He even observed her before his business tour. Ellen’s vitality had come down drastically after her brother misbehaved with her. She was vexed to say anything to Antony, and she disregarded his inquiries by saying she was stressed about the last, most decisive school tests.

 He caressed her hair and said there was no reason to worry. She was at the edge of tears with his care, which she had missed from the family for a considerable length of time. Her eyes became watery. Her tears began tumbling down. Antony wiped them with his hand and kept her face close to his chest, shrouded her and stroked her hair. She was sobbing on his chest. He felt the hot tears from her eyes coursing through his chest.

His thoughts were stuck somewhere between good and evil. It took some time for Ellen to stop crying. She felt the solace on her daddy’s chest. Ellen was thinking about the moments Antony cared for her in the initial days. She was in a world where she felt the comfort and care of a family. She felt the affection and care of a father; she didn’t move her face from his chest. She wished to remain in that place for long.

Antony’s contemplations were going all around with the high of alcohol. While embracing her, he had the warmth of a father, however, that moment, he began to feel her body touching his body. He overlooked the fact that it was his little girl. And he embraced her tight, and he was smelling her hair. Ellen felt the hardness of the embrace. Yet, she was in the state of a child held by solid hands. He was embracing her very tightly. She felt his lips touching her neck.

She yelled, “DADYYYY!”

She pushed him out. It took her a few moments to acknowledge him; stunned, she stood little behind and looked at her alcoholic man-lord of life.

“Daddyyyyyy. Daddyyyy.” She was crying loud while running toward her room. Her entryway shut like a firecracker. The detonating sound echoed inside Aileach. She burst into tears, and her pillow became wet again with her sorrow.

Antony reviled himself sitting on the couch. His psyche was loaded, contemplating what he did a minute back. He walked around her door, and he heard the sobbing sound of Ellen.

“Please don’t tell anybody, I am regretting what just happened,” he whispered it at her door with a delicate voice, exited with a heavy heart and worried about situations that were going to occur in the home.

His thought was about Jacqueline’s reaction. If Ellen told this to anyone, what would be society’s reaction? Thousands of questions flew through his brain. They were all shouting at him. He pulled out one t-shirt in a hurry and walked outside with his wet shorts to the street.

Ellen cried for a long time, and she got off from the bed and wiped her tears. She made her mind to accomplish something; she recalled her memories about the road to Ababa’s home. She filled a brown-colored leather bag with a few garments and couple of lovely photos from the family collection. She tore the page of that day from her fat diary and started writing on it, drops of tears from her eyes made the paper wet and caused ink to spread, she wrote—

Dear Daddy, Mommy, and Dani.

I am going out of our Aileach to some place where I belong. I have space for you all in my heart till my final breath. I wish everyone should be happy like before.

I cannot come back to this life.

I will be sheltered. Please don’t look for me.

I can’t watch you cry in front of me.

Yours,

Ellen.

She went outside Aileach. While closing those massive strolling gates, she looked back at the house. She thought of her memories with teary eyes, and with a heavy heart, she closed the gate of Aileach and her heart. Ellen advanced to the street to grab a taxi.