Our step mother had so much influence upon my father that she made our father hate us all. That did not bother my mother since she had indulged into drinking alcohol due to stress and frustration from our father. Eventually the step mother vacated our compound with my dad and left us alone.
My mother regardless of the hard life we faced, she made sure we attended school. All my three brothers were in upper primary and I was in nursery school, and therefore I was the only one who used to come back from school at noon. One day i came home as usual from school expecting to meet my mother at home and have lunch. On that fateful day I met my mother lying on the floor and tried to wake her up but she could not wake up. With my little knowledge I thought my mother is asleep and slept besides her hoping she will wake up and serve me food. It was not until my brothers came home that I came to learn that my mother was dead. It was alleged that our step mother had poisoned her because she was seen in the compound in pretext that she had come for her belongings that she had left behind.
The area chief confirmed that my mother was dead she was taken to the morgue. Just a few days before our mother was buried we were attacked by unknown people at night and they
beat us mercilessly and every one ran their own way to unknown destination and on that night I slept at a neighbor’s house who advised me to follow my father who was staying in a rental house with his wife. They welcomed me well but little did I know they intended to use me as a house help when I come from school. Being at nursery school I was only 6 years old, I could not differentiate an enemy and a friend.
The good welcome did not last long before I was introduced to hard work of washing my father and step mother cloths on weekends, and fetch fire wood and water, that was my assignment that I was to perform with no fail. I never resisted my chores and took them with passion. I had only one school uniform and no shoes but it did not bother me. By the time I joined class one my step mother started to introduce me on how to cook, the step made me very happy since I knew I will not feel hungry again since I will be able to have food.
Soonest I knew how to cook basic simple food, I was the one assigned to do the cooking and if the food was not enough I was the one to go to sleep with no food . Soon she started beating me for simple mistake and one day the food got burnt and she stuck me with a knife on the shoulder like she wanted to kill me. I still have that scar with me which reminds me dark days in my life. Since that day life started changing to worse. She could even beat me out of nothing to relief her hunger of fun.
I pleaded with my father to help me since I was really getting terrible beatings but he could only tell me it was because I was not following instructions from my step mother. At these point is when I realized her children were treated in a special way.We were in the same school but they had a couple of uniform each and shoes which I did not have. When they prepared a special meal like meat I was sent to collect firewood so that they can have an opportunity to eat in my absence.
These made me miss my family so much, someone to share my pain with. I wished I knew where my brothers had gone to and why they didn’t search me where I had gone. My brothers would defend me whenever I was at risk from bullies but my current family encouraged bullies to mock and beat me. I felt very useless and unloved.
