PLAY PRETEND
I hated nap time so much. Who cares if I don't get tall enough? Why would I care with my height if I won't be happy because I couldn't do the things I want to do! A free soul? Yeah right, I wish. But no matter how I refuse to sleep, mom always have her own way to make me give up and do what she wants. Because that is what moms are, they are scary when they get mad.
I hated taking a nap at the afternoon because I felt like it's wasting my time of the year to enjoy my freedom whilst I'm still a kid. So, with my eyes closed, I would always pretend to sleep while my mother laid beside me humming lullabies that she learned from grandmother. And of course, being the greatest actor I am, my mom would always fall for my act and leave me after five minutes. And to be honest, it's a pain to pretend asleep.
But this afternoon is different from the rest.
I kneeled down in front of my unconscious mother as tears rolled down my cheeks. My small hands reached for her shoulder and shaked her, waking her up. I called her name many times while my eyesight gets blurry because of my tears clouding my eyes.
"Mama, wake up. I promise to take a real nap this time, so please just wake up."
I cried as I tried all the means to wake her up by shaking her or tapping her cheeks. But none of it works. I moved my blurry gaze to my father sitting at the corner of the kitchen, mumbling words, and bullets of sweats ran down his forehead while his bloody hands tried to wipe them away. His dilated eyes met mine and he tried to call my name but I shushed him.
"Hush Papa, Mama is sleeping. She got tired taking care of me and humming me to sleep."
Before I laid down next to my mom and wrapped my little arms around her, I saw my father's mouth gaped while tears also fell from his eyes. He kept on muttering 'sorry' and 'I didn't mean it' to me. But I just laid there silently as I cry.
"Mama, you're more great at pretending than I am."
I whispered to her, believing that she is just pretending. But I know deep inside me, I know Mom is asleep forever.
