Andy & His Half Clogged Brain

Part 2- 14

Past
Sophia POV

I was twelve when daddy left me at the Mother Mary Orphanage for all. He said I’ll find new friends ,something I don’t have back at home.He doesn’t come inside with me instead sees me of in the hands of someone I would eventually  come to know as mother. I wave him as he drives off not knowing it will be the last time I’ll ever see him. Mother takes me inside once the car can be no longer seen.

I do see various rooms filled with children. Some of them walk around me with notebooks in their hand , I presume going to there class . But all of them are girls and female teachers, no male in sight. I also notice girls (my age)looking at me with curiosity and girls older than me looking with disinterest. I am lead towards a staircase to the first floor of the old building .Mother tells me this is were all the girls sleep. Yet again I am led towards another staircase.

The second floor has this strong smell of stale air. I do notice cob webs in the corner and my eyes can see the particles of dust on the walls . The second floor just has one tiny room which for the time being just had one bed and a locked drawer for my belongings. Mother tells me other accomodities would soon arrive but for the time being I had to make do with this . She tells me today I should just rest and from tomorrow my day would begin which would be the same as any other children.I would have classes at the same time as everyone else,breakfast, lunch , dinner and shut the blinds at the same time . Yet it wasn’t.

I have a private classroom. The teacher specially climbed the stairs to the second floor to attend to me even my lunch was brought to me in my bed. I longed to step outside of this room and into the grounds with everyone ,so after completing my one week of staying here I asked mother

“ Why am I not allowed outside of this room?”

“It’s not that you’re not allowed but what’s better for you. Atleast that’s what you’re dad thought”.

Mother by now has tucked me in and stands from her crouched position to switch off the light which is on the wall beside the doorway

“But I don’t want to stay alone”.

Mother sweetly replies

“You’re not, we all are just a floor below”.

The past week hasn’t been easy to adjust, I terribly missed daddy. I had always waited till everything went quiet to let my tears fall away but I let them slip in her company. Seeing me cry she comes back to me and sits on the bed where I had laid my head as she pulls my head on her lap. With her softly weaving her hand through my hair ,to calm me down I confess

“I hate it here, because this isn’t my room, my sister doesn’t share it with me,  the people downstairs aren’t my family and even though I call you my mother ,you’re not one.  You leave me alone all the time, I’m not allowed to talk to anyone here and she’s louder than ever”

“Who’s louder than ever?”.

I look up in her eyes and search for words to describe my inverted world both literally and figuratively . But I also see beyond mother’s figure and she’s back there

“She’s back here, save me mother cause I don’t wanna hear her anymore”,

I have now buried my face into mother’s lap. She does turn back to see if there’s anyone but doesn’t remove her hand from my head.
“What is she saying?”,mother asks.

I gesture her to bring her ear to me so that she doesn’t get to know that I’m telling mother. Mother brings her ear near my mouth. My breath fans her outer ear before I start to speak

“ She’s telling me to smash the bedside lamp on you’re head”.

After that day I never stepped in that room again ,even to gather my belongings. Mother shifted me to her room and there for a couple of days mother and I shared her bed. Soon after my stuff and I shared spaces with mother, though I had my own bed there were days when I would slide beside her in her bed.