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Aisha's POV
I sat across the table and looked at my three sisters. On the far wall hung a frame of a hand reaching out to touch a leaf. It's a picture that I always look at whenever I'm in this room. Papa's old study room. Somehow I can't help but imagine that hand passing through the leaf, each finger slicing through the green leaf. The once-perfect leaf becomes even more beautiful as the fingers pierce through it. Taking my eyes off the frame on the wall, I watched Kesha sit impatiently opposite me. Both her hands on the table formed a fist as she shook her legs under the table. Her tangled Afro hair made her face look even more infuriated. Besides her sat 14years old Lisha looking at her elder sisters with curious brown eyes. She was the youngest among my mother's children.
"What do you want to tell us, Aisha," Sasha asked, suddenly giving me a jolt as I shifted a little straightening my back.
Sasha stood 15 inches from the frame on the wall folding her hands to her elbow and gazing at the table in front of us.
I took a deep breath, praying that my sisters would agree with me on what I was about to say.
"Girls, I think we should leave this house. For good." I suddenly spit out. After practising a whole chapter on what to say to them, that's all I could say.
"Whoa, wait. You mean to leave. Like leave, leave?" Sasha asked, taking her lenses off. She always does that when she's confused.
Kesha and lisha cast a glance at each other confused, they all stared at me, and when I nodded, they went from puzzled to shock.
"That is ridiculous!" Kesha exclaimed.
"Absurd, sis", Sasha added.
"Okay, look. Before you say anything, hear me out......" I started.
" what are you even talking about? Why should we leave Ayi-Ayi" lisha interrupted. I sighed as I watched them ask me questions that I wasn't even given a chance to answer.
"We should leave our parents' house? Goddammit, Aisha, this is your big suggestion? That We should give up and run away? Are you kidding" Kesha was furious. I pinched the edge of my nose as I listened to them burst out on me.
"I don't understand......" Sasha was saying.
"No way. We cannot leave. And where will we go? No way." Lisha objected. And more reactions kept coming from them, leaving me no room for explanation.
"Alright. Alright...." I started slowly.
"So they can think we are afraid to...."
"How are we even....."
"over my dead body will i...."
"Alright!!!" I said, my voice a bit louder than I had intended. I'm the eldest, and I need to play my role here. I have been thinking about this for days now, so they just have to listen first.
"Now hear me out, will you? Please." God, I was having a head tumour already. My heart was beating fast, and my head was irritatingly itchy.
"Listen, Kesha, Sasha, and lisha, our mother is sick," I said the obvious. My heart ached as I watched their beautiful faces, saddened. Reminding someone of their pain is like adding salt to a wound, but I needed their attention.
YOU ARE READING
Somewhere in Africa
HumorFour imperfect siblings of the Malik family face many trials as they try to escape their harsh reality. That is living with a father who despises them and their mother. Each, with its personality and differences, has a story to tell. Will their love...
