Midnight Affair

37 : THROWBACK (Anita)

"Just do your job and get paid. You talk too much."

"You got quite an arrogant mouth for someone at their end."

Said the masked guy to the woman who looked at them with a smirk. When he wielded a sword, a rock was thrown in his face.

"Ughhh! Fuck!"

"She's running away!"

Anita ran for her life through the forest, with tears covering her face, she ran without looking back.

"She went that way!"

One of the men almost caught up to her, he wielded his sword from behind and when the blade dropped, her back was cut. Anita bit her lips to bleed, feeling the back that got cut by a sword, it started to hurt like hell but it didn't stop her from running away. She held her tummy tightly while her tears flowed down harder.
It was so dark, with the sound of animals crying, she couldn't see anything, 3-4 men chasing after her like they were preying on a rat.

"Catch her! Hurry!"

"How the fuck do that bitch run so fast?!"

Anita reached the quiet village. Everyone in town fell asleep in their homes of course, it was at midnight. She looked around and went to hide behind a big garbage mound where the seller in the market would leave trash there. Anita covered her mouth and cried hard listening to their footsteps running away from where she was hiding. Her whole body was shaking like crazy. She felt the pain on her back and the blood that left the wound slowly wetting her ripped clothes.

The memory of her running for her life on the street came back to mind. She wiped her tears and dropped herself down completely, the smell of trash made her headache. Anita closed her eyes tightly while holding her tummy.
"I won't die yet… if I die, you'll die with me. I won't let that happen…" 

She was moving in secret to another town where her child would be safe. She needed to buy new clothes and rent another carriage. The money she had saved for the child vanished slowly.

With her womb conceived another soul, Anita worked day and night so she could save money for when the child was born. Commoners weren't having a good life like nobles who got maids to serve left and right. They needed to work as hard as possible so they could live. It was a harsh reality. Anita, who knew a lot of work since she had been through it all, worked so hard that people wouldn't believe it if they heard she was pregnant.

This day, she was hired to farm with others, doing their work under the heated sunlight from morning to night. Another day she was hired to take care of a garden. At night, she worked with other miners, it was a work that required physical ability, she tried the best she could, doing all sorts of work, as long as she was able to do. She worked until her pregnancy reached 8 months that she stopped. As she saw the money she had saved was not enough, she had no other choice but to write her family a letter.

Mother. I'm sorry that I asked this of you. But please help me. I needed your help. I couldn't give birth alone and the money won't be enough. Please let me borrow the money you got and come to see me for a few weeks… I promise that I will give it back when I can work again. I can't give birth alone. I burdened you. I'm sorry. But please help me just this once. I really wanted to give birth to this child.

"It's okay. Don't cry. You did great."
Her mother comforted the crying woman.

"I tried to work as hard as possible but it wasn't enough… if they didn't try to kill me I wouldn't lose my belongings and have to buy new ones… then the money I had saved wouldn't run out so easily…"

"It couldn't be helped. Don't cry. Your brother will send the money. He tried to take a loan when your letter reached us and they agreed to give him now.."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, child. No matter what… you did everything you could for us.. if you didn't go to slavery, your little sisters would've been sold instead... It was my fault. If I'm richer, you, my children wouldn't have suffered. You'll have a good life. You were always such a beautiful and smart child… you would have had a better life if you weren't my child. It's my fault."

The mother wiped the tears on her face.

"Even if nobody in this world cares about you, but I do, Anita. Mother cares about you."

Giving birth was hard for poor people. They couldn't afford the doctors nor they could afford the treatment, it was a pure painful experience. But luckily, she was a healthy woman. Her mother and brother helped her when she couldn't move and left for their hometown after a few months when Anita could walk again. They took out a loan to build her the house she was living in. It was grumpy and filled with dirt like Riftan said but that was what poor people like her could afford.

It was hard, being a poor single mom with a just born child. Anita worked with her child on her back every single day. Someday it felt like she was dying. To make a living, it was so hard, if she wasn't a slave who used to work hard from young age, she would've dead by now. Noblewomen who lived with servants served them back and forth wouldn't survive what she faced even just for a day.

It only started getting easier when Damian was 2.
He was a good kid who listened to his mother well. Because he grew up alone with his mother, he was a boy who loved his mother the most. He didn't ask for his father either. He only cared about the mother who worked so hard so she could afford him a good life.

"Mother, your hair is short again."
Said the 4 years old boy with a skulking expression.

"It will grow back soon."

"Mother keeps selling her hair. I don't like it."

"Didn't you want to buy a book? We got the book you want."

"Mother looks prettier with long hair."

"It will grow back soon. Mother told you already."

"Mother, promise not to cut it again?"

"Mother can't do that. You'll have to go to school soon. Mother needs to save money."

"But mother worked every day… isn't it enough?"

"No, it's not enough. Mother will buy new uniforms for you and new books, too."

"Damian will work too. Don't have to go to school at all."

"No. Damian will go to school. Just study hard so mother can work harder, okay?"

"Don't wanna…"

Anita hugged the sulking child.
"Who is mother's good boy?"

Damian kissed his mom when he heard so. He held the hands full of scars and cut marks of his mother.
"Damian loves mother."

"Yes. Mother loves Damian, too."