Running Through The Night

Chapter 1

The sun rose above the majestic mountains of Ladakh. The markets were bustling with people on the street, running errands for their respective families. "Cahya!" called a middle-aged lady. "Yes maa." A cheerful, bright girl appeared with a big smile on her face.

Cahya was the third of four siblings. Her family consisted of seven members, her father, her mother, eldest brother, elder sister, younger brother, her grandma and Cahya herself. Her father being a low-level government employee, unable to satisfy the necessities of his family, mother being a high school graduate did odd jobs to earn some money and support her family. Her eldest brother left studies and was working at a retail store as a delivery boy. Her elder sister, Pami, who was 2 years older than Cahya was in high school and the youngest brother was in kindergarten. Cahya was the wisest of all four of her siblings. Her grandma started staying with them after Cahya's grandfather's death.

They all lived in a 2 bedroom house. One bedroom belonged to father, mother and the youngest while the second bedroom was shared by Cahya and Pami with their grandma. The eldest boy simply slept in the living room.

Being a daughter to her mother whose in-laws wanted a boy, Cahya was treated poorly by her grandma. Grandma was raised in a misogynistic society and hence her thoughts and ideas have an impact of it. She had four boys and she worked in others' field to feed her children meanwhile her husband would lie shiftless in the house, she considered him to be a decent husband since he used to not hit her and sleep around like other men at that time.

Cahya's father was the second of four sons. The eldest went to USA and settled there. The third son died of a car accident. And the youngest and Cahya's father had a fall out upon arguing about who would take care of their mother after their father's death.

Cahya's father being the only one to perform the responsibilities of a son out of her ungrateful children, Grandma would always tell Cahya's mother, "You should have a boy child. Uh-huh! you should have at least four boys. Since I had four sons, today I'm able to taste the warm food prepared by my son. Sleep in a comfortable bed prepared by my son." But little did she acknowledged that the food was made by her daughter in law and bed was prepared by her daughter in law as well, not her beloved son.

From her memories, Cahya could recall sitting next to her mother when she was feeding her baby brother. Mother would tilt Cahya's head back and tell her to open her mouth then she would pour a spoonful of the delicious, nutty formula into Cahya's mouth. It was so delicious that she would lick the formula that escaped from the edge of her mouth. However her grandma detested the idea of Cahya having her brother's food and whenever she caught her doing so, she would smack Cahya on the back of her head so hard that the formula would spill out of her mouth and nose.

Cahya would usually ask her sister, Pami, "Why don't you eat the formula?"

"I just don't like it."

"You don't like it? But it's so delicious."

"Yeah but it's yucky."

Cahya couldn't make out what her sister meant but she could understand how she must have felt since her grandma didn't detested because she thought that they were too old to have the formula but because she felt that there won't be enough for her grandson. Her selection of words, tone of delivery, angle of head tilt and shoulder hunch suggested, how could you eat something that's meant for my precious grandson.

Cahya never complained since she thought she was being a considerate sister and their mother always praised her and Pami for being good big sisters. As much as their mother praised them, it became impossible for them to complain about it.