Mend

𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆

Fourteen years ago...

"Bridget! Fungua mlango!" DJ shouted as he banged a fist against the front door.

I grunted and sunk to the floor in my room, my schoolbag sliding off my shoulder as I accepted that I'd be really late.

"Serves you right for not waking up early enough to finish your chores." I chided myself under my breath as DJ's insistent banging worsened the headache I'd woken up with.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the edge of my sister's bed, still freshly made like she'd stepped out minutes earlier and would soon be returning to sleep there. Like she hadn't been taken from us years ago by the same man who couldn't just stay away now that he'd gotten what he'd always wanted. I willed myself not to fully look at the empty bed as tears formed in my eyes for the sister I missed with my entire existence.

I wondered what thirteen year old Latoya was like. Did she still like reading and singing? Did she still hate the taste of broccoli? Did she still save up her pocket money believing that she could one day use it to move us into a nice house in the capital city? Did she even think about me?

I was in the middle of imagining what she might look like now that she was a teenager in high school when I heard the front door burst open and all the blood drained from my face. DJ had broken in and my door was unlocked. My grandmother never let us lock our bedroom door. I didn't even have time to crawl beneath my bed before the door burst open to reveal an enraged DJ staring daggers into me.

"Little girl," he snarled, his eyes narrowing as he continued to address me in a clipped tone. "You didn't hear me knocking?"

I was chronically tongue-tied, my headache threatening to burst my head open as fear shot through me and tightened every nerve in my body.  

"I only speak once!" DJ yelled and took a few steps closer to me.

"Sir, I'm sorry. I'm not allowed to open the door when Gogo and Ma aren't home." I stuttered, my fear gripping my chest as DJ took another step closer and started to laugh humourlessly.

"I think I need to teach you some respect." he said, beckoning me to him with his thick, calloused forefinger.

"I think you need to leave her alone." I heard my friend Koffi say from the other side of the door and nearly cried from the timing he'd chosen and for whatever reason he had to be home when he should have been in the bus on his way to school.

DJ turned around and moved slightly out of the way. Through the doorway, I could see the caretaker standing with Koffi, his face in a scowl as he stared DJ down.

"Come with me." he said, and DJ turned around and gave me one last scary look before he obediently followed after the caretaker. I knew he would just pay the caretaker to forget about his breaking and entering and they would go on pretending like nothing ever happened.