Flowers In A Bottle

Life as a Poor

Days went by, Dafeenah's tears never dried. Aazam went to work every now and then leaving Dafeenah alone at home.
One day Dafeenah's Neighbour Aunt Juliana came over to check on her. Aazam told her to keep an eye on his Daughter. No matter what she was only four. She needed someone to guide her while her Dad wasn't around. "Dafeenah are you alright out there?" Aunt Juliana knocked on the door. Dafeenah wiped her tears and came up to open the creaky door for her. She faked a smile at her Neighbour. When she looked at a figure beside Aunt Juliana ,it was another little girl. She was as tall as Dafeenah with her hair plaited to the back and she wore a flower dress.
Dafeenah led the two of them in.
"Dafeenah, this is my Daughter Reila and she needs someone to play with.. Can you be her play buddy?" She questioned with a warm smile. Dafeenah just stared blankly at the little girl.
Dafeenah's POV
I've just lost my dearest Mom. The kind of Mom who does everything for me. The kind of Mom everyone would want. And I've lost her. What made Aunt Julie think that I can play with her Daughter. Even if I did I would only get jealous and upset about how she had a Mother and I didn't. As I thought about this tears already filled my eyes.
"Oh dear, sweetheart why are you crying?" Aunt Juliana slowly kneeled down and covered me with her warm arms.
"It's ok sweetheart, we can get over this slowly." She comforted me by smoothing my hair. Now that I'm much quieter after crying she told her Daughter to accompany me.
"Reila you don't have to play today.. Stay with Dafeenah and talk with her ".
"Ok Mommy", she replied. Right now I just wanted to be alone. But I couldn't.
She just stared at me for awhile then she smiled. "It's ok I'm here with you," she said with her really adorable voice. Just like mine. "Ive lost my daddy too, he worked in a company and Mommy said he died because he had too much of chemical in him."
"Daddy couldn't go to hospital" she said with her voice drowning and almost crying.
I knew she couldn't tell why this happened just like how I didn't know why my mom was gone. "I'm sorry" is all I could say to her.
"Do you want to take a walk down our neighbourhood?" She asked me , hoping for me to agree.
"Ok sure" I said. Together we walked out of our house and slowly down the steps to our Neighbourhood . One cockroach after another. I really wish Mommy was with me. Then I looked at the street of ours. I couldn't tell if it was a street. It had dirt everywhere. I hardly noticed this as I spent all my life at home when Mommy was with me.
So many rubbish around.  Then I looked further away. I saw a few kids. They were wearing torn clothes. I remember when daddy told me that we were poor. But there are even more poorer people here. Worst than us. Their fathers worked in rubbish collecting companies. Nobody can study here. Mommy told me that they needed more years to save so they could send me to school. But Mommy is not around now. Daddy has to work extra.
I scan the entire Neighbourhood. I could feel pain when I see some of their faces , I can sense happiness in other faces. I couldn't tell what all these people were going through. But I could tell that we had one thing in common. We were poor. We cannot afford hospital bills. We cannot go to school. We cannot make friends with rich people. Because we are poor.

Reila and I tried walking away from our Neighbourhood. The strong stunk of the river nearby chased us away. Mom always tells me that the rich's rubbish were cleared and sent to the place just beside our Neighbourhood. Reila and I were now sitting on the grass of a Soccer field. Daddy always loves Soccer. He brags about it so much to Mommy. And she loves it too. "Why does this have to be like this?" I started questioning Reila after a very Long walk of silence and observance.
"What has to be like this?" She looked blur.
"You know.. Us being poor, the Neighbourhood kids, our parents dying because they couldn't afford to pay, rubbish junk nearby.." And I just continued the list of things. It just went on. "I don't know. Mommy says that this is God's test to us. And she says there are worst scenarios than this so we must somewhat be thankful." She replied.
"Worst scenarios?" I questioned her.
"Yes. Mommy says some people don't even get food to eat in a day. They die in hunger, even children of our age or younger."
I was shocked when I heard that. Just when I thought no one could go through anything horrible as me, she said that kids were dying in hunger.
"Mommy calls it P-po-... Poverty!" She exclaimed like as though she has found a treasure. "Poverty.. Oh.." I replied. Clueless about what else it was supposed to mean. "Did your Mommy go to school?" I asked.
"Yes. But Mommy loved daddy and her parents said no. So she stopped schooling and got married to daddy secretly," she giggled.
"Same for me.. Just that Mommy and daddy never schooled."
By now we were getting bored of sitting on the grass under the hot burning sun. So we got up and returned back to our Neighbourhood. Then again I had to see the surroundings and thoughts just sprint through my mind. The worst thing is that people go through worst than us. It wasn't meant to be this way. We could do something. We should. I waved goodbye to Reila as she took her leave. Reila has to get home before her mom comes back from work. Poor Reila. She's going through the same as me. I closed my creaky door and sat on the floor. Then I saw Mommy's photo. I felt like as though she was with me. I just closed my eyes and rest against the wall with Mommy's photo clenched against my chest.