If There Is A Tomorrow

Chapter 1

The clouds opened and shed a thousand tears whilst the wind howled and mourned. Darkness overcame the sky as a young heartbroken girl ran, as fast as she ever could to the Brooklyn Bridge. She was wearing a plain black maxi dress which clung on to her petite body as she ran. She suddenly stood on the side, stopped and panted in need of some air. She cried and cried. Tears continuously poured down her dimpled, soft cheeks. She moved her light brown hair away from her wet face which just about touched her shoulders and was neatly parted in the middle. Her body slouched forward on the railings of the bridge. She stopped for a while, gasped then broke down again. It was Maya's father's one year death anniversary. All the responsibilities were put on her shoulders when her father died last year. She was the eldest sibling. She had a younger brother who was twelve. He was called Musa. She was her family's honour. Everyone looked up at her. She had to stick up for her mother when she is down and she has to maintain her family's dignity. Her life was so hard for her already with all the stress from college to her life planning. Maya wanted to be a lawyer. It was her father's dream for her to become one. He had always wanted to be a lawyer and stick up for innocent people that had been blamed for no reason. But because of his low education he couldn't. He passed this duty on to his daughter, who he believed would accomplish and fulfil this dream of his. She wanted this world a better place for everyone to live in. She was known to get bullied in school because of her low popularity and her nerdy appearance. Everything was lost the day her father had gone. No one was there for her to stick up for her when she felt upset, needed some sound advice to change her life or just needed a warm, pleasant hug. Maya had completely given up on life.

Maya looked away as a feeling of strong despair and loneliness slyly worked its way into her heart. The joyful and wistful memories of her father flashed to the front of her mind and despite her best efforts she couldn't shut them out. She wanted the earth to swallow her. She wanted to run away and lock herself into a dark room where no one could see her. But she also wanted to be a free bird that could fly out of the misery cage she was forcefully locked in. All her emotions were kicking in her at one go. Maya remembered what her father had once told her to do when she was feeling upset. She put her hands up in the air as her father taught her trying her best to suck in the fresh air in, demanding her emotions to go away. But they wouldn't. They hung in her like a ghost; haunting her.

There is too much to comprehend, but every single memory that Maya had with my father is something that she would treasure forever. The times Maya and her father would dance together in their living room as her father played classical music. The insider jokes they had as they grocery shopped. And also taking out white hair from his head. The times Maya would see him happy when her father knew that she did well at school or accomplished something. The nights they'd eat caramel popcorn as they watched movies. The young days when he would tuck Maya to sleep and help her with her prayers. Those long, meaningful talks she would have with him in the car as they contemplated on life. Dancing on the roof on New Year's Eve. The days Maya would cry and he would comfort her. The days he embarrassed her as he sang in front of her friends in the car. His warm, big teddy bear hugs that he would give her every night.

She has had ups and downs with her father, but in the end their father-daughter relationship became stronger and closer than ever. Without her dad, she doesn't know what she'd do. Her father's love for his daughter was never-ending, undying, unconditional sense that is so indescribable that no dictionary can define it. Her fathers protected his daughter from physical, mental, and emotional pain and harm as well as give her sound advice that, although she pretends to not hear it, she takes it to heart. Maya's father loved her no matter what mistakes she had made. Their blood is what keeps them bonded, even when her father has passed away. This love started from the moment he first held her in his arms, and it will never die. He is in the heavens watching over her, and being proud of his successful and brave girl.