My Life Was Prison, In Prison I Was Free

Part 1

I can really attest to what it is to have everything in life. I was born from a wealthy family, went to the best schools, dined at the finest restaurants with the who is who in my country and generally had anything and everything I asked for from my parents. I was the second last born from a family of five. My elder brother, James, the genius workaholic was an electronic engineer at NASA, Edna was a air hostess who volunteered to work under no pay claiming the firm's resources could not complement half of what she spends in a day. She was proud and full of herself. She was also compassionate and really came through in times of need. Sally was rogue, she told dad that she will be a stripper to tarnish his name. This is because at the age of 16, he denied her to hang out with her friends at wee hours of the night. She is girlfriend to the leader of the biggest drug cartels in our country.

Then I followed, a cryptex that no one was really able to unmask. Jane was our last born. Born out of wedlock, she was despised by all the other siblings except me. She was apple to my eye. She was my beating heart and I loved her to death. She was unlike us, she was passionate, loving and caring. She was humble and loved reading a lot. She was fun and careful. My immense love to her made my elder siblings call us 'The lost lot.' They had hated mum because she tarnished our family image by having an affair with dad's greatest enemy. The media and blogs were quick to publish the shame that befell on our family. Though they got back together and my elder siblings forgave mum, they didn't forgive the little soul. They blamed her for all the misfortunes that we had.

My father was a prominent person, a business man who shook our country's economy. Though some of his wealth was acquired right and just, he was devious in the acquisition of most of his wealth. He used to drain all his guilt on the immense contributions he gave to charity but that never really worked as depression and hypertension was killing him. He would spend a quarter his wealth on therapy, yoga and counselling sessions that were tailored for him from all around the world. My mother was the beauty that my dad set eyes upon as he traveled upcountry to seize wealth in one of his many dubious means to prosperity. She was not well of, she was a poor but very beautiful village girl who was humble. Her downside was that she loved the flashy lifestyle. In most of his blasphemous statements, my dad would narrate how he was like Jesus who found the woman at the well and he told her, 'Follow me and I will make you a fetcher of wealth not village water.'

All my family members were proud and full of themselves except little Jane. I could not understand who I was exactly, at times I was proud, other times I humbled myself, other times I was rogue and abused everyone, sometimes I was social and fun but most times I was locked into my room re-writing sadist fictional stories of Cinderella, Peter Pan, Adventures of Tom Sawyer etc. I was sometimes an introvert and other times an extrovert. After clearing my undergraduate degree I wanted to move out of our mansion, a move despised by many, I was strongly opposed not until Sally and Edna suggested that we move out with Jane who was a nuisance. My dad bought us another mansion, furnished it and asked us whatever we wanted. He gave me quite a big chunk of monthly income from one of his businesses.