Love's Misery

Healing

The heart is the most powerful muscle in the body and the most fragile. It pumps blood around the body at a speed where coagulation is not possible, it sustains one's life and is the gateway to various emotions felt. It's featured with numerous faces and dimensions facing an array of emotions-love and hate, passion and dullness, desire and disinterest, joy and misery. It feels things the eyes can't see and it knows things the mind can't fathom. It is a true wonder of nature leaving many in awe at its importance and beauty.

Needless to say, a heart can be broken in countless ways, due to familial strains or a distrusting friend. To cope with the aching emptiness inside, the individual must open their heart and mind to the situation to allow the rekindling of the broken relationship.

Jennifer had left the house for over a couple of weeks, without looking back and without any goodbyes. Every mission she carried brought a greater risk towards Ashley and herself. She tried to create a better home life for her family by pursing other outlets of financial means. She tried applying for a job but her recent convictions made her a victim of prejudicial views. Minor convictions primarily, like foul play, soliciting prostitutes and involvement in drug dealing all of which were Jennifer's only way of financial means as she refused to stay like a leashed dog towards her daughter's father. Rick continued to pay their bills and provided child support throughout Ashley's life. He had never met Ashley, there was no communication or attempts at connecting with each other, and they were both content with their lives being the way they are. Not to say that Jennifer's relationship with Ashley was any better, she tried to bond with her daughter, but Ashley never did see eye to eye with her mother. She was never a real role model in her life; Ashley was raised on fast food deliveries and minimal love and compassion. Her mother had distanced herself from her daughter as a precaution in case she would abruptly passed, she did not want her daughter's potential attachment to be emotionally damaging to her.

However, this concept was not comprehended by Ashley making her resent her mother more. It was her mother's exact actions that made Ashley work harder to deviate from the corruption that surrounded her. Unfortunately, no matter how hard Ashley tried to run away from the world her mother was involved in, it would always come back to her. Ashley had tried to start her life over without any strings attached to her mother, after the birth of Matt, she rented an apartment near the city, life was looking up. Jennifer didn't understand her daughter's need for independence and saw it as an act of betrayal, driving her insane. How could her only family leave her alone?

Ashley lay in her bed replaying the few good memories she had of her childhood, being excluded from the rest of the world and being home-schooled, left little Ashley with nothing but her wild imagination. It was the only way she would see out of a situation, by pretending she went to a 'normal' school with other students like she had seen in the films. And she aspired to go to university and meet the man of her dreams, move away from home and start her own family. But it's funny how nothing goes to plan, no, everything was out of order in Ashley's life. Organised chaos, she liked it think of it as, she met the man her dreams when her mother had a party with friends and clients of the underworld. She had a son out of rape, and she was now engaged, with the weight of the whole world on her shoulders.

"Mummy's sick baby, will you take care of her while I'm out?" Jackson questioned the three-year-old with a smirk, interrupting Ashley's trail of thought.

"Yeah yeah yeah! I'll make mummy feel better"

Ever since Ashley's appendix operation, Matt has become more open with his communication, expressing his opinions more and exuding with confidence, it made Ashley proud because she was under the impression of Matt being a slow learner.