Forbidden Love

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

 It's funny how you can wake up one morning feeling great and thinking that everything will be fine and how you planned, but then something terrible and unexpected happens and it changes the rest of your day, the rest of your life, for both yourself and the people around you.

 Well, it definitely wasn't funny for me. For the first time in my life, I was picked up from school not by my father, but by a close family friend. I came home finding my mother hunched distraught in her bedroom, one hand clutching a picture frame and another scrunching a heavily used handkerchief. It immediately changed my mood from happiness to concern.

 'Mum,' I said, standing in the narrow corridor and peeking into her room.

 There was no reaction from her. She sat on her bed, rigid like a statue, not even opening her mouth to answer.

 'Mum! Mum, what's the matter?' I cried out loudly. 

 She finally turned her head in my direction, and I saw the grief and misery in her eyes. One blink, and a tear rolled down her face and dropped into her lap. I slowly slid into her room, my face scrunched up nervously, and as soon as I got close enough, she pulled me towards her and straddled me in her arms, suddenly letting out her tears and sobbing uncontrollably.

 'Mum, what's wrong? Tell me what's wrong!' I managed to squeak out with her arms practically strangling me.

 She brought her hand up to rub the tears from her eyes, and nodded her head towards the picture frame she was holding. It was the one that always held its place on top of the mantelpiece above the fireplace for as long as I could remember, containing the wedding photo of my mother and father. They looked ecstatic, both with smiley faces; my dad's smouldering grin and my mum's cheeky smile.

 I stared at the picture with the gold frame, my heart filled with warmth and love for my parents. Tilting my head up to face my mum, I looked up questioningly.

 'Is there something bothering you about this picture?' I asked slowly, unsure of the situation I was currently in.

 My mum riveted her eyes on mine and smiled weakly at my innocence. But it was gone before I knew it, replaced with a grimace as small wrinkles formed near her lips. I could tell she was mustering all the courage to tell me her thoughts, to express the difficulties she was suffering.

 'Your father... the police came an hour ago, the-they said that he was in a ca-car accident...' As my mum stuttered through her sentence, my eyes widened in shock and disbelief and I could not believe my ears. These thoughts were suddenly running through my mind; Is he hurt? Will he make it? How did this happen? My mouth opened to say something, but nothing came out.

 It was as if my mum had read my mind, she shook her head and sighed.

 'He didn't make it, Abi. The doctors tried but it was too late. Abi, it was too late.'

 As tears started rolling down my mum's pale face, it dawned on me that I no longer had a father. I had lost my camping companion, my soul mate, the man who would get up early in the morning to make me breakfast, the man who would get off work to come pick me up from school, the man who would read me my bedtime story and tuck me snugly into bed. I had lost one of the most important people in my life, just like that, with a click of a finger, gone before I knew it.

 Mum and I cried together for what seemed like eternity until our eyes dried up, and we spent the rest of the evening lying in bed in each other's arms, ignoring the phone, ignoring the doorbell, and ignoring the hunger in our bellies. However, it would hardly be worth it to endanger our lives by starving to death. Dad wouldn't want to see us suffering like this. People are born for a reason, to fulfill their destiny, and leave when it is achieved. 

As the sky outside dimmed to complete darkness, and the millions of stars were twinkling 'up above the world so high,' Mum decided she would get up and make some dinner. In actuality, I was in absolutely no mood to eat, but I thought I should let her do something else besides thinking about the heart breaking situation. 

While she prepared the food, I sat at the dinner table doing my homework. The house was silent apart from the fan whirring above the stove and the kettle shaking and hissing to a boil. 

The mood didn't improve while we ate, but as I was just about to collect the dishes to give them a wash after dinner, Mum decided to let out whatever feelings and emotions were on her mind. 

'Abi, you know that photo I was holding just then? The one with your Dad and I?

I nodded slightly, not sure what she was about to say.

'Well, it was taken on our wedding day, and that day was filled with happiness, excitement, yet some sort of conflict for me.'

I placed the dishes back onto the table and sat back on my chair, with my bottom all the way back, sliding my hands underneath my thighs in complete listening mode. 

'What sort of conflict?' I asked, inquisitively.

'Your father was one of the most respected policemen in this city. The police forces of Adelaide were enormously privileged to have a man like him.' 

A smile crept up onto her face. She continued to explain.

'But that was what scared me; the fact that he was a policeman. I knew on the day of my wedding that he would be out constantly, fighting and catching criminals. I knew that there would be times where he would not come back on days on end. I knew that one day, he may not come back at all. And that frightened me.'

My mother's voice cracked, and tears started filling up in her eyes and falling freely off her face.

'Thoughts were coming in and out of mind all morning, while I woke up and more as I was sitting in front of the mirror looking at myself in the wedding dress, all beautiful and lovely. What would happen to me if he just left? What would happen to my family? How would I cope?'

I couldn't stand watching my mum cry like that, suffer all on her own. Jumping off my chair, I jolted to her and wrapped my arms around her legs, my face buried in her clothes. 

'And it did happen. But Abi, do you know what?'

I shook my head vigorously.

'Every day, I look at that photo of your dad and I, not with regret, but with sincere love. I would never have enjoyed my life with any other man but your father and most importantly, I would never have given birth to such a wonderful daughter like you.'

My eyes started filling up with tears. I pressed my face onto her clothes and rubbed them to dry the tears, and muffle my constant sniffing. 

'So, Abigail McFoy, I believe that we should live our lives to its full potential. Do not let Dad's death get in the way of the happiness we can still find and enjoy. He wouldn't have wanted that. I know it.'

The next couple of days was spent in mourn, as Mum and a few close friends organized Dad's funeral. Even with her reassuring words, there was still lament lingering in the house, and lingering around me as I went to school. My friends were very comforting, and the teachers tried their best to make my life easier during class. 

Days passed, nights arrived. On the morning of Benjamin McFoy's funeral, we gathered around his grave, and I spoke to him through my mind, about my thoughts and feelings. I wish I could've said them out loud on the day, but it was as if my mouth was constantly dry, words unpronounceable as they left my lips. 

Mum and I had been sleeping together for the past days of the week, since the incident. We would lay in bed until our eyes grew heavy and fall into a slumber, never letting each other go, because we did not ever want to lose another loved one again. 

 That, was 8 years ago, the 26th of August, 2004. I do not know how we continued to live our lives without an important and beloved member of our family. But we did, and we are still living.