CHAPTER 1
So this story begins with Neema, a gorgeous young Hindu lady who meets and falls in love with a fairly handsome Muslim man from the neighbourhood Yaseen, the thug, the ruffian who in his drunken state referred to himself as the famous mafia "AL CAPONE" is now sitting in a hospital somewhere in on 25th March 1990 looking at the soft, wrinkly and innocent face of a girl whom she named Sadie, Sadie is born to an unhappy couple that can barely keep their lives intact. A mother not only faces her new daughter but also now faces a difficult situation as after the marriage to Sadie's father, she's been hurt once too many times, a child just didn't seem like something she needed. At the age of 26 baby number two was clearly a mistake as she had just left her previous relationship that had blessed her with her first born, Elreshia (but everyone calls her Elly for short) who was already 8. Being in an abusive relationship Neema experienced many challenges with Sadie's father, being a paranoid alcoholic and drug addict he was never really there for his daughter.
Sadie is now 4, lying next to Elly in a warm bed just had supper and like every four year old she hated sleeping she had this weird habit of playing with her mum's or sister's ears before falling off to sleep. As numerous times before, Late that night her father shows up at the door, in his usual drunken state, banging on the doors and windows disturbing the peace with his foul language and arrogant behaviour, demanding to see his daughter whose name he had recently tattooed on the left side of his chest, Neema always feared the safety of her kids especially since she knows that the neighbours are too afraid to intervene...typical of Indians though they love the drama, they hate helping.
After a few minutes of shouting an ranting, Everything goes quiet, she hears nothing and decides to peep through the window, there she's faced with the man she loved sitting at the door, covered in blood after being beaten up, probably by some drunkard friends at the local shebeen, holding his head in hands and crying. What could have happened that night? What did he do? Who had beaten him up? While she asks herself all these questions Sadie sneaks the keys to her father through the kitchen window without giving a second thought, but wait...which four year old thinks before doing anything? He lets himself in swearing and calling Neema names while slapping her to the floor, Neema picks herself up from the floor and wipes the drops of blood from her lower lip and then locks herself up in the room to prevent a further beating. He then sits down on the lounge floor and asks Sadie to get him some water, she returns a few minutes later with a glass that she can barely carry, filled almost three quarter way up and raised the glass to her father's torn and bleeding lips and as he took a sip he gave an agonising shout, and spat out the water, Neema comes in to see what the fuss was about and at that moment realizes that Sadie had mistakenly given her father a glass of white vinegar which she thought was water. At that moment Neema didn't know whether she should laugh or scold Sadie as the Vinegar had worsened the pain in the wounds of Sadie's father's mouth that he had attained from the beating. After a few seconds, He quieted down and Sadie was sent to bed.
The next day Neema leaves Sadie with her dad and goes to see her mother who lived a few blocks away and returns with her brother, Rajeev to talk to her husband about his behaviour the night before only to find that she has been locked out of the house, she knows that he's inside the house as she can hear the loud sound of glass breaking and Sadie is crying, she peeps in through an open bedroom window and sees him sitting at the edge of the bed, in his usual drunken state, breaking one beer bottle after the other on his forehead. At this point Neema is terrified as she witnesses that this man has anger in his eyes and doesn't seem to be feeling a thing Sadie sees her mum and is screaming for her mum to get him to stop.
He turns to the window and looks his wife in the face with his blood shot eyes while holding a lighter in his hand and tells her that Sadie is possessed and that he saw the devil or a demonic entity in her and threatens to burn the little girl alive in that house, Neema fears the seriousness of those words and Requests that her brother breaks down the door in order to save her daughter's life. After a bit of a hassle they were successful in getting in the house. Neema rushed in the bedroom and grabbed hold of Sadie while Rajeev pushed the man to the ground and called the local police, was this man Crazy? Was he paranoid? What would push a father to the point where he would want to take the life of his only child?
YOU ARE READING
A CHILDHOOD GONE
Short StoryABOUT THIS SERIES For Sadie life is moving at a fast pace. She faces abandonment, abuse, loss, love, pain and tragedy all before reaching the age of thirty. a curious somebody with a passion for free falling into every situation that she faces and...