A Mother's Struggle

Chapter 11

Njabulo comes towards me with a glass of water and says, "Mom!" but I hear Lesedi's voice in sync with the movement of his lips. He calls again. I am so confused. First of all, why would Njabulo call me mom and why would his voice sound like my son's?

"Mom, wake up."
Everything becomes blurry and that's when I realized that I have been sleeping this whole time and Lesedi has been trying to wake me up.

What? I blink my eyes rapidly and take a moment to look around me to see what is happening. Njabulo is not here, that huge house is gone, no cars, all I see is my children and I am still in my shack. A tear falls from my eye as I take in the fact that all that was a dream.

Now I am woken up to my nightmare. My life is a nightmare. Is it weird that I prefer my dream rather than my life? I mean it was so perfect. I am disappointed to see that I am still in my shack. I check the time and notice that it is seven in the morning, but I set an alarm for midnight, how did I not hear it? I go through my phone to see if the alarm went off or if I snoozed it. Turns out, I set the alarm for 11:30 a.m instead of 11:30 p.m. I let out a big sigh and roll my eyes and harshly throw a pillow to the floor out of frustration.

"What is wrong mom?" Naledi asks.

"My alarm didn't go off, I set it for the wrong time. Now they are going to come here and make a mockery out of me. How could I be so stupid? I mean it's bad enough that this is happening but why would the universe and my sub-conscious mind tease me by making me dream about a perfect life that I could never have?" I hit my palm against my forehead.

This is like someone taking a large piece of meat or your favorite food, puts it close to your mouth and pulls away when you try to take a bite.

"What happened in your dream?" Lesedi asks.

"It all started when the alarm went off." That part annoys me so I roll my eyes.

"I woke up and woke you guys up to go and bath, it was almost midnight and I wanted us to get out of this place before Helen and her friends make a mockery out of me. We took our luggage and left, with absolutely no plan of where we were going. I just wanted to get away from this place, just like I want to right now. It was all so realistic because I actually want to leave, I wanted to leave at midnight but stupid me had to set the alarm for the wrong time. Anyways, so we left, we did not lock the door so that it may be easier for them to get in, in case they come here. So we left, it was dark, then it started to rain. Just when I thought things could not get any worse, a man came wearing a balaclava trying to rob us. I mean as poor as we are, what would you take from us? Uhg!"

"Then, then what happened?" Naledi asks, with enthusiasm in her voice.
Why does this dream seem to be a random story I'm just telling? Or a folklore that our great grandparents used to tell us as we were growing up, all seated around a fire, listening to the tales that never seemed to be true. Most of them had a happy ending. My story does not have a happy ending, it does not even have an ending, the last thing I saw was Njabulo giving me water then Lesedi woke me up. Why did he even wake me up? I feel like my dream would have been true if I slept longer. Impossible right? Why would he wake me up to my every day nightmare? This is my ending of the story, being woken up to a nightmare, a scary nightmare, a nightmare which is the opposite of my dream. None of my thoughts make sense right now.

"Mom, go on." Lesedi snaps me out of my crazy thoughts.
I do not even know what I was thinking, well, no I'm wrong, I know what I was thinking but I cannot make sense out of it.

"Luckily, a man driving an expensive car saved us from the robber. He asked us to go into the car."

"Wasn't it a plan, like he acted as though he was saving you and abducts you, like weren't they working together?"