"Knocking Door"

Author's Note: This story is based on a personal experience by a friend. Hope you enjoy reading it and feel other's feelings. 

The story started when I was just eight years old. I was living with my lovely family. I was the youngest with an older brother and a sister. My grandmother was living with us too. She was the one who was creating a unique lovely atmosphere at home. Our home was so small and very old. I remember that it had two rooms only and a small kitchen. Its walls and woody doors were cracked. The windows were somehow broken. We had no light to see at night just the moon's shine. However, my unforgettable memories are still alive in each place in that house, where I learned my first words and walked my first steps.

Our house was totally old and damaged that it was not suitable for living at all, however, we had no other choices rather than sleeping on the street. No matter how difficult life conditions were at that time, but this did not prevent us from living in happiness and love. I learned from poverty thousands of lessons that a wise person may not. I learned patience and hope, I knew that richness is not everything and a happy life could not be based on richness at all, because there are always more important things than money.

I remember that on Fridays we were having a family meeting. That was my best day of the week. We were talking and learning from each other's experiences and laughing. My grandma was telling us millions of life stories which had no end as if she lived for more than 100 years while she was only 69. These were unforgettable days that I lived in my life.

It was the 5th of June when I was cleaning the home with my sister to surprise my parents when they come back from the market. We finished cleaning everything; however, my parents were late. We got worried. Suddenly, someone knocks the door. I rushed to open the door. I was happy to see my parents, however, it was our neighbor. She looked at me in a sorrow way and her red eyes filled with tears. She asked me to call my grandma. I was confused and worried about what was going on. I, my sister and brother tried to hide in a place and listen to what they were talking about. Suddenly, I saw my grandmother fell on the ground and the woman was trying to wake her up as if she fainted.

It was the news of my parent's death in an accident, which made us all shock and our neighbors too. My parents were so respectful to our neighbors. Even though we were poor and we had little food for us to eat but still, they were sharing it all around our neighbors. I was too young to imagine how my life is going to change without them but I believed that it was impossible.

After all the shock came to me, grandma, brother, sister, and neighbors by the time we became somehow better. My grandma was taking care of us. She was trying to make us feel as if nothing happened. She was doing for us everything as my parents were doing normally.

One day, I was coming back from school happily holding my report card with my tiny hands having an (A+) on it. I wanted to show it to my grandma because I had no parents anymore. I knocked on the door, however, no one opened. I tried to open it and I realized that it was opened. When I entered I saw my grandma sitting her chair without a single move facing the picture of my parents on the wall with opened eyes. I called her but she didn't answer or turn, I went to her suddenly my older brother realized that she is dead!

I had no words to say about what I saw. She looked as if she was a dried body of a human. I got depressed and shocked that's why they shaved my head and burn my head skin. That was our tradition at that time when someone gets depressed. Our neighbors knew about the death of my grandma. They decided to take an action to return my parent's goods to us. They decided to take care of us; however, no one was able to adopt us all together. They suggested separating us from each other. That was so hard for us. My older brother was taken to work in someone's farm to feed their animals, my sister was taken to live and work for an old lady who had no one to live with her. However, I was taken by a family who had a daughter and two sons. I felt uncomfortable about that idea.

Everyone was trying to be good with me; however, I felt that Emma, the daughter of the family who was my age, was not happy at all to consider me as a family member. When her parents were trying to make me somehow happy or to feel comfortable, she was coming and bullying me for no reason. She was never good with me.

One day, Emma's mom bought us four colored chicks. Each had his own. After playing and feeding them, we were taking them to their cage to sleep at night. The chicks were sleeping very close to each other to feel warm and safe. At that time, I remembered the rainy days when rain was escaping into our old home from the perforated ceilings. We were sitting close to each other under a wooden roof to feel safe. We were aiming to be all together even if we died we should die together.

When school started in winter, we didn't have enough money to buy shoes, pencils, or books for both of us, that's why I and Emma were supposed to exchange our things together. Emma was not letting me do or wear anything I needed unless her parents knew that and insisted on her to do that. I was so smart in school and all teachers were proud of me. Emma was always trying to disgrace me in front of my friends in school. She was trying everything to do that. She knew that I was sensitive about wearing my scarf at school and at home. Once, she was standing behind me while we were in front of the class presenting our writings in turn. Suddenly, she held the end of my scarf and pulled it to take it off in front of all the girls and my teacher in class. Suddenly, everyone was looking at me. I was so embarrassed! A girl without a single hair standing in the front of the class and the light was reflecting on her smooth head skin! I started to cry. However then, I was surprised to see that Emma was the first person who came to me to apologize and made me feel better. She felt sorry for what she did when she thought of what I felt. It was the time when Emma decided to change her attitude towards me.

After that embarrassing situation, Emma was treating me as her sister. She started to feel what I'm facing in my life of difficulties compared to her life. She was sharing with me her things. The funniest thing was sharing the pairs of shoes when going to school. However, that didn't last too much until someone came one day while we were doing our homework and knocked on the door. I opened the door and saw a 20 years old man smiling at me. Then, I realized after a long look at him that he was my brother! It has been 7 years we didn't see each other. I saw my older sister with him too. We had a long hug together. Then he said "I have good news! We are all going back home to live our past happy life. I found a job and maintained our old house. It's now suitable for living and it's going to prevent us from any heavy rains." I hesitated about that decision because I was going to leave my new sister in life. However, I remembered after all that, nothing could be replaced by your real family.