At only three years old, Deign knew that her mother was ill.
She knew this by how her mother would be sometimes excited to see her and at other times she would be frightened to see her that she would lock her in the drawing room and leave her to be rescued by the maids.
Her only hope of a normal childhood was her father who was rather older than her mother but loved her dearly.
Before she had asked her father over and over again why her mother was like that and no matter how her dad tried to explain to her she could not understand why her mother did not love her.
By the time she was six, she knew better than to ask questions.
When her mother locked her up, she would try and draw and had gotten accustomed to such treatment.
Her father still loved her.
And would many times tell her that her mother did love her too.
When her mother was sent away, she began enjoying life.
And at the age of seven, she would be at least termed as happy.
However one early evening, her mother returned.
She was different then.
She even tried to cook for Deign though she was terrible at it.
She did not lock her in the drawing room anymore.
She had began to believe her mother loved her.
So when one early morning her mother told her she had to learn to cook.
She thought it was in her best interest.
"when I was your age I used to cook for my family."
She told her.
"so you must learn."
Deign endured the lessons even though she knew she was too young for them.
After sometime she began to enjoy them.
One morning however when she was about to go to school, her mother said.
"kiss your papa.
And tell him you love him."
She asked why but her mother smiled.
But differently.
She looked like how she looked when she was three.
Later that night she found her mother knitting in her room.
"we are going to be okay now."
She had said.
Even though she knew her mother was ill, she knew she wasn't so very ill to be completely unaware of what she was talking about.
That night she did not sleep.
She snuck out and managed to see the horror.
Her mother gave her father a cup of what looked like tea.
And later her father was shivering.
He begged her mother for help but she stood there watching him.
He was quiet.
When her mother saw her she asked her to keep it a secret.
"it will be our little secret."
She had said.
Deign kept her secret.
The following day.
There were cops in her house.
Every day for a week.
She was urged to keep away.
And she did.
However one morning when she was about to go to school, she had a cop say he was murdered.
She did not know what that meant but she looked for it in her dictionary.
She had not understood what had happened that night but after searching for that word she knew what had happened.
The next day she was escorted to school by the two cops
cops she had heard say such a big word.
"please can you stay with me till it
is time
to go back home."
She had insisted.
They did.
When the bell rang.
They got in class for
for their English lesson.
"who would like to make a sentence with the word sad?"
Her teacher had asked.
She raised her hand.
"I was sad when I saw mama give daddy tea and then he died."
She said.
And the cops were amazed.
She had not wanted to do it but her father was all she had had and now
he was gone.
The cops could not understand if it was coincidental that she had said that or she had been planning all along.
Thank you for reading.
