Not A Stranger to Pain

Chapter 9

Liz went back to college, where she felt free of the constraints of being called a wife or a mother. She felt like the heavy cloaked yoke had fallen off.

As the days passed she continued working towards her goals her daughter long lost forgotten. At least she communed with her husband on the phone.

The way she could carry on as though she had no care in her life baffled everyone.

People would ask her "don't you have a family, why don't you try to spend more time with them. You not like us you know ,we do not have a child nor a husband."

All she could tell them was to mind their own business and that she came to college to learn and study.

She never once asked about her daughter or her well being. This frustrated Phillip to a greater extent.

His daughter had gotten accustomed to her absence that she never asked about her mother . The rift between the two was so large that it seemed that none could mend it. Even when placed in the same room the two would be in parallel dimensions .

There was nothing at all they could bond over this proved fruitless when Chara started her first grade.

Chara had not grown in height nor height that the school refused to take her in. They said she had not matured enough.African government schools are different from private schools or Western government schools.

The regulations are a bit outrageous ,for example they told Mr Phillip Rhodes that his daughter had not yet reached 6 years so she could not enter the first grade.

The irony of it all was that Chara's birthday was  in November so she would still turn 6 in the same year but no they refuted this logic and instead insisted she was too young.

Hence she had to go back to kindergarten ,when she started her first grade she became a shell of a person ,very quiet and withdrawn from reality. Who would have known that a girl so young could be lost and drowned by depression.

She often isolated herself from her peers，as a result she was bullied for it .Her classmates would gang up on her and pull her hair , hit her and nothing was done about it . This happened daily especially when the teacher was out .

The teacher could care far less for her students well being as she would still receive her pay. Chara had no one to confide in because home was hades and school was a relentless blizzard.

That was not the only depressing thing but the presence of Liz was enough to wither a soul. During that time Liz was taking a break from school.

As the years had passed Liz's temperament had not improved but her very empty soul regressed she was now a frightful day light boogeyman who had come back from the gates of hell to torment Chara.

Like a drug addict is to cocaine she would enjoy torturing her daughter in a vindictive manner "in the name of tutoring." Maybe she was unhappy, but what ever the reason may have been she had no right to pluck the little life left in her daughter.

She would strip her daughter bare save for her polka doted panties and ask her to solve math problems .When she failed to answer or gave the wrong answer she would beat her up until she was ripe.

This became a routine day by day and Phillip had no idea what was going on. All he could question was his daughters odd behavior. Why his daughter had become so reserved.

She was now so lifeless,her very being was full of thorns, she never found rest at home or at school.