Happily Ever After

Chapter 3

Two years later......

Actually, I must thank Adira for making my life happier. When I was struggling to learn English, she made it easier for me. Thanks to her, I'm fluent in English now. Even Ma was proud of me. She said that, as long as I was there with her, she would never worry about talking to an Englishman. I'm so obliged to teach Adira the guitar. She is a pretty quick learner (like me). She consoled my grief about my dead father. She told me that father has never gone from me, instead that he is watching me, watching everything I do. She gets irritated when I address her "kumaaree".

I almost forgot to introduce myself! I am Niru and my late father was one of the drug lord's henchmen, and my mother is the servant of the drug lord's daughter. Adira is actually my not-so-twin sister. I was really surprised when I learnt it.

Well, the drug lord kind of adopted me, I mean, he paid all my expenses, as to make my load easier for my widowed mother. But he has changed over these few years. He got addicted to alcohol, and now he is a heavy drinker. Sometimes when Adira happens to be there when he is drunk, he starts to beat her as if she was a dog. It is a wonder how she bears that. Sometimes when she writes at school, I can see the bruises on her arms. Poor girl. Sometimes he hits me and Ma too, but mostly Adira. She never cries, as a normal girl would, which amazes me. I thought the drug lord would have not made himself a load to her this year, since she is facing her A/Ls next month (me too). We have been studying a lot now. Though a lot is going on for her, she manages to do all her work well.

AISSCE, AISSCE, AISSCE. It's all I can think about now. The teachers are pressing on us, a lot. Thank God the school I go to now has the local syllabus. I can't understand a single thing in Adira's books! Adira has been helping me a lot, but I don't trouble her much, since she's got her own problems to deal with. It's a good thing that we're having a long holiday this week. Monday to Sunday holidays, because the small kids are having their exams. Today was Monday. We started studying at about 9:00 in the morning and we started off with Chemistry. I just glanced at Adira, just to see what she was doing. She was scribbling on a rough paper, with a look of disgust on her face. This was very unusual, since Adira loved chemistry, not to forget mathematicss. But today she look disgusted. I asked her why she looked troubled, and she replied," It's my dad. In his present situation, I don't know what he would do. Judging from what he does when he is drunk, I say that he would kill someone. If he does.....",her voice trailed off. Wow. If she hadn't told me what's on her mind, I'm sure she would have wrecked her A/Ls. I'm not saying that I'm a problem-solving genius, but she'd never told anyone a question like that, that question would have taken over her mind, not letting any A/L idea get into her brain. I hugged her and said, "Nothing is going to happen your dad. Pray to God every day, keep hope in him. Remember, God makes things right for everyone." She smiled at what I told her, because that was what she told me, two years ago. We returned to studying again. Adira was happy. As usual, the drug lord was drunk today evening. We closed all the windows and doors in our rooms, to prevent him from breaking in.

Days passed quickly. Every day was full of hard work. A/Ls+AISSCE were nearing. I could not fail this. It would not be the result of my parents hard work. I prayed to god that may we be successful, as a result of our work. Finally, the day arrived, making my heart jump out of my chest. I got up early in the morning and woke up Adira, so that we could go through our notes once more. We didn't seem to miss anything. We got dressed and got blessings from our parents. We went to the exam center and headed to our respective rooms, after exchanging "good luck". It continued on till Saturday. The papers were exercising my brain as much as it can. You have to have your wits to do anything. The week I was dreaded ended at last.

Although exams was over, the fear in me never left. It was because of the results. Would the both of us fail? Would we pass? Which university would we go to? My questions were cut off with a loud "thud". Huh? This doesn't make sense. Something must have fallen down. I looked at the sky. It was night. Something important happened at night. What was that? Wait. The drug lord got drunk at night, right? The sound came from somewhere near. Was the drug lord hitting Adira? I opened the window. She was on the ground, struggling to get up. I jumped through the window and helped her to get up and made her lie on her bed while, I ran for some ice. She was bruised all over from the beating. The ice reduced her bruises. Poor girl!

Two months passed. The results submitting dayarrived, making my subdued terror wild. I jumped into Adira's room and woke herup. The results were posted four hours ago. This time I loaded the the results.We first checked the Cambridge A/L results. Adira was the.........first! There weretwo other students from two different schools who were also firsts. Then weloaded the AISSCE results. My heart was beating fast. I WAS THE FIRST!! Icouldn't believe it! The next morning we told Ma and the drug lord, who werealso really happy.