Mary as a teenager

Mary continued to live with her unloving family and her never present father. She was now a teenager and she had already started high school. Her step sisters were behind her in grades as they were not as brilliant as her and that did not sit well with her stepmom. She tried by all means to block her from attending classes everyday. She would pretend as if she was ill and made Mary to do all the household chores. Mary would clean the house and cook for her and her daughters. When they came back from school she was made  to clean after them. She would go and fetch water before she prepared for supper while they were doing their homework. Sometimes she would their homeworks as well. 

Her father would come home late, had supper, bathed and went straight to bed. The next morning he would be off to work. Mary would work hard to catch up on her school work. Sometimes she missed class tests but that did not stop her to pass her grades. When it was her last year at high school, she she received the news that her father was not well. He became seriously ill and she had to take care of him. He became weaker and weaker until he was bed ridden. The doctors told him that he had pneumonia. 

On a very fateful day while Mary was sitting on the kitchen table after she had finished feeding her father. She heard unusual groans from his room. She rushed to attend to him. He was lying helplessly gasping for breath. He breathed heavily until he became silent. That silence gave Mary a new title. She was officially an orphan. The last parent who was barely present in her life succumbed to pain and suffering. The doors of hope were closed on her that day. She cried a silent painful cry. 

Her father was buried and her hopes were buried too. She had secretly hoped that her father would pay for her fees when she would continue her tertiary studies. She sat in the outside shelter that day until she dozed off. The dreams took her to the place she vaguely recognised. She was with her father and mother in the park. The park was green and beautiful flowers were surrounding a small blue Lake. The park was really beautiful and all of a sudden her mother and father were on the other side of the lake. She wanted to go to them but could not cross the lake. She shouted for them to wait for her but still was unable to cross. They waved at her and pointed to the direction of a handsome young man who was standing a few metres away from her. The young man came closer to her. This man was wearing a robe that was embroidered with beautiful glittering precious stones and had golden crown on his head. He lifted his powerful arms to help her cross the river. When she looked up she noticed that her mother and father had disappeared. She cried but the man took her back where they came from. He reached out to the pocket of his robe and his hand came back carrying something. It was a big beautiful diamond ring. He put it on her ring finger and took the crown from his hand and put it on hers. They danced in the breeze of the lake. A beautiful music at the background was serenading their moment of pleasure.

While she was deep in her dream, she heard a sharp voice calling her name. It was the voice of her stepmother. She panicked and wanted to run. But the prince held her had tight. He wanted them to dance more. She heard a sharp blow striking her arm. She woke up immediately to find her step mother shouting at her demanding their supper. She was cooking, she remembered and she stood up immediately to attend to the pot of stew that was already burning. She took it out of fire and went straight to the kitchen. She dished up for them thinking about her dream.

Her cruel step mom made her to eat the burnt scrapings from the pot of stew as a punishment for burning the stew. She did not eat that night and went to bed with a sore heart. She wished for that dream she dreamt earlier to come back again. She tried to close her eyes to fall asleep but her heart was heavy. Her mind was racing replaying all the events of that day. She was  all by herself with no one to cry to. 

Time went by and the poverty took the better of since the. breadwinner was no more. Mary was forced to go and look for a job in the firms. She got the job where she worked as a domestic worker. It was not easy for her but the only consolation was that she had a room to live in at the back of her employer's house. The room was not so big. It had only a space for a bed and a table. Her clothes were packed in a chest of drawers next to her bed. She worked very hard and had to buy groceries for her step mother and daughters. She was forced to support them since it was her step mother who had organised the job for her. She saved the little money that was left after she bought the groceries. She lived on the leftovers from the plates of her employers. Sometimes she would be lucky to get her own plate of food when her employet hosted dinner parties. She would eat herself into a frenzy. After that she would wash a pile of dishes and scrub the floors. She would go to bed very tired. The moment her head touched the pillow, she would be asleep already because of exhaustion. The following morning she would wake up at half past four to feed the pigs and prepared the children for school. After that she would make up all the beds before she cleaned the house and the yard. By lunchtime she had to make sure the lunch was ready. Then she would take an elderly lady who was the mother of her employer to a walk together with her dog. Before that she would make sure that she had done all the laundry. She was also expected to serve supper early so that the old woman should go to bed right after they had eaten. The little salary she got was not even enough to cover all her needs. She was frustrated because she wanted to finish her high school.