At the end of love

                     Dedicated to my late parents–Mr and

                     Mrs Godwin Alfa.

                      ~~~~****~~~~

I smiled to myself and held the tiny hand of my little sister.

"I'm your Mommy now," I said sweetly to the two year old that was only interested in drinking from the juice box in her hand.

Snatching the juice box from her hand I said, "call me Mommy."

She opened her little mouth to cry, but I quickly stuffed it with her pacifier and placed a kiss on her black hair.

"You are a man whore!" The woman from the building opposite us yelled with a voice, harsh and tight with emotions.

I'm guessing it's the Richardsons having an argument again. This has always been a hobby for them, fighting. The worst part was Mrs Richardson's voice was as loud as a trumpet and could be heard from miles away. I was not exaggerating, I could hear every foul word she called him from my room whenever they fought.

Today's evening was a beautiful one. Mommy, Eliana and I just came back from our daily walking routine.

Mother stood in a black leggings and pink shirt with a phone glued to her average sized ear. She stood in front of our milk colored gate and chatted with who she was on the phone with.

My little self walked over to where mother was with a lot of curiosity bubbling in me.

"Mommy." She looked down at my six years old figure, took a mouth full of bottle water and smiled. "What's a man whore?"

She coughed and spilled the entire contents in her mouth, meaning the water entered the wrong pipe.

"Sorry." I patted her right lap with my tiny hand because I was too short to pat her back.

"Where did you hear that from?"

"From-" I didn't get to finish my sentence because the gate to the Richardsons flung open with Mrs Richards standing in front of it and guarding it like she didn't want him out.

Our gate was just opposite theirs so it gave me direct view to what was going on.

"You're not walking out on me!" She yelled, but he didn't reply.

This scared Eliana and it made her cry out loud. Mr Richardson got into his car and the engine roared to life.

Mommy picked Eliana up and pushed our gate open for me to go in first. Mrs Richardson howled abusive words at her husband and I registered every word in my head.

"Cover your ears honey," Mommy said sweetly and I obeyed.

I sighed when I finally got into the house. I ran to the sitting room and jumped on my big sister.

"I missed you!" I hugged her tightly, earning a nudge enough to break my ribs. "Okay, if you don't like me say you don't! I'll appreciate if you let me grow up with complete set of ribs."

I pouted and folded my arms against my chest. She didn't even act like I was there, she just glued herself to the carton, brown sofa. Her big, bottle green eyes never left the screen of the smart phone she was holding. I wished that phone would fall into the toilet someday, I was so a better mom than Sam.

Sam had no time for me, all she cared about was her phone.

One time I was running then I bumped into her. Sam's phone and I fell on the floor causing her to scream. I thought she was afraid I hurt myself, but she picked her phone and inspected it for a broken screen then heaved a sigh when she saw nothing.

I glared crossly at her and wished I could yank her jet, black hair.

I got down from the sofa and walked over to where mom was preparing dinner. Pulling my chair out, I sat on the dinning with a pack of crayon and drawing book in my hand. I drew a very ugly and funny looking figure of Sam and scratched my rich chocolate hair for the spelling of a word I heard.

I finally wrote what I felt like was the correct spelling for it. Sam walked into the kitchen to help Mom set the table.

Sam is a hore

"What's this?" Sam yanked the paper from my hand. "Aww is this me?" She asked sarcastically.

"Sam is a whore." She read out loud with a look of disbelief, causing me to clutch my stomach and laugh out loud. "Oh, I'm gonna get you!"

I screamed and ran to hide behind my mother. Sam handed the paper to Mom and she told Sam maybe I just wanted to write Sam is a horse, but missed the s.

Father arrived and the usual running to hug him happened. We sat on the dinning to eat so I told father Sam wanted to break my ribs.

"And that's why Sam is a whore!" I yelled out loud.

Father stopped chewing his pepperoni bruschetta and glared at Samantha. "Samantha Madeline young." His light green eyes shot tranquilizers at her. "What have you been saying in front of your sister?"

"No way, I've never said that before." Sam deflected.

"Then who?"

"No idea." She replied dryly and he looked at mom, but mother shook her head.

"You know I wouldn't say such in front of my child," mother said.

I didn't care because I was too busy drinking my milk in a noisy manner and enjoying the fun of dad blaming Sam. She deserved it because she almost broke my ribs so maybe I'd just allow my tongue to be glued to the roof of my mouth for a while.

Finally, I decided to cut Sam some slack. "It wasn't Sam, I heard it from Mrs Richardson." I beamed innocently.

"Honey, that word is bad. Good girls never use such words," father said.

"So Mrs Richardson is a bad woman?" I asked, my curiosity bubbling.

"What? I mean well mannered girls don't use such words. Remember you said you wanted to become a gentle lady with class when you grow up, so don't use them."

"So Mrs Richardson doesn't have class and she's mannerless?"

Father pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and sighed. "Help me." He whispered to mom.

"No honey, your father never said that." Mother held my hand and squeezed it gently. "Don't use that word again, okay honey?"

"Okay Mom." I grinned.

***************

The past few weeks had been normal. Mother and father argued a lot these days, but not as loud as the Richardson.

I woke up with my throat feeling dry. Sitting on my bed, I rubbed my eyes with the back of my palms and pushed the blanket that was covering me. I placed my feet on the floor and shivered at how cold it was.

I went over to Eliana's bed to see if she was fast asleep. She was and she looked like a little version of Mommy. Eliana still slept in a baby's crib because she rolled a lot. A small smiled formed at the corner of my lips and I covered her with her little blanket.

Little things like this made me feel responsible like I was her mother.

My little feet took me to get some water, but first I had to ask Mom or Dad to help get it.

Approaching their room, I heard arguments and for a minute it made me sad because I hated to see Mom and Dad argue even if they always pretended they weren't.

"Mommy?" My tiny voice came out almost like a whisper.

"Hey baby." Dad picked me up from the floor. "Why are you up?"

"My throat is dry, I need some water." I scratched my chocolate hair. "What's going on between you and Mommy?"

"Oh baby, nothing." Mother smiled at me.

"I was just telling her about a rough day at work." Father lied and I knew it. He handed me to my mom and went to get me water.

He came back with a cup that I assumed had half amount of water in it. I drank a little and gave it back.

"Why don't you kiss Mommy anymore?" I asked out of nowhere.

"What?"

"Yes daddy, you don't give her goodbye and hello kisses like you used to."

"Of course I do." Father held mother's cheeks and placed a thousand and one kisses on them. He ruffled my hair and placed a lot of kisses on my cheeks, while saying he was going to eat them, causing us to laugh.

He left to his working room after telling me how much he loved me. Mother stroked my hair gently and sang me my favorite lullaby.

My lids became heavy, causing my long eye lashes to hug each other and they took me to a world, where everything was possible–dream world.