[ s i x ]
9th May 2007.
"Mummy, can I have five dollars, please?"
She pulled her puppy dog eyes, and her lips formed into an adorable pout. Her head tilted to the left slightly.
"I just gave you four dollars yesterday, honey," her mother replied, with a slight frown evident on her facial features.
"It's for lunch. I get hungry."
Her mother sighed, and brought out her leather wallet, which had been adorned with a Gucci symbol. She pulled out a five dollar note and handed it to her daughter.
"Here. Make sure you buy something extra yummy, okay?"
Ashleigh bobbed her head up and down, before skipping out the door for school.
-
Her mother stayed back in the house, pondering. She was confused. Why did her daughter constantly ask her for money? Every time she asked for money, the amount would go higher at times.
Going back a week or two, she remembered what would happen every morning and every afternoon.
As she thought about it, she noticed that every day, Ashleigh would be asking for more and more money, saying that she was starving. She needed lunch.
But she was so skinny, she was afraid her arm would snap like a twig.
Every day, when Ashleigh came home, she would rummage through the fridge and cupboards, and feed on biscuits. She would nibble on them slowly, like she was afraid her teeth would break.
This made no sense to her at all.
-
At school, Ashleigh confronted the fifth grader.
He loomed over her like a skyscraper, and she bit her lip, nervously. She fiddled with the ends of her blonde hair and her eyes fluttered everywhere except for the other student.
"Well?" he asked, roughly.
She brought out her hand with the five dollar note, timidly.
"Here's your money," she murmured softly.
He snatched it away from her in an un-gentleman like way and walked off, not saying another word.
For the rest of the school day, Ashleigh sat in her own corner of the school. She watched everyone eat, and scream. She watched everybody have fun.
She wanted to experience fun. She had absolutely no idea what the definition of fun was.
She watched in jealousy, as her stomach grumbled. She wanted food. Hunger pains stabbed at her eight year old stomach, relentlessly, but she ignored it.
She wanted to go home.
