Past
Sophia POV
I’m careful while passing through the barbed wire scared of getting my clothes torn and of hurting myself on its sharp edges. Once I’m on the other end of the fence I travel further more into the forest. The barbed wire has been put around all the field to keep out the wild animals of the forest.
It’s bright daylight so venturing into it isn’t such a bad idea , plus I had been doing this for quite some time now.
Seeing the big banyan tree up front I start to tip toe upto it, hoping to catch Sam off guard but his serious expression and tough stance kind of breaks that idea for me.I was not looking forward to something like this specially cause I was seeing him after three days.
“You seem kinda tense”,
I say once I reach him. I then proceed to open my bundle of things and spread the sheet on the ground that I had been carrying. As I make myself comfortable on it I notice that he doesn’t do the same so I tug at his hand to come sit next to me instead he distances himself from me only to say this
“We shouldn’t meet anymore, I’m sorry I was the wrong man here but I can’t continue this”,
my next word comes out in a pitch which is inaudible to my ears
“Why?”
“I want to look after my family now, I got to be there for them now”.
As if this reason was enough, his footsteps take him away from me. My ears are focused on his footsteps till they go faint and then nothing.
********
“Didn’t you hear? Amelia’s pregnant”.
Aah his old heart went soft again for his unborn child. It’s no surprise that Amelia used the golden ticket to get him back. Is blood really that strong that it can win over love? Or was it even love?.
“Grandpa”, I call out to him while he’s on the stove making tea for himself
“Hm”
“I think it’s time”.
********
I’m sitting on top of my suitcase trying to zip it up as the overflow of my stuff makes it even bulkier. My ears might me blessed as I could hear the knocking on the door while I was a floor above from the door. It was like deja vu from weeks before but so much had changed in these weeks.
“Grandpa’s at the field”
“Oh okay. Can I talk to you?”, Sam asks though he’s unsure
“Yes”.
I open the door wide for him to enter and close it behind him. I don’t want to appear idle in front oh him so there’s no work for me in the kitchen I put myself on the task of finding one. He starts by saying
“I heard you’re going away”
“I have to , I think I have prolonged my stay”, I tell him
“You absolutely have”, that voice creeps into my ear
“Why are you here?”, I direct my question at her but Sam thinks that I’m still talking to him
“I guess to meet you one last time”, Sam says while she keeps quiet.
The feeling of cold air all around me is just another indication of her being close so I tell her
“Get away from me”.
To this statement Sam looks taken aback and tries to plead his case in front of me
“Sofia try to understand”
“Yeah Sofia why don’t you get it”, she adds to his words.
I know what will get her to stop talking so I head towards my room but I’m stopped by someone’s hand grabbing my wrist. Fear runs faster in my veins and in an adrenaline rush I swing my other hand which had been feeling heavy . The metal ladle comes in contact with a solid head on top of Sam’s body. He drops down on his knees with his hand on his head
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to”, I tell him. He just gets out of the room with a bloody gash as fast as he could.
*******
“You should stay more, at least till mother arrives and sees you off herself”
“Well we’ve already have had our departures once, repeating them doesn’t make sense”.
A distance away I can see Sam and family, are out on there front porch standing to see me off. They had to make sure one last time especially Sam with that gash , which was bandaged now. Granddad keeps on standing there all the time from when I stepped inside the car till it had turned a corner and his figure had completely left the rear view mirror.
Just four hours into the car ride to the next town the car halts in the middle of the road followed by fumes coming from its bonnet. The driver and also guessing the owner of the car steps out and opens the hood of the car letting out more fumes which were trapped inside and inspecting the damage done.He then take out his tool box and gets to work.
It may take some time so even I step out and light a cigarette a little further away him. My surroundings are nothing but tall tress everywhere with a narrow road in between them the thought that even if I start to walk across the forest I could till reach grandpa by midnight does cross me but I have to stop myself on dwelling on it. So I feel the smoke going and coming out of my system and look at the orange sky which tells me we are nearing night.
I walk at the edge of the entrance of the forest which is in line with the road . As the night sets in my vision is practically of no use now so I have to rely on my other senses to be aware of any upcoming threat whether that be animals or humans itself. After the driver told me that he won’t be able to repair the car any time soon I set in on my own journey and thought of following the road, it has a lot of turns but I haven’t come across a division in it.
I thought of walking on the road and hitching a ride with the help of my white dress which would be visible in the dark but that could also be an invitation to all sorts of dangerous people. I hadn’t been walking for long but could already say that my legs were ready to give out under the heavy weight of my body and bag. So when I saw a car nearing me I didn’t think it through and jumped in front of it with the intentions of stopping it but as it and had no plans of slowing down while approaching me I chickened out at the last moment and throw my self out of the way into the darkness of the tress.
The car slows down and stops up ahead ,people are very apprehensive of giving lift to other people so I quietly sneak into the back seat of his car. The owner/driver still seems kind of shaken while looking into the tress but gives up as if something told him its of no use. He starts his car and resumes the journey and half way through it I think of making myself known
“You almost killed me there”, my voice and presence shakes him as the car again comes to a stop.
I can practically see the tension rolling of him so I think better of it than messing with him and tell him to turn around. I knew all of this would turn out to be bad for me as after two minutes , I again found myself at the side of the road but now with a place to go to with a man’s face still in front of my eyes even though the car speed into the night.
********
“Jerry I have work that needs to be done, get out my way”
“I will once you say yes”, I shove his shoulder and the impact makes him retreat in a corner while I keep walking straight but his pursue only get delayed not detained.
“Give me one good reason as to why not”, he asks
“Because I don’t want to and that itself should be enough”.
Shortly after moving into this new town , the first thing to do was apply for jobs and to think I would get desk jobs with no degree was the new hope in me which got crushed after several rejections , so a job in a pub as a waitress for the time being doesn’t seem bad until we talk about guys like Jerry.
“I know what you do”, he frames the accusation in such a way that even I can’t help it as it peaks my interest
“Excuse me?”
“I have seen you stealing money by messing with the books and I’m not talking about pennies , I mean real cash”.
It’s true, turns out real world is hard and earning in this world is harder. I had come fully prepared when I moved out but that cash had no value in this expensive world and in about five days or so I had gone to having no food and if not for stealing maybe looking forward to homelessness.
“Are you blackmailing me?”, I ask and he takes out a piece of paper , forcefully squishes it into my closed fist and keeps walking. His address was written in it.