Moment of Birth (2)

It was the last night I'd ever saw my dad. On seventh of August, it was my birthday, and I got my bitter present. Around nine, there was a storm, quiet heavy. I watched the storm blew away leaves on the tree peacefully. My bubble popped when I heard the sound of broken glass, followed by loud, but familiar voices. I rushed to the dining room, but I stopped at the half of the staircase. My mom and dad had a quarrel. The first quarrel I've ever seen. They shouted and pointed their finger at each other, like an enemy.

"Shut it, you! You're just a whore who came to my dad and begged for a life!"

"I agreed to marry you because of your dad! Do you know how much I suffer?!"

"I don't give a shit! Go die with your fuck boy."

"How about your baby with that housemaid? Didn't you fuck her pussy every night?"

"YOU-" dad raised his voice, along with that, dad slapped mom until she fell. Dad was violent, he would go with a fist, but he stopped when he saw weird orange liquid with blood leaked through mom's thigh.

Mom's scream of agony had me petrified for a second. I immediately rushed to help her. Dad was looking at me, shocked and confused. He tried to hold me for reaching mom. I struggled, and in the end, he let me go. I didn't know what to do. Mom was screaming and gripping my hand tightly.

Dad looked shocked, I stared at him with pitiful eyes. Dad, however, he moved his hand a bit, and then pulled it to his chest. Dad was reluctant to approach me, let alone helping mom. He took a step back, one, two, three, until he got a few spaces from us.

"Dad…" I called him. He started moving toward us, but he stopped again. He stepped back, he was still looking at us. He was hesitant. Each call would do the same effect, each call would shattered my hope. I decided to run to him. I tried to hold his hand and pull him to mom. I said nothing, but whimpered like a lost puppy. I was scared, scared of something that I didn't know.

Dad brushed my finger off his hand. He saw me with regret and anger. He sidestepped me and took Clara. He saw me again for a second, and then quickly walked out to the door. Not long after that, I could hear the sound of dad's car drove off. I stood like a mannequin. I was overwhelmed by guilt and stoned by shock. It was nothing like what I thought if my parent disappeared in a mere second. I wasn't ready for a goodbye. Silly me to ever thought about this as an easy task.

"ANDRA!" mom's scream had awoken me from my current state. Quickly, I ran to her. I didn't know what to do. Blood consistently came out from her skirt. I wanted to call an ambulance, I took mom's phone and called 119, but mom refused and took her phone from me.

"Go to Mrs. Dowle's house, NOW!"

I went to Mrs. Dowle's house using a bike. It was a stormy night. I couldn't cycle straight. I kept falling due to the wind blew me to left and right. After I reach Dowle's house, I pressed the bell house rapidly. Mr. Dowle was the one who opened the door. He was surprised.

"Andra?! Why are you in here? Jesus, you're drenched!"

"Mr. Dowle! Mom, mom!"

"What happened?"

"MOM! Come to mom!" I was blabbering because I just didn't know how to describe it. Besides, I was panicked.

Mr. Dowle seemed to understand the situation. He called his wife, and we departed to my home with their car.

The front door was still wide open. Dad's car was gone, and mom still in the same position, and still crying and resisting his agony. Mr. and Mrs. Dowle quickly helped mom and lift her to her room. I stood beside mom's bed and watched her like an idiot. Mrs. Dowle took a blanket and spread it through mom's thigh. She looked inside the blanket, she then directly asking me to bring a towel and warm water in a large bucket. I did what she ordered me to.

Mr. Dowle patted my head. "Let's wait outside."

I wanted to stay beside mom, but I supposed I'd just become a burden. I followed Mr. Dowle. We sat on the sofa while hearing mom crying and cursing.

"What happened, Andra? Where's your dad?" asked Mr. Dowle. I knew he would ask that, but not even a single word came out, maybe my mouth had been stitched after dad left with Clara. Mr. Dowle knew something was wrong, but he said nothing. I just faked a smile, even though I wanted to cry so bad.

I excused myself to Mr. Dowle. I went to my room and started wiping my body and changing my clothes. It was the first time I wait for a person giving birth. Horrible, just horrible, I could hear mom screaming from her room.

The grandfather clock kept moving its pendulum, Left-right, left-right. Four hours passed until mom stop screaming. It was replaced with a cry of a baby. I jumped out of the sofa, Mr. Dowle opened the door, and it was a surprise to see mom drenched with sweat. Mrs. Dowle was busy washing a baby. Mom looked tired, but kept awake.

I moved closer to Mrs. Dowle, she smiled at me while cleaning the baby with the warm water I brought before. Mrs. Dowle already cut my sister's umbilical cord. I looked at my sister for the first time. She wasn't red-haired like mom and me or blond like dad, her small string of hair was black, her skin was a bit tanner than me. At first glance, I already knew that she didn't share the same dad with me.

I didn't want her existence. This baby wasn't my real sister. She didn't have the same dad with me. But, looking at this hopeless baby, I couldn't help but feel pity for her. She was born within a tragedy. I sat down, looking at my sister once again. She was so pure, she didn't know what happened hours before her birth.

I stroked her head gently, why did she make me want to cry?

'My little sister… do you know how much I suffer today?'

'I suffered much, too much to tell.'

'But I didn't want you to have the same fate as me.'

'Please, remember that you have mom and me at your side…'

After everything had been done, Mr. and Mrs. Dowle excused themselves because it was two in the morning. I guided them to the front door.

"Thank you, Mrs. Dowle, Mr. Dowle."

"Don't sweat it, dear," Mrs. Dowle said, "It was brave of you to come to our house. Please, take care of your mom. If you need anything, you can call me. I gave our phone number to your mom."

"You can call us if you have something to tell," said Mr. Dowle, concerned. I nodded and gave them a (fake) smile. After they were gone, I took mom's phone on the floor near the dining room. She told me so.

I gave the phone to mom, who breastfed my sister for the first time. She asked me to dial a number. She mentioned a man, and I search it in her contact number. I saw dad's number under the name of 'Asshole.' I was so tempted to call dad, asking him where did he go. But I follow mom's order to dial 'Dio.'

I pressed loudspeaker, so mom didn't need to hold the phone. Not long after that, we could hear a man voice, with a thick accent in his tongue.

"What is it?" the guy on the phone seemed to be unhappy to get awoken early.

"Darling, our baby had born! A beautiful baby," said mom with the happiest voice for the entire year. I was stricken by weird feeling inside me. It was the mix of sadness, anger, and jealousy. The voice of my mom's boyfriend, the man who snatched mom from my dad, just like how he snatched my happiness.

"Oh… what about your husband?" that man asked, seemed uninterested. Mom was silent for a few seconds.

"He left…" mom said, with a shaken voice.

"Left? What do you mean LEFT?" his voice raised, "We NEED that man."

"W-well, he left, but I have this whole house under my name, so-"

"HOUSE?! Just a house? What about his other assets?" he was impatient, so impatient. Mom's hand was trembling while holding my little sister. She bit her lip as she was in fear, something that she didn't show around dad.

"W--we can live together, you, me, our baby and…" she looked at me with disgust, hate, guilt, that's all that I could read from her face, "… Andra." I had a feeling that she didn't even want to say my name.

"What will we eat? Your baby? We lived with your husband's money, you dumbfuck!" he screamed. "And with your stupid daughter? You said you'd leave her in an orphanage! Lying bitch!" Yet, I swallowed another bitter pill. I already knew the truth, but hearing something like that still stung.

An uncomfortable air of silence filled the room. Mom was dead silent, but my sister began to cry, maybe because mom's hand kept shaking.

"I don't know… but we can figure it out… together…"

"Dumb bitch, as if you and your baby could do anything," said Dio. I clenched my fist. I couldn't believe she fell for him. Why did she replace dad with a trash? Fucking trash that leeched my parents.

"Dio…" Mom called his lover name, once again. Her eyes pooled with tears, a stream of tears rolling down smoothly on my mom's face.

"I wasted my five years fucking with you for nothing! GO FUCK THAT BABY!"

A long 'beep' ended the call. Mom's tears fall on my sister's face. She couldn't stop her tears. I couldn't help but to feel relieved, while silently watched her crying with an unwanted child in her warm hand.

"Andra," Mom called me, with a firm tone, nothing like herself before. I bent my body to get closer to her, listening each word that came from her, "I am dead. You are dead. This baby will be dead." She turned her face at me, her eyes glaring at me, piercing as thousand knives.

"Our. Love. Is. Dead." She said. It was nothing like before. She was sharp, piercing, and different. I saw no mom in her body, not anymore.

She then smiled at me. "I will think about your sister name. You can go to your room, now," she said.

I nodded, I went to my room and ensured it was fully locked. I felt unsafe in my home. But it was that woman who made me scared. It wasn't mom. Something is dead within her, hours before. She was a new human. She was born with my sister. They were the newborn baby, which would live with me for a long time.

At that point, I realized few details of my horrible future. I didn't live with my mom. I didn't live in my home. That night was the last time I saw my dad and my mom.