Old neighbours

A lot of housewives were always busy gossiping outside. Even after 2 years, it was still the same. They seemed to have finished washing out the muddy backs of potatoes which they sold at the market, but they were making no effort to clean up the place or leave.

"Oh my! Isn't that Mia?" One out of the five women exclaimed.

"That is her! It's Mia! What is she doing here? I thought she was too sophisticated to come to this kind of neighbourhood."

"Is that a baby she is carrying? She has a child?" Another asked, sounding surprised.

Mia ignored all of them and kept walking. They were not her problem.

A woman spat along her path.

"What a disgrace! I would rather not have a child than have a thing like her. Imagine, after Linda struggled to raise her, how could she abandon her own mother just because she made it big?"

"Exactly! Her mother had been sick but she never showed up. She goes on TV and acts like a good person, but she is worse than a dog. Linda is lucky to have Mary, who still visits her. The youngest child is always the problem everywhere!" Another spat.

"I feel so bad for Linda. She is such a good woman. How did she give birth to a witch like her? Oh my!" Another one started to cry.

"She used to be hardworking. It is true that people change when they have money."

Mia didn't let her temper control her. She wasn't only being quiet because of the kind of job she was doing now, but also because she was holding a child. It was very easy for people to judge others without bothering to know the real story. Of course, it was always like that. She was the bad person every time. The devil child. And Mary was the angel.

She knocked on Linda's door and waited for her to come out. After knocking for the fifth time, Linda opened the door and her eyes widened when she saw Mia.

Linda looked even thinner than Mia remembered. Her eyes were sunken and she had heavy eye bags under them. She looked very pale and sick and there were several cuts on her lips.

No matter how much Mia hated her, she used to love this woman before and did everything she could to please her. It felt weird seeing her like this.

"Mi...a..." Linda called in surprise. Even her voice didn't sound like her.

"Are you aware that Mary has a child?" Mia asked quietly. The anger seeped out of her when she remembered why she was here.

Linda sniffed and began to cry.

"Mia..."

"Just how long are you planning to ruin my life for?" Mia asked harshly. "After everything you made me go through, you still let your daughter dump her baby with me? And you told lies to your neighbours about me?"

"I... I didn't... tell them anything... I swear."

"So they assumed all that and you just let them because it's always okay for people to see me as the bad one and Mary as the best daughter? ARE YOU STUPID? UNTIL HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO CLEAN UP AFTER HER?" Mia yelled angrily at her. The baby who had been holding her hand suddenly let go and began to cry.

Mia looked down at the baby before looking at Linda, who was crying and holding the door for support.

"I won't raise this child for her. I am not the person you two can dump all your burdens on every time. I have a life! A job that requires me to always be on trips. You think I'd raise this child and end up tarnishing my reputation? Do you know what is going to happen if it goes on the news that I am raising a baby? So even if you have never cared for me before, think about how you are going to ruin the life that I have managed to build, and raise this child on your own. Better still, you always know how to keep in touch with Mary whenever she disappears, so call her to come take her baby and hand him over to her dad. SHUT THE HELL UP!" Mia yelled at the baby who was crying very loudly and it caused the baby's cry to increase.

Mia walked past Linda into the house and dumped the child on the couch before walking away, leaving a crying baby and her crying mother. Or maybe ex-mother.

She kept cleaning her tears as she returned to where the car was parked.

"Just take a look at her, how shameless! She even has the guts to yell at her own mother!"

The women started again as she walked past them.

Mia wanted to let it slide, but she stopped walking and turned to face them.

"What is it?" One challenged. "We are talking about you, what can you do? You think you are so important because you work for the government?" She snorted.

Mia's eyes went to the dirty muddy water they had used to wash the potatoes.

She approached them and lifted the big bowl. It was heavy, but she managed, and before the women could wonder what she was about to do, she threw it at the five of them.

A loud gasp left their lips and they shrieked in horror.

"If you all have nothing better to do, then go wash up. Stupid!" She glared at them before walking away, ignoring their yells and cusses.