Thursday, March 12, 2009

“No! This cannot be happening! This cannot be happening! Mum, you are not lying to me right? ”

It was purely unbelievable. I swear I did not see it coming. Had I paid a little more attention to the signs, we could have avoided everything. I meant EVERYTHING. I always thought I lived in a perfect world, with perfect parents. In a perfect house, with a perfect picture that hung up on our pretty wall. That picture portrayed 3 fated souls, all looking their best and smiling brightly. It was picture perfect.

Mum came onto my bed, when I was about to sleep. But she took my sweet dreams, which were waiting for me to step into, away…

I missed those signs, those few important signs that could really change my whole life. It all started out with the first sign. Sundays used to be our family day. We would go out and enjoy ourselves as a family. It was until recent months that we stopped going out as a family. It was queer to see either Mum or Dad was missing from home on Sunday. By right, in Singapore, Sundays are meant to be off-days. I thought that maybe it was recent that my parents’ work started piling up ever since they got promoted and working on Sundays was a must. Little did I know, the worst of my fears would come.

Dinner every night was no longer a family affair. It was either Mum or Dad sitting around the dining table with me. The chance of seeing both of them at the same time for dinner was one out of a 100 dinners. It felt really disturbing to not be able to see my family as a whole for a while. Yet again, I brushed off the sign, thinking that work kept them away from the dining table.

Mum started arriving home in the late hours. Unusually, Dad did not seem to be bothered. As long as I could remember, Dad would ask Mum her reasons for being late and if work was overwhelming. Some times, he offered her a massage. I could care less as I once again thought Dad already knew why Mum was reaching home late.

Another sign I failed to address was Dad starting to sleep in the sofa we had in our lounge. For some time, Dad moved out of Mum’s room and some of the nights, I caught him downing a handful of drinks. His drinking habit worsened as days passed by. It got the better of Mum. Twice, Dad took it all out on Mum and quarrels were deafening. Profanities, unhappiness and anger were hurled across the room, from one end to the other. Mum started crying and she walked out of the house. It was that point of my life. That point that I realised the whole world, the world I described the word ‘perfect’ with, was on the verge of crashing down in mere seconds.

The Mum and Dad I once knew, was no longer that blissful couple that everyone was talking about. I was their only child and all this time, I suddenly felt neglected. They had forgotten about me. I felt that this was not going to be the end of things. I tried talking to Mum and Dad separately, expressing my feelings about everything and my hopes. They both walked away, forgetting I was all torn apart from all this war they were having.

Just too soon to be true, Mum woke me up from my short slip away- the recollection of the events that preceded this life-changing event.

“Your Dad and I are getting a divorce. We are going to the family court tomorrow, where we’ll settle things…” I could not be bothered to listen to what ever my Mum had planned to say to me. That dreadful word, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, was on the verge of taking someone so dear to me away.

There were many signs. Many signs. But I failed to recognise them earlier on. I felt helpless, like a little baby. I could not do anything to keep the people I love with me. Now it is up to the family court to decide what will happen to my life…


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My essay, I think it is way much better than my first draft, seriously.
But still, my essay writing needs tons of inspiration and good vocabulary.