And my mother, while calmly comforting him, said, “Oh, cheer up, Dear! Don’t you think this is the best outcome? Now, we don’t have to hang our heads in shame because of her disgraceful job. They won't tease up anymore.”
Then I realized that I had made a wrong move. I was too delusional and naive. The task that I originally thought was so easy, was in fact the hardest one. I could not stop myself but to curse, "Damn … how could I forget? I was too careless!"
My family had never loved me. In fact, I was a stranger in their eyes!
——
For as long as I could remember, I knew I did not belong in this family. I felt that I was the odd one there. No one wanted me to be included in anything. They did not care about my well-being or needs.
Maybe it was usual that in a family of three children, the middle child would always get overlooked. I always felt I was a stranger in my own family.
I remembered an incident when we all went to the amusement park as a family of five. At that time, my father carried my sister and my mother held my brother. Meanwhile, I walked behind them. My parents only urged me to keep up with them.
This situation was used by a human trafficker who had been watching us from the shadows. He managed to grab me, cover my mouth and take me away.
If it weren't for our neighbor, Aunt Wanda and her family coincidentally bumping into us at the park entrance, I would be taken somewhere else. Aunt Wanda and her family immediately freed me and took me to my family.
Even after that terrifying ordeal, my parents still did not care. They only scolded and beat me for not keeping up with them. Meanwhile, my sister and brother laughed at my misfortune and no one offered me any comfort.
At six years old, I remember thinking that maybe it would have been better if the trafficker had taken me away at that time.
This was how my life had been for the next twenty-five years.
Then, when I graduated from college, I took a job as a mortician and things had finally changed. They decided to kick me out of the house.
The first day my mother found out I worked as a mortician, she immediately called me. She demanded me to quit my job.
In the background, I could hear my father yell furiously, "I don't have an unlucky daughter like her!"
My brother texted me, "Andrea, you're disgusting,"
And, did you want to know my darling sister's reaction?