It was the morning after a very long night, I woke up wet from the annoyingly loud rain pouring through the leak above our now soaked bed. I had struggled to sleep that night because of the deafening rain against the zinc walls of my wet and unstable shack. I got up and banged my head on the low roof. I was wearing my only, now crumpled, clothes. I go outside in the rain to go to the bathroom. My clothes were wet from the storm. I was on my way to the bathroom when I reached the flooded lake.
I took a step into the freezing lake, halfway through the lake, I tripped over a sharp stone and got a large cut on my knee. I got back up and walked on with a bleeding knee. I really wish that there was a hospital nearby. As I reach the bathroom I see that there is a long queue and that I would be late for school if I waited. I looked around to see if there was another bathroom nearby, but I soon realized I would never have the luxury of that. Once I reached the front of the line, I wished for some privacy as I stepped into the bathroom. I then left the bathroom without washing my hands because there was no tap.
When I reached the shack my mother was finally awake. I was expecting a “Good morning” or a “Shame! What happened to your leg?” but all she said was “Go put out the buckets to collect the rain!”. As I left the shack, I grabbed the buckets and placed them outside. I went back to the shack to say goodbye to my mother and grabbed my torn up backpack. In a dash, I was off to school in the pouring and freezing rain. As I reached the hazardous highway, I looked down at my throbbing and bleeding knee to see that it was infected and starting to swell. I felt a bit dizzy because I hated seeing blood, I knew I needed stitches. I then took a deep breath and tried to put myself into a good mood.
Once I had reached the other end of the dangerous highway, I ran to school repeating in my head “Turn right by the circle and through the alley way”. I was struggling with the route because my father used to always take me to school before he passed away from AIDS. We never had a funeral for him because we couldn’t afford it. I rushed into class as sly as a fox without being noticed. I had hard luck because I sat at the back and I just had to have the tallest boy out of 82 pupils sitting right in front of me. I could not see the board and I did not know what was happening, so I put up my hand and hoped that Miss Monarch would get to me. Unfortunately she didn’t get to me and I was confused. All I knew about the work was that it was for a test the next day!
Later in the day I had to share a textbook with 11 children. I really wish I could have my own decent textbooks but I cannot afford it. Finally it was break, I was on my to my friends when I stumbled upon Amos Artisan, the rich and mean bully. Amos loved to pick on people and show off. He lunged out to grab me by the arm and said “Give me your tuck shop money or else you will meet my knuckles!” I did not want to get into a fight with Amos so I did what I was told. I slowly reached into my pocket and drew out the only money I had, the money that took me eight weeks to earn. I ran to my friends trying to hold back my tears, but I failed. My leg was throbbing and I couldn’t concentrate because I never ate anything since the small piece of bread my mother gave me the previous night.
School had finally ended and I had to walk home alone trying to remember the route. When I reached my shack I noticed that my mother had left a note saying “I will be back soon, I just went to the shops.” I knew deep down that she went to get more liquor. I pray every night that my mother will stop drinking. Whenever I try to convince her she just gets angry and ignores me. When my mother came back it was already dark so I went to go study under a lamppost. I hope that someday we will have electricity in our dark shack.
After I prayed that night, I got into bed and tried to think happy thoughts but all I could think of was what will happen in the test tomorrow and if my knee would start to feel better soon. I slowly closed my eyes and soon fell into a deep, deep sleep.
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