The Promise

Mourning scenes:

It was a cold, shiny, overcrowded day thronging with ant-sized humans. The room was ridiculously cold, and my skin was damp against the sheets. No matter how extreme the temperature was, I was addicted to the calming lull of the air conditioner as I slept. The mourning sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds as its rays snuck in through the blinds. The muscles in my lower neck and shoulders were throbbing like HELL, as if someone were twisting the muscle tissues in my lower neck from the inside. My eyes hurt when the shivering coldness from the air conditioner got to them. Shrieking voices of traffic and whistles of cooker reached the skinny door of the outer layer of my ears and knocked... without my permission, they intruded in and through all the way sending the signals in my brain taking a small wild vacation. It rang a bell, and I could hear the voices and loud noises around me. My throat went dry as if some fly passed by and sucked all the moisture-type water.

As I opened my eyes and glanced around me, thinking of “The Promise” I shared with my loved ones. The Promise of changing our location and settling in a quiet, peaceful village. A place thousands of miles away from this overcrowded city evolved with skyscrapers and head-aching loud noises, filled with abnormal medicines ready to poison our bodies with mind-breaking tiredness. The promise was never fulfilled, and it kept going forward like a bulldozer since the day our family business went down. Promises are meant to be broken or that was my family's motto, so it was not that big of a deal to others. But it hit me hard, as I was the only young one struggling to survive in a shabby place like our tin shade house. 

Flashbacks:

3 years ago, during the pandemic, a big economic crisis took place in East Africa. During that period, our family business was massively skyrocketing. But unfortunately, the effects of that crisis started showing on our family business. There were more losses and profits. Customers started complaining about the sudden rise in the price of products and many could not afford to pay for the products. 5 months after that incident, our business was totally sealed by the government and gigantic paper bills and complaints from customers worldwide were loaded in a rifle ready to shoot us in a crossfire. There were also many people who filed cases against us. There were unavoidable debts. My family and I could not afford to pay all those debts, even in our after lives. We gave our family’s most precious, ancient, and historic stuff to the government to repay our debts even though they were not even 10% of the debts. We were nothing but an unfamiliar organism roaming in an unfamiliar kingdom of insects whom we once served but now as we became useless, they threw us away.

Current Day: 

For the last three years we have been surviving under this tin shade house located in the dense area of this massive metropolitan city. In my family, I was the only young child to struggle from all the hardships. Even though I was a major part of my family, I still argued and went against our family mottos. Because I believed that promises are made to be fulfilled, even with one’s life on the dark cursed line. I was desperate, being late to fulfill one’s promise and not able to fulfill one’s wish are totally two different things. It drove my anger and I thought of abolishing my soul rather than staying under the violence of people we once served. Just as I was thinking of demolishing my soul, an external force of catastrophe knocked at our door. I secretly and carefully sneaked into a weird, shabby and cracked looking old cupboard. I slightly applied a little force on the door to push it so that I could have a peak to observe the outside matter. Saw my whole family battling to survive this chaotic moment before my very own eyes. Night passed, and I slept inside the cupboard, shivering in extreme coldness and fear after experiencing last night’s battle against the HOUSE OWNER. But who knew a new opportunity was waiting for use at that mourning.

New Opportunity: 

Hardly any opportunities to walk here and pass by. But today was a surprisingly notable and remarkable day. My elder brother got accepted as an employee in a match making company. They paid each employee about $5000 per day. Today for the first time in a while I was so happy, contented, and auspicious with tears which were equal to waterfall flowing through my eyes. I was shivering not due to the cold or fear, but because of the overflow of happiness and joy. The unforgettable, unfulfilled, and broken promise was finally coming to reality. For the first time in three years, I saw bright and big smiles of joy and happiness on the faces of my family members.

Promise Fulfilled: 

3 days after that incident, we moved to a fairly quiet village miles away from the metropolitan city. We reached there at night and found that the middle part of the village was lively and peaceful. Off course, it was quite bigger than most other villages as it was one of the largest provincial villages of this country. There is a cosmopolitan atmosphere, while some parts of this village are full of small houses, it is still a green, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring village. As time passed, I observed that this village was an old, fascinating historic place where one Romanian battle took place. As days passed by, I turned 48 this year. Thinking of all the old, wired, and fearful hardships and struggles we went through. I still could not believe that the promise which we once shared with our loved once actually became a reality, without a doubt gallons of water flowed through me eyes flooding the entire path in front of me. It really was the most fabulous and diverting day of my entire life.