Chapter 6 Part III-1

The days passed like this.One day, my brother, uncle and one of their friends named Dalalni Kaku came to my house.At that time, I was lying in bed with the children, so I got up immediately to make room for them to sit. "I won't sit, boy," said the uncle. "Why don't you sit down for a while? What's the matter? You look bad." I asked.Uncle didn't answer, so I turned to ask Dalalni Kaku, but he didn't speak either.Finally, I asked my brother, "What's wrong? Why didn't you tell me what happened?" He just said, "My sister is gone," and started crying. "Which sister?" I asked him.

"Our sister Sushira," he said.But I can't figure out what will happen to my sister.I slowly understood what my brother meant, and a chill spread all over my body.I stood there as if the soles of my feet had taken root.Dalalni Kaku repeated the words two or three more times.Suddenly, I screamed loudly, rushed out the door, and ran all the way to Dad's house.When I got there, I was crying and banging my head on the ground. "Father, we have lost even our sister now. First our mother—we don't know if she's alive or not, and now our sister. We thought that without our mother, at least we still have a sister. But now, even my sister is gone. ’ Dad grabbed my arm and pulled me up, soothing me softly to calm me down.

"I'm going to see what's going on," he said. "What's the use of that?" I asked him, "Everyone is too lazy to bother with her." Every time I went to see my sister, her neighbors asked her father who had never visited her, did he forget her? It's not because you have a new wife and you don't have time to take care of your children.I told Dad that my sister felt very uncomfortable hearing these gossips. "Look at you, never really cared about her," I sobbed. While I was visiting my father, my uncle and Dalarni Kaku were visiting my brother, who lived with his wife in a nearby village.When the uncle got there, the elder brother was eating.He was about to stand up when the uncle said: "Son, let's finish the meal first." The sister-in-law saw everyone and started the fire again, but Dalalni Kaku said to her: "Son, don't cook our meal." I When the younger brother arrived at his elder brother's house, he said goodbye to his uncle and Dalalni Kaku, and prepared to report the funeral to his aunt.The elder brother started to eat again, and before he put down the bowls and chopsticks, the aunt arrived and asked, "Oh, Aijie, I heard that your sister died, what's the matter?" The elder brother was stunned.Dalalni Kaku said softly to his aunt, "We just got here and we wanted to tell him after he finished eating, but you told him everything." The elder brother ran to see his father when he had eaten half of his meal.

I was with my dad at the time.When my brother arrived, his eyes were bloodshot and his face was murderous.He couldn't even cry, and it took a while before he shed tears.He looked at his father with a strange expression: this man who had just lost his eldest daughter didn't shed a single tear.Suddenly, my brother started to cry loudly.Dalalni Kaku tried to comfort him, but to no avail.The harder my brother cried, the harder my tears flowed.When my brother rushed out from home to find his father, my aunt followed him.Now, wiping away her tears, she said to her brother, "I never saw your father help your sister even a little bit. Only when we forced him, he would take the time to look."

"We're left alone," said my brother, "that's why that son of a bitch thinks no one cares about her." Then he asked his uncle softly, "What's the matter with my sister, uncle?" "Mangkar came to see me," the uncle explained, "he told me that your sister is very ill, let us go and see her." Mankar is my brother-in-law.The eldest aunt asked how their children were doing, but the brother-in-law left without answering.The uncle asked again what happened to my sister, and he only said that she had contracted smallpox.The uncle didn't eat any food, so he went directly to see his sister.But when he got there, he found his sister, wrapped in a sheet, lying in the yard.He was stunned, and before leaving, the fruit he picked for his sister in a hurry dropped all over the floor.He brought a young coconut to his sister, and bathed in coconut water to cure smallpox, but the coconut also fell on the ground.The brother-in-law disappeared, and after going to the uncle's house, he disappeared.My heart was pounding with anger listening to all this, but Dad's eyes were still dry.Once, the older sister who was angry said to Dad: "How can a father do this? It's as if I helped him arrange the funeral." Now, Dad keeps repeating: "Now let's see who is doing who. funeral."

The aunt scolded: "It's this time, and you're just thinking about this? It's not sad at all when my daughter died." "No, sister, I didn't mean that..." "Then what are you muttering about?" Aunt interrupted Dad, "Your daughter is dead, so instead of going to see her, you are wasting energy here, wondering who said what to whom..." "Yes," the uncle said angrily, "Are you going? Just say something if you don't want to go. I'm leaving." "No, brother, of course I will. I really want to. But will my daughter be there? They haven't taken her already?"

"No, I have already told them and arranged for Razu to stay and watch. No one is allowed to remove the child until we arrive." Razu is my eldest aunt. "So you can still see my daughter?" Dad asked. But people put a lot of pressure on my aunt, and she was forced to remove the body.At first, they said the body could not be left in the room for so long.But my aunt insisted on waiting for my uncle and my father, so they threatened her and took the body away by force.Before our family could arrive, they had finished the funeral and cremated the body.Aunt could do nothing.Uncle and Dad got off the train and had to walk another three miles, which took a long time.When it finally arrived, the aunt rushed out crying and said to the uncle, "Brother, I failed to keep my promise! I failed to do what you promised. I was forced."

As soon as I heard the news of my sister's death, I immediately dropped everything and ran to my father's house.When I got home again, my husband was sitting in the kitchen with the baby in his arms.When he saw me, he scolded angrily: "Are you crazy? Leave such a small child alone and run out!" "But I know you're home," I said.Sister Sandia saw me coming home and came over and asked, "What's wrong? What happened?" "My sister passed away, and my current conditions don't even have the ability to help her take care of the children. The children have no relatives. I know how miserable children are without a mother. When they are hungry and need help, who do they go to? We have mothers, but live without mothers. Those children will suffer just like us.”

"Can't your father keep them around?" "Do you think they know how to raise children? I don't know how they think about it now. They will only know when they come back from their sister's house." "Okay, we'll talk about it later. Now it's time to feed your baby." I held the baby to my chest as he nursed while my thoughts flew to my sister.If my mother were alive now, how many tears would shed to see her daughter go.But our stepmother didn't shed a single tear.What about my sister's child now?They must all be heartbroken.Now there is no one to cook for them, no one to comfort them, and if they cry, they may be beaten, and they may be treated like animals by their families and kicked out of the house. "Get out," they'd say, "who do you think you are?" Thinking of the kids, I'm scared and sad, who can I turn to for help?What awaits them is the same experience as ours.I looked at my child and thought, what about his life?

Two days later, I told my husband that I wanted to visit my father's house. "But you said they weren't here and went to my sister's house, so what are you going to do?" "Auntie is there, I want to see what's going on." I set off.The next day, my parents came back.The stepmother went straight into the house to take a shower.As soon as my father saw me, he put the bag on the ground with tears in his eyes.I sobbed loudly and asked how my sister was doing.He hugged me and said, "Son, don't cry. I've already lost a daughter. Now I can't stop thinking about how hard it was for her before."

"Don't cry," my aunt said to me. "It's happened. Crying won't bring her back, will it?" "Oh, sister," said Pa, "she must have suffered a lot. That son of a bitch, Mankar, had an affair with other women. My daughter beat him when she said a word about him. Someone said she She committed suicide by taking poison. Some people say she died of illness. There are too many explanations. But I asked her youngest son about it. At first, he was a little scared and refused to tell. I feel sorry for him, poor child, only five years old Ah. I picked him up, led him out, and talked to him outside. He told me slowly... He said her mother was fine. I asked him to tell me what happened quickly, and promised Will take him away. The child asked me to promise, and I promised to let him live with us. He asked me to promise not to tell his father. I said I would protect him from anything. Then the child slowly began to tell me The truth came out. He said that his daughter and son-in-law had been arguing for three or four days in a row, and the son-in-law kept beating her. Yesterday, he locked the door of the house and beat his daughter severely. At that time, the child was in the room. Calling for help, the son-in-law grabbed her by the throat, trying to kill her. The daughter's tongue stuck out, so the child yelled, told the father to stop, let the mother go, and then started crying and hitting the father on the back. But he He still didn't stop. He didn't let go until the daughter was silent and could no longer speak. The daughter fell to the ground with a bang. He yelled loudly, but the daughter hadn't responded. I asked the child, what happened next? gone." Maybe Dad felt that my sister was still alive at that time, so he asked.Afterwards, the child said, his father pushed him out of the room and walked away.Speaking of this, the child has been crying too much to speak.My father asked the neighbors, and they also said that my sister was beaten to death. At this time, my father's eyes were full of tears. "Oh, Lani," he said to his stepmother, "my poor child, he strangled her. What did she do to end up like this? I'm going to see that bastard go to jail." Later, neighbors and others People told Dad that Mankar heard the threat and said, "So what? Let him send me to jail. I swear, there will be no trace of this woman in this world anymore. "Father knew that what he meant was that when he got out of prison, he would kill his sister's children as well.It annoyed Dad that people cremated his sister without waiting for Dad to come over.He was determined to send the body for examination, but now there is no way.There are many friends of my father in the neighborhood, and they all extended a helping hand, saying that as long as my father said a word, they would immediately chop off Mangkar's hand, so that his life would be over. Everyone who listened was in tears.Dad could barely speak, the grief and anger were overwhelming him.I kept thinking about how my sister felt and how scared she was when her husband killed her.After hearing what my father said, I wanted to let go of my throat and yell.He also said that when he wanted to take the child away, people obstructed him in every possible way.Finally, Dad said, I hope God bless the children to live a good life.But I think, God bless or not, my sister must have a hard time. A few days later, everything returned to normal at Dad's house.He seemed no longer worried about his sister's children.Sometimes, I wonder if he thinks of his two grandchildren.I want to go and see those two kids, but how?I can't even take care of myself and have to rely on my husband.I had to do what he said, no autonomy.But why?I often think, why is it so unfair?This is my life, not his.Do I have to do what he wants just because I live with him?He treats me like an animal.If I can't get happiness and peace in his house, is it necessary for me to stay in this hell? I stayed at my father's house for a week, but I was not happy.My parents can't even tolerate me sitting at home for a while.My stepmother got her way, my dad didn't mind, but with us—me and my brother—he always complained.For a few days, I was not feeling well and wanted to rest, and my father was indifferent.But he couldn't take it if I lay in bed for a little while.I have to take care of all the housework.If I stayed at my father's house for a long time, the atmosphere would become tense again, so I had to go back to my own house.Often. When the child was about three months old, one day, after eating, I was washing things outside the house, and my husband suddenly looked up and said, "Daddy is here." Daddy?I'm wondering, whose father?I thought he meant my father was coming, but he pointed ahead and said, "Look, look there." I looked up and saw a man in white.He stood there, looking at me and my husband.I'm surprised.My husband led him into the house, and I immediately prepared footwashing water.The man walked into the house and started talking to my husband.I stood dumbfounded outside the house, and vaguely heard them say: "You got married without notifying anyone, why? Not only that, you haven't shown your face at home for the past three years. Mom has been asking you about things. We are looking forward to you We held a wedding at home and hoped that you would bring your daughter-in-law home, but you didn’t say a word, and you didn’t even tell us that you had a child. Don’t you think you owe us too much?” After a while, he continued Said: "If you wish so, just tell us. We won't bother you any more, and you won't be sad. Just pretend you haven't raised your son." The husband muttered back, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. what.I lighted the fire with my hands and feet, made tea, took small snacks, and brought the tea into the house and handed it to my father-in-law.My father-in-law seems mad at me, but what am I doing wrong?I didn't even know about my husband and my parents, he never mentioned it. I listened to their father and son continue to chat.I would love to put the baby on his grandpa's lap but don't know if I should.How would he react?I'm thinking.What if he won't hold the baby?Should I give it a try?So, I picked up the child, put it on his lap, and said: "What your son did before may be unfair to you, but why did you neglect this innocent child? Hug him." The father-in-law smiled slightly , the anger subsided.So I left the baby with him and went to cook.I added some rice and asked my husband what to cook.He told me to wait and went to buy fish.