The Cowboys Scars

The rushing footsteps shrieked behind me;  once I turned around, a glistening moving object in the dim light triggered apprehension in the corner of my heart, prompting me to wonder what it was.  

The rustling wind and the black-turning leaves in my surroundings created a more terrifying atmosphere that sent shivers up my spine. My brain warned me to flee the danger that might lurk behind the blanket of the night yet my feet were firmly planted in their place, defeated by my fear.

"W-who's t-there?" A trembling yell of words from my mouth cracked the silence of the dusk and stopped the human being-like object a few feet away at my rear.

"Do not worry. I am one of your classmates and have no bad intentions for you."

The man's voice confessed as my friend broke the fear of my surroundings.

"Why are you stalking me? Are you a pervert?

"No…no…it is not like what you are thinking about? I…"

"You better leave." My harsh, sudden response cut him off in his tracks. I didn't wait any longer, forcing my feet to collide with the pebbles paving the dark road under the dim moonlight

"My name's Reno. You are Ilana, right?" His yell of mentioning his name meant nothing to my ears other than the breeze that caressed my hair; I resumed my journey and he had no the nerve to follow, I bet.

What a pitiful life a poor girl like me had to live, born as a child in an unfortunate family with a drunkard father and a miserable mother. I never regretted my fate, but life was not always fair to me, pushing me into the ravine of hardship with no way out

Even my ragged, full-of-stitches shoes couldn't keep me from skidding and slipping into the hole that my eyes couldn't see. As a reaction to my bad luck, my mouth muttered only a groan of pain

I grumbled not because no one came to help me, but because fate had dragged me here. If I didn't have to scavenge and sell junk after school, I wouldn't have had to deal with limb fatigue or swelter all over my torso at this hour when others slurped the delicacy of the soup or chewed the tender beef. I pushed that wild imagination to the back of my mind, knowing that despite being at home at the time, I would not be able to enjoy those amenities.

As impoverished people, my parents and I resided in a tiny hut-like house in a slum area where ragged clothe inhabitants and bed-smelled rubbish were our companions. The only access to get to this area was the muddy cramped road which could slip your feet when you didn't carefully step on it

The gloomy-faced woman under the thin covering lay on the deflated mattress with her chest moving up and down in her sleep. Her mouth in a while mumbled random equivocal words while her hands in her unconsciousness clapped the mosquitoes which partied around her ears. Even in her slumber, my mother showed her sorrowful life.

An hour had passed since I arrived home; I couldn't sleep despite my exhaustion. It was not because of my mother's snore or the blood-sucking insects dancing around me; many things stuck in my mind that I could not define or express in words.

"Please…don't hurt her," my mother murmured with her closed eyes, she was dreaming. Her fingers scratched the itchy skin of the mosquitos' bites causing it to redden the area. To give her comfort and protect her from more bites, I rolled up the disheveled gauzy bedding on her body.

"Ilana…why haven't you slept yet?" In her half-opened eyes, a question erupted in her mouth as soon as she noticed me fixing her blanket. My lips formed a smile before revealing a lie.