SOFT WAILS BETWEEN THE SHEETS
The clock strikes midnight and the battered child drags their beat up self through the door. Dropping their earnings in the outstretched palm of the beneficiary and off with them it is. Making do with a cold shower that shocks their calloused skin, the child collapses into the sheets.
The sheets that offer comfort and the closest thing to love. The sheets that absorb the child’s tears and then hold them in a tight and warm embrace. They provide the only rest in this breadwinner’s life and emotional support.
At only 10, a childhood has been robbed, adulthood been thrust upon the helpless victim with all its demands. Consequently and most atrociously, a monster has been made. The very monster that lived under the bed and the sheets offered the affrighted protection from. An appalling matrimony with said child has been formed.
In it’s eyes, the world is harsh and unforgiving. It knows no love, seeks solace in the harsh crack of whips and has accepted it’s fate. Sleep has eluded it, night time reserved for salting the sheets with tears.
It’s about time we found out, what defines our humanity? Compassion and Empathy surely constitute a greater degree. Should such injustices thrive in society with all the available means to curb them? I think not.
Let us join our hands and return to that child their childhood. May a divorce with the monster blossoming in them be advocated. For collectively, we can embrace humanity and end the soft wails between the sheets.
RITA MUSIMENTA
