Joel did not stop by after sending her home and he drove away.
Lucy had an unusually good night’s sleep.
Perhaps it was because she spent an afternoon in the amusement park, finally realizing a childhood dream of hers. Hence, she had a dream that took her back to that time.
The Katz family had just left the capital during that time and Father Katz had yet to meet his maker. They were one happy, content family.
One time, she heard a classmate of hers talking in school about her father bringing her to the amusement park for a ride on the carousel. She was so envious.
Upon her return home, Lucy grabbed onto her father and pleaded with him to take her there.
After the whole family uprooted from the capital, the Katzes engaged in some small business in a city down south.
Since the business was in its initial stages, Father Katz was as busy as a bee every day, gone from dawn to dusk almost 365 days in a year. He had no free time to spare.
Nevertheless, Father Katz still agreed to it to put a smile on his daughter's face.
He even promised her that he would take her to travel abroad as long as she scored a hundred points on her term examinations.
Lucy was overjoyed and put in a lot of effort into her studies daily.
The thought of her father taking her and her mother to travel abroad as one happy family brightened up her face.
However, life was as unpredictable as the weather.
It never occurred to Lucy that her father would pass away from an accident on the day of her exams.
She would forever remember the moment she stood at the entrance to her house with the hundred-marks report card in hand.
Her once warm home was no more and was replaced by the grieving wails of her mother, on looking and helpful neighbors, and her father lying there, a cold mangled corpse.
Lucy could not remember how she went through with it, nor did she recall what she did during the time her father was put in a coffin and buried.
That period in time seemed to be a blur in her memory.
With tears and raindrops all mixed into one, she could not see clearly.
Later, the only thing etched in her mind was her mother taking her alongside and enduring the hardships in life.
Although the culprit of the car accident had paid them a large sum as compensation, her father’s business took a hit as a result of his death. The money from the compensation was completely used to deal with the aftermath.
In all those years her mother was married to her father, they did not live a luxurious lifestyle but life was pretty comfortable.
With the pillar of the family gone, her mother had to take on life’s burden and provide tuition fees for her, who was only ten at the time. Left with no alternative, her mother had to get out in the world and find a job.
It was not easy for someone who had not worked for more than a decade to find a job.
Although her mother was highly educated, it was long ago. She was most proficient as a homemaker and not dealing with various documents and charts.
Thus, multiple attempts found her a job in a company offering domestic service. She worked as a nanny and helped with childcare.
During that time, Lucy clearly watched as her mother grew old day by day.
The once radiant-looking woman seemed to age ten years overnight through the struggles of life.
Nonetheless, she never complained.
Even when life had taken a toll on her, her mother would return home late at night and bring Lucy a sugar-coated fruit on a stick. She would also buy her new clothes at the turn of a season.
Her mother often cuddled Lucy in bed, softly lulling her, saying, “My little Lu, please be good. Mommy isn’t tired. Mommy is willing to do anything as long as you’re happy.”
Lucy was unable to grasp the meaning behind her mother’s perseverance then. A child of her age was still unmindful of the world.
The most profound impact on her was understanding that her father was not around anymore. Nobody was giving her piggyback rides nor was there anyone to pick her up and make her laugh.
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