“Appa Appa” a 7 year old girl called out with excitement while running to the main entrance of their house to welcome her father from work.

“There’s my little girl” as her dad lifted her up and tickled her.

“ahihihihi daddy stop it” the little girl shouted teary eyed from the tickling.

“aigoo…you two enough already dinner is ready” a voice was heard from the kitchen.

Both father & daughter shrug simultaneously “yes umma” they shouted as they run towards the dining table.

While eating the little girl broke the silence.

“Appa can we go to the Zoo tomorrow?” she asked ..eyes filled with anticipation.

“Christa” her mother shouted with a warning tone “your appa has work tomorrow he can’t”

Pouting the little girl whined “but I wanna see an Iguana umma…my classmate said they turn invisible when you touch them…I wanna see..I wanna ..I wanna .. I wanna” she shouted.

“CHRISTA!” the little girl’s mother hissed “Enough….haven’t I taught you any manners?”

The little girl ate silently with teary eyes.

“do you really wanna see it that badly baby?” her father asked with a soft voice.

The little girl’s face brightened as she heard her dad ask.

“omo..Yes appa.. yes” she said with a glint of happiness in her voice.

“ok we’ll go tomorrow baby” he said while rubbing the head of his daughter.

“but yeobo.,,, you have work tomorrow” her mother protested.

“its okay yeobo, I’ll just call my boss to tell him that I will be absent, thus my little girl wont be little forever right? Might as well spend more time with her while she is still sweet and innocent” he said chuckling

The next day they went to the Zoo and little girl couldn’t be more excited as she saw different kinds of animals with all shapes and sizes but she knew why she came there and looked for the Iguana. To her dismay the Iguana didn’t turn invisible when she touched it and frowned to her parent’s saying “Liar, he’s a liar…Im so gonna kick his on Monday”

Her parent’s just laughed at her innocence s as she pouted even more due to her dismay. She sat on a bench while her parent’s were checking out some balloons to buy her to ease her disappointment, while she was sitting-apparently pissed at her classmate- she saw a puppy run in front of her and followed it until it crossed the road. Running to catch the puppy she didn’t hear the loud honk of a car fast approaching ..she was too shocked to move and too frozen to where she’s standing and before the car could hit her she heard her dad scream out her name and…

Screeeeeechh……BOOM!

After that it was total darkness…

The next thing she knew she woke up in a hospital bed and her arms and knee’s covered with bandages.  What was she doing here? Isn’t she supposed to be in the Zoo having quality time with her parents? Oh No! her parents they must be worried sick right now. She tried getting up from bed but a nurse came in and stopped her.

“don’t get up yet..your wounds are still healing so it might be painful for a little girl like you” she said

“NO! my appa and umma will be worried if I don’t come home now” she wined

To her surprise the nurse just hugged her and kept telling her to hush and that everything is gonna be alright. She couldn’t understand why the nurse acted that way and thought that she was just being weird. That’s until her mom came inside the room and told the nurse that she’ll take care of everything.

The nurse gave her a pitied smile and closed the door. The little girl wondered why the nurse was acting weird trying to comfort her

“Umma, that nurse lady was weird” she said wondering

“Do you know what you just did?” her mother asked with a cold voice

Surprised by her mother’s sudden cold voice she uttered

 “Umma. where is appa?”

“and you have the guts to ask me that?” she heard her mother hiss…with grinded teeth she spoke “because of you *sobs* because of you I lost the only person I cared about”

“Um..umma?” the little girl asked with a question on her face “what do you mean? I…I don’t understand”

“BECAUSE OF YOU MY HUSBAND DIED….. IF YOU HADN’T FORCED HIM TO TAKE YOU TO THAT ING ZOO HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALIVE BY NOW..THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT..ALL OF IT” her mother screamed

“Appa is dead?” the little girl asked as she cried her heart out. The only person who loves her, the only person who understands her, and the only person that could make her smile at times when she is down is longer here and it’s all her fault.

She just sat there in her bed dazed with dried tears on her cheeks as the only sound that was heard was her mother’s loud sobs.

9 years have passed and everyday she suffered from her mother’s cold way of treating her. She was living with her mom but she felt alone as her mom treated her like a nobody. She always eats alone after school and later hear her mom enter the house from her night shift at a local restaurant and as usual ignores her while she offers her dinner. The same scenarios happened everyday and she got used to it but one night while she was studying for an exam she heard her mom enter the house. She looked at her alarm clock,

“1 am? Seriously she never went home this late before” she frowned hearing a man’s voice “the eff… don’t tell me she brought home a guy?” she couldn’t believe it..her mom would never do that.. will she?

“ssshhhh! Lower your voice yeobo, my good-for-nothing-daughter is sleeping” she heard her mother say

What? Good-for-nothing-daughter? Yeobo? She asked herself mentally…is this really her mother who is talking right now? She couldn’t believe it… her mother couldn’t have replaced her dad right?

“You have a daughter?” she heard the older man ask with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Unfortunately yes” her mother said.

“oh I see” the older man answered.

The … she couldn’t take it any longer…she stormed out of her room and shouted “Umma who is he?”

“Did you just raised your voice on me you ungrateful little brat?” her mom hissed.

“Ungrateful? Umma look who’s talking” she faked a smile “you told me you loved appa but look what you are doing right now… is this what a loving wife should act? Tell me umma… so I can learn from you…mothers knows best right?”

SLAP!!!...

She palmed her swollen cheek as her face starts to burn with tears slowly leaving her eyes.

“How dare you? How dare you talk to me like that?” her mom hissed.

“Umma…I only told you the truth” she said.

“you..you ungrateful little …after all I’ve been through to raise you alone all this years.. this is how you repay me?” with grinded teeth her mom asked her.

“Yes, you raised me, fed me, and sent me to school but that’s what you ever did umma. You never loved me. All this years you saw right through me. Like I was somewhat invisible” she said with her voice as coarse as ever. There was a moment of silence..

 “after your father died because of you … I COULDN’T ANYMORE….seeing you brings me back from the time he died and it hurt…making me want to curse you for killing him..don’t you get it? It hurts” her mom cried while loud sobs were heard from the room “Im just trying to forget that painful memory”

Taken aback from what she heard she wanted to go and hug her mom and apologize to her but she was glued to where she stands as she saw the guy before approach and embraces her mom. Wiping the tears from her eyes she went up to her room and laid to bed realizing a lot of stuffs like she was the reason why her mother treated her that way and she was the reason why her mom’s wounds from the incident never healed..she served as the painful reminder.