Fate or Not

Fate or Not (Chapter 1)

It was an ordinary day, as I went to the shore to hang out the fishing nets with my neighbour, Mrs Talky. We have the day and night shift system here, whereby alternatively everyone would work either day or night daily. Not working is not an option unless one is terminally sick and diagnosed as unfit for work. And for punishment if anyone decides to skip out on work, they would be skipping out their meal for the week as well. With the limelight back to Mrs Talky, as much as a name would ever describe a person, no one's name would be more of a perfect fit than hers. Under the scorching sun,  her chatty mouth have never seemed to stop for a moment. And by moment, I meant not even for a milisecond. All that chattering could certainly have been put to better use if only it were informative...The usual contents were only laments of her life like how poor her family was that she couldn't even afford to buy a gold bracelet as a dowry and how scorching the sun was that they would hurt her skin causing her to tan and resulting in spine injury if she had to do this daily....blah...blah..blah...It was a total pain in the neck and especially an irritant to the ear just by standing beside her all day with the same naggings every second of the day...or night for nearly 10 hours. Over time, I would dare not say that I have gotten used to it but only that it have motivated me to work quicker everyday, faster and faster, definitely much more than the sun could ever do. However, revently, I am not very sure whether it was the overly heated sun or my memory trying to come back to me, these days my head ached as if a person is trying to knock the walnuts out of their shells. It was an unbearable feeling that caused me to squat onto the ground with my hands vigorously pulling on to every strand of my hair available for nearly an hour per spasm. Despite the severe pain, i did not dare to let the cat out of the bag to Alford.  It wasn't that i had a fight with him or anything else, but just...I didn't want to be any more of a burden than I already am to him...