A Little Bit Of Joy | ✔

Chapter Seventy Two : The Prostitute's Little Mistakes

Marilyn's story began on this muddy land where twenty three years earlier, her single mother- Emilia gave birth to her in presence of a midwife and no family. Emilia's partner had disappeared as soon as he learned she was pregnant. But Emilia's spirit never broke, she raised her baby with all the love she had never got.

Marilyn remembered her childhood days as fun and carefree where she got everything she desired with either tantrums or buttering her hardworking mother. She wasn't allowed to do any chores so she could play and study with her friends. Not a day went by without her belly filled with food and her body in the most comfortable, warm clothes.

Emilia with her meagre salary as a waitress could afford only sufficient food, but still she bought her daughter all the toys and pretty dresses she had never got as a child. She only wanted her daughter to grow like all the other kids. Her life's purpose was to keep her daughter happy, to keep the only person who loved her close to her.

What Emilia didn't know that her daughter truly didn't love her for approximately seventeen years later, Marilyn would choose a boy she barely knew over her.

The neighbours said that Marilyn's running away was expected because she was a spoiled, senseless brat who didn't appreciate her mother enough. Emilia never envisioned her precious daughter to abandon her, for months she went knocking to each door, begging each person to report to her if they find Marilyn. All Emilia could think of was how she failed as a mother and that Marilyn was out there, cold, alone and afraid.

For Marilyn, this wasn't her first mistake. It was however, her biggest mistake. Her first mistake was when she was nine years old and had cried for an expensive barbie set that only few kids owned. Marilyn knew her mother couldn't bear the expense of that useless toy, but she continued to demand incessantly until she got it. Her mother borrowed money from some men and when she couldn't repay it, they beat her up. Emilia only smiled weakly when Marilyn asked how she got the bruises because as long as Marilyn was happy, she was also happy.

Karma bit Marilyn in the behind after she left her mum for her boyfriend who used her for roughly fourteen days, then tossed her away like she was garbage. Marilyn was ashamed to go back home, so she stayed. Another mistake.

She spent the next three days weeping in the public washroom until hunger overpowered her senses. The growling of her stomach was stronger than the stench of urine surrounding her. She stumbled into this unknown town where her ex boyfriend had brought her and was thirsty for food- money. She watched the day transition into night- the mighty sun crawl down the horizon, leaving a dark, velvety sky with no stars. Marilyn fixed herself the best she could and then stood by the highway. A truck halted before her and a strange face was smirking at her.

Marilyn spent that night on a stony bed of a brute truck driver.

A series of mistakes followed after that night as she slept in different beds each day- giving away a piece of her to men she never loved. Her life was miserably frosty like she was getting crushed under a large iceberg. Her suffocation only grew as days passed into months- months into years until she was freezed inside the solid iceberg itself.

There was a ray of hope though which barged into her life in the form of a boy her age with sandy blonde hair and striking blue eyes. Shaun. He started to crack open her frigid walls and the ice started to melt away. She could breathe again- she felt warm again.

Marilyn didn't know what part of her captivated him for he met her nearly everyday at the pub. She half-expected for him to leave her, however, he never did. And she knew that he was aware of her services, but he never brought it up. He loved her- all of her, her beauty and her flaws. He was kind, too kind, Marilyn concluded.