I Can't Stop Loving You

Chapter 16

On the borders of Trikru and Trishanakru, were the unkept fields and run-down hut that the girl called home. Inside, the lanky 5 year old, wearing nothing but a torn shirt and dirty farming shorts, blinked herself awake. She fumbled through the clothes and cattle hide that lay on the bed to find the doll she cared about more than anything in her home. She let out a small squeak as she smiled and pressed its mucky face to her cheek before remembering that she was still tired from her long nap.

Rubbing the sleep from her vibrant eyes, she yawned, stretching her stumpy legs over the side of her bed and sitting up. She allowed them to hover, swinging back and forth and  wiggling her toes in the cool air with a suppressed giggle. She shortly grew bored of the action though, and frowned when her stomach gave a loud growl.

She jumped the remaining distance between the bed and the floor, and wondered out of the single room of the hut and into the hallway.

"Nomon?" She hobbled towards the other side of her nearing abandoned home as she received no response from her mother. Seeing the tall brunette woman slumped forward on the table before the dying fire, she called out again.

"Nomon, I'm hungry!" She climbed up on the chair beside her mother and shook her shoulders "Mommy? Can you make me something to eat? My tummy hurts."

She shook her mother harder, hoping that in some way, if she shook harder she would pay more attention to her. Her lower lip wobbled as she sat back in defeat, arms crossed. But then she felt her empty stomach roll and she stood up on the chair again, putting a small hand on her mother's arm.

"Mommy, please open your eyes. I don't like it when you ignore me. You've ignored me for too long now, Nomon."

She gave her mother one last shake, but was quickly presented with the same result as last time: nothing. The girl realised that her mother felt colder than she had ever felt before, and she slid off the chair to run back to her room, returning with her thin and tattered blanket in tow. She then climbed up the legs of her mother's chair, clumsily slinging it over her mother's once broad shoulders.

"At least you won't be cold any more, Nomon" she said, pulling herself onto the table and laying next to her mother's head.

She lay for hours, the growls of her tummy growing louder and the hunger pains growing stronger. She whined and turned to lay on her back, lifting her doll over her head so she could concentrate on it. She tried to smile back at the roughly stitched grin that it sported on its face, and reciprocate its happy expression but she couldn't.

"Mommy I'm really hungry, now. It hurts. Please get up" she said, rolling back onto her stomach to face her mother "You can't stay still forever. You know the night lady is coming soon, you said it yourself. Mommy this game isn't fun any more."

She felt tears welling up in her eyes and she sniffed. Rolling from the table, she scurried to the food chest that sat in the corner. She lifted the heavy lid to reveal nothing but rotting berries and corn. She immediately slammed the chest closed and stumbled back as the smell hit her nose.

"Mommy that food is sick! We need more!" She started to sob, and she hit her mother's knee. Maybe if she misbehaved her mother would stop this game she was playing "you don't even make my favourite snacks any more, Nomon! Daddy would have helped make them! But daddy's gone and I want you to stop playing the game now!"

She kicked her mother's shin for good measure and stormed to sit in the corner of the room, staring at her mother and willing her to get up. She glared with all the intensity she could.

She sat for hours which turned to days, glaring, growing more and more hungry, and her tongue turning to sand at her dry throat. She felt herself growing better and better at her intimidating look. But it was still never enough to bring her mother from their game.