MAY 06, 2017 – TRANS FRETUM
“It’s your turn to tell me why. You always look so happy, even in these pictures!” I asked Gabriel as I held onto his photo album. His house was a bungalow type. It had beige walls which made it looked relaxing.
“Behind my smile is everything you’ll never understand,” He seriously answered. It was his turn to unravel his past. “I was depressed with lots of things. When I was six, my father abused my mom and me. When I was nine, he left us. When I turned ten, my mom died from a car accident. It got worse after that. I was adopted by my father’s sister. She made me work instead of giving me education. My father gave me monthly allowance only to be taken by my aunt. I ran away from home when I turned fifteen.”
He only smiled bitterly while he told his story to me.
“I cut myself a lot of times because of that, I made poems about it. A writer accidently read my works and asked me if I wanted to work with him. Of course, I said yes because that was a rare opportunity. After a long while, he asked me to become his secretary. He died a year ago, but he left me with his house as he didn’t have any family,”
I nodded at him.
“Let’s not talk about that anymore!” He smiled. We talked and talked about each other’s recovery and how we got over it. He let me read some of his poems and it made me cry. One of the lines I loved is:
My mind is haunted with fears
My face is much abused with tears
My soul is battled with cry
My heart is filled with your lies
