Scar Red

1: One Bad Day

The noisy chirping of birds communicating about 'who knows what' woke me up that morning. Normally it would have been the sun rays infiltrating the bedroom doing that job if I hadn't pulled the curtains close and instructed that no one should open it.

Nevertheless, it was either one of these two or both or the deafening sound of Mom's voice calling me to start the day that pulled me from the deep abyss of sleep.

Lifting myself off the bed, my eyes searched for the lumps on the two other beds, of course, they were gone; I had to prepare for school. I stood up, squinting my eyes to see when it hit me that the place was still poorly illuminated so I made my way to the curtains and drew them back to reveal the morning sun in all its glory.

Wincing as my eyes tried to adjust to the sudden brightness of the room, I went back to my bed, knelt down and said a short prayer. I craned my head towards the wall clock—seven-fifty a.m.

"Oh dear."

Quickly I rushed into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, almost choking on the lather that had formed in my mouth when Mom's high-pitched voice came bustling forth from the kitchen outside.

"I hope you're out of bed, Carina!"

Still with a lather-laden mouth, I mumbled a response, "Yes, mom."

To say Mom's voice was simply loud was an understatement 'cause it was thunderous, ear-splitting and compelling— that was when she was being disciplinary and 'a real pain in the rear' as my brothers would say. However, the same voice was also soothing and charming when it released strings and strings of melodious notes as she sang to us when we gathered at night.

Speaking of charming, her features fitted that description too well; her eyes which possessed a sea-green hue surrounded by long eyelashes and brows with a hint of red, her shoulder length curly red hair which she often preferred to style into a high bun leaving some strands at the sides to frame her face, her skin was fair and flawless though now having slight wrinkles as she was getting aged.

She possessed a tall frame being nicely curved at her lower regions. The colour of her hair and eyes were such a rarity that it gave her this otherworldly look.

People often said the resemblance between us was cunning—Ha! That sentence was almost correct if not for the scars that disfigured me...

I finished with my teeth and wiped my mouth. My house chores still awaited me so I had better get to it.

"Morning, Mom."

"Morning, Sunshine," she replied cheerfully.

Dad had his nose buried deep in the newspaper he was reading. "His daily routine"

"Morning, Dad."

In reply, he mumbled some inaudible nonsense.

"Don't mind your father, dearie he's too indulged in his newspaper that he couldn't care less about the outside world," Mom teased, still visibly engrossed in her cooking and cleaning to spare me a glance since I entered.

"Where's Kyle and Caleb?"

"School," she replied.

"And Nicholas?" I asked, reaching out for a pancake but a sharp pain on the back of my palm caused by her spatula colliding against it made me regret my actions.