A CHILDHOOD GONE by Renae Naik (electronic reader TXT) 📖

still has a lot to explore. Neema sits up on the bed and watches her children in a peaceful sleep, no drama, no fear and no disturbances, something that this family didn’t know the meaning off, till now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 5

 

 

 

CHAPTER 5

 

 

By now Sadie has started school and has made a special friend, Terry. Terry lived 4 doors away from Radha with her mother, father, sister and a brother whom Sadie, till today, hadn’t met. Terry was good secret keeper and Sadie felt close to her as with her funny talks and silly games, she somehow managed to always keep Sadie happy. Sadie was never short of love, although she felt abandoned by her mother, Radha was now called “Ma” as she filled the space that Neema had left in Sadie’s heart. Radha’s children became her brother and sisters and Sadie. Well Radha made sure that she was short of nothing. This way she hid the feeling of abandonment and this, this was her family. Jimmy was equally fond of Sadie as she was very good in giving him lotto numbers! One day just before going to the tote with his drinking buddy, Neville, jimmy wrote some numbers down on a piece of paper as he was going to play these number later. Sadie being as curious as she was, scribbled other numbers over the ones that jimmy had written! When jimmy went to play his numbers, he was already tipsy. He noticed what she had done and couldn’t remember his numbers so he played another set of numbers. 3 hours later and the winning numbers are announced. It turns out that all the numbers that Sadie had written by herself were announced!!! Had he played those numbers he would have been sitting with a thick wallet. Don’t know if was more happier with Sadie or more mad at himself! All i know is that she was his lucky charm and even helped him bet on horses, Marsha Mowing, being her favourite. Then there was Terry’s mother Sheila was a caring woman and strong believer in Christ, she had a heart made out of platinum not even gold. She always treated Sadie as her own. These girls shared everything spending money, toys and even clothes. Sadie used to look forward to the weekend as this was the time she would get the privilege of having a sleep over at her best friend’s house, it became a routine actually; on  a Friday the kids would come home, Sadie would get her clothes and speed off to Terry’s house. There Sheila would serve the two a sandwich and some cold drink and then they would run outside to play writing games, Terry’s dad would always bring them different types of coloured paper to draw on and they would usually fight over it. In the evening they would go inside and have a shower while Sheila prepares supper and oh, what a cook she was! After that they would watch some television and Sheila would tuck them in, switch off the light and close the door behind her. Few minutes later the girls would hear Sheila coming and they would pretend to sleep. Sheila not knowing they were pretending, would gently place her hand on their heads one at time and then recite a prayer so they would sleep peacefully, then kiss them on the forehead and leave. She was the perfect mum. All these things was what kept Sadie feeling content with what she had, she was always surrounded by love...well except for Shanice’s husband Barry who Sadie thought, hated her. During the week while Radha was at work he would shout at Sadie for no reason and this often caused fights between Radha and him. Radha hated all the complaints that she used to get from Sadie and felt that Barry used to ill-treat Sadie because she was shit scared of him. All he had to was give her one dreadful look and Sadie would be too scared to even eat! Maybe instilling fear in Sadie made him feel superior or something. The only time Sadie felt that she could breathe was when her ma was home or when she was at Terry’s place. A  Few weeks later the biggest fight between Radha and her son-in-law breaks out and yes, you guessed it, it was because of the way he treated Sadie. Sadie came home from school to find Mark seated in the lounge holding a tennis racket in his one hand and a lighter in his other. “What are you doing with that?” she asked. He then explained that one of the racket threads had snapped and he is melting it to fix it. Sadie leaves the room and goes into the bedroom to put down her bag, as she is leaving the room, Barry calls her and demands that she makes him some tea, the girl agrees and goes into the kitchen and switches the kettle on. On her way back to the bedroom she notices that Mark is no longer in the lounge and he had left the racket and the lighter on the coffee table. One of Sadie’s worse traits was her curiosity! She then begins to hold up the racket and starts to burn the thread that Mark was trying to fix. Few seconds later she starts screaming and crying. While burning the racket thread a melted piece of plastic dripped onto her right thigh and got stuck to her leg. While trying to remove the hot plastic from her leg, all the skin under it peeled off too, exposing her pink flesh and scarring Sadie for life. The scar was so unique because it was shaped like a teardrop.

At that moment Barry comes out of the room to ask for his tea and sees that Sadie had burnt herself. He then slaps the little girl across her face and tells her that she likes to fidget and can’t sit still so he is going to teach her a lesson. He takes Sadie to his room and puts her to sit on the tiled floor in his room and ties her legs and hands with his ties. She is forced to sit there till her ma comes home. That day Sadie didn’t even get to eat or play with her best friend. About three hours later Radha arrives home and is looking for Sadie to give her the popcorn and sweets she had bought for Sadie to give her class mates as it was the Girls 6th birthday the next day. Sadie’s first birthday without her mum. Radha walks into the room to find Sadie tied up in the room and Barry reading the sport section of the newspaper on the bed and in just a few seconds, Radha loses her mind! She is furious as now she finally sees that all Sadie’s complaints were serious. Shanice and her mother stopped talking for a few days and the tension in the house was serious. This alone was proof enough of the love that Radha had for Sadie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 6

 

 

CHAPTER 6

 

 

A few weeks later, Sadie arrives home from school as she usually does and notices that there are two bags in the living in room. She calls for Chantel, but she doesn’t respond. Sadie goes towards the bedroom to leave her school bag and change her uniform, as she pushes the door open, she is surprised at what she sees! Neema is sitting on the bed! Sadie is in aw! After 6 months, she gets to see her mum’s face. Sadie is amazed and a single tear makes an appearance on her right cheek and Neema just stared at her with a loving smile on her face and pulled her closer to give her a hug.

“I have come to take you home, I am taking you back with me to Johannesburg” she said. The little girl’s face just lit up with happiness and by now she had figured that the two bags that she saw earlier was hers. After a few minutes she stops. She now realises that she will have to leave her best friend and her ma behind. Why does this always happen to her? Every time she finally get used to the idea of something, it changes! She looks at her mother and says “I am not going with you until I say goodbye to my ma!” Neema looks at her with a partially annoyed face and says “yes, we not leaving now, I have to tell my sister thank you for looking after you” a bit relieved but still disheartened, Sadie rushes out to Terry’s place to tell her what is going on, but as she gets to the beginning of Terry’s steps, she realises that straight from school Terry had gone to her grandmother’s place. “Damn it!” she says, “I’m not going to get to tell her goodbye and she still has my doll!” She then laughs and heads back home.

That evening Radha returns home from work and is just as surprised to see Neema. She gives Neema a sisterly hug and then they both are seated. Neema tells Radha that she has come to fetch Sadie and they will be leaving in 20 minutes as the taxi will be picking them up from there shortly. Radha is heartbroken she has to now let go of her niece whom she loves so dearly. Neema further explains that she has already collected her daughters transfer card from the school and Radha should give her old uniform to someone who needs it as the Johannesburg schools have different uniforms. Radha grabs hold of Sadie who is sitting on the couch so dazed, and gives her a big hug! “I’m going to miss you so much my baby” she said with tears in her eyes.

Not even two minutes later and there was a hoot, the taxi was there to pick up Neema and Sadie and take them to take them to Johannesburg. Excited to start her new adventure, Sadie goes to everyone and says her goodbyes, lucky for her; Barry was nowhere to be seen. The little girl was ever ready to see her new home in a new city with a new beginning.