Afflictive desires

She sighed for the hundredth time in less than an hour, looking at her legs again she sighed, her legs are so dirty due to the long walk she’s having, there was an heavy rain fall doing less justice and her legs are covered with muds. She gently opened the main door to her house, trying to sneak in without her parents or siblings catching her but luck wasn’t on her side.

 “Maria! Come here” her mom had said, not angrily like she expected but it was coated with sadness Maria’s heart skipped a bit, forgetting about her dirty legs she vowed to wash as soon as she enters her home, she went closer to the rest of her family members and saw everyone is present, her two siblings and parents but their faces clouded with negativity

 “What’s wrong?”Maria asked looking around,her eyes fell on her mom “mamma!”

“Sit down”her mom said weakly and she obeyed,she look at her dad who is sitting on the floor and his head down, she can barely see his face and wondered what happened

“Talk to me please!”she said getting seriously scared, the silence was killing her and she doesn’t like it

“Your papa is in debt”her mom said and she shot her dad a look before looking at her mother

“What?”she asked

“Your papa is in debt”Her mother repeated

“Not the first time and why the solemn mood, I thought something very bad have happened”Maria said feeling at ease slowly

“Something very bad have happened Maria!”her brother Angelo have said

“Your papa went ahead to lend money from Pietro without even telling me about it!”Her mom said and her heart stopped beating for a second

“What?! Wait… which Pietro?!”she asked her heart beating fast

“Which other Pietro!”her other brother Aldo said

“Papa!”Maria exclaimed and their father slightly lifted his head up, Maria wasn’t aware he was busy crying throughout the time he’s head is down

“Maria!!!”her father called in a crying tone “I wanted to right all my wrongs, I wasn’t expecting this to go this way”

“Why will you collect money from Pietro of all people papa! You know the kind of person he is. How much did you collect?”

“Two hundred and forty thousand euro”her dad replied and her eyes went wide.

Maria and her family are barely surviving, they barely have two meals a day and now their father went ahead again to lend money and this time around, he collected such a huge amount

“Papa!! What…. What did you use the money for?!”Maria asked falling on the ground, she felt her body going weak immediately and tears clouding her eyes, this is the worst news she ever heard in her life

“I was robbed on my way back home after collecting the money”Her dad said with his hands visibly shaking, it’s obvious how scared the old man is

“Why didn’t you tell any of us, we will surely never let you borrow even one euro from Pietro!”Maria said placing her hands on her temple, she can’t even start to think about the trouble she and her family just fell into, Pietro is a very dangerous man and everyone in the vicinity is afraid of him

“What do we do now?”Maria asked in a small voice

“I don’t know”her mom had replied with same voice. The sitting room became quiet as each member of the family were busy thinking in their own world

***

Throughout the night, Maria wasn’t able to sleep. She kept on tossing and tossing around the bed thinking about how they’re going to sort this money issue, the worst of it all is her dad didn’t tell them when it just happened, it’s when it is due for him to pay he decided to let the rest member of the family to know about it.

Maria look at her legs and hissed, she didn’t ended up washing her legs the previous night, the news have eaten her up so much that she forget about all she planned on doing. She sluggishly stood up from her bed heading to the kitchen, she saw her mom standing near to the kitchen island, lost in her own thoughts. She knows her mom is taking this very hard and it’s not easy for her just the way it’s not easy for the rest of the family