That darkest night

owing the bounds. She had been trying to make it up by depriving herself of various things since the last few weeks. She was really glad that she had been able to pay it o

steps of the house and rang the doorbell. Jason cane to open the door. "Hi, Mom." he said. "Let me help you with this." Jason collected the box from her and took it in. Michelle shook her head and smiled. She knew that her son thought that it was the baseball shoes that she had promised him a few days ago. She was, however, startled by the unfamiliar faces of two girls sitting on the sofas in the sitting room, which she noticed when she entered the house. Melinda was in front of the television, dancing to a time playi

saw Rose sitting on the bed, her large earphones over her ears, with her laptop on her lap. "Rose?" she said loudly, to call the girl's attention. Rose looked up. "Oh, Mom. How are you doing?" Rose removed the earphones from her ears and hung it around her neck. "I'm fine." Michelle answered as she closed the door behind her. "I know you're feeling better

for her not to have a clean past. She remembered one if her dad's sisters, Aunt Bettie. The woman used to be promiscuous on her teen years, and thought everything would be fine until it was time for her to start having children. Then, no kids came. Till now, Aunt Bettie was still childless. Michelle did not want such to happen to Melinda. Mel used to be a girl with a prom

sed to be calling Rose like that. She's not your age mate, Mel." Michelle sat beside Melinda on the sofa. "Mom! She's not complaining!" Melinda said with an irritated frown. "But I'm complaining. That's not p

she didn't understand why. She had been afraid of the girl these days, because she was becoming more fierce, too fierce for her to handle. An argument with Mel always left her insides quivering. Andrew and Jason had lesser problems, she had realized. All they did was to complain, but for Melinda...no,no, no. Hers was worse. Melinda was always complaining, she was also following the wrong friends, and she was usually sneaking out for parties. Michelle didn't know why

, so that she wouldn't feel whatever the girl said. "Mel? Who were those girls?" she asked, standing in fr

"Your best friends!" Michelle exclaimed. She hadn't expected that at all. "Yes. Elise and Jean. They are my best friends." Mel glanced at her mother. Michelle found that hard to believe. She didn't know that Melinda had been associating herself with those type of girls. "Wow...so, your best friends were so stupi

evision stations. "Mel! Whenever I'm talking to you, you look at me! Drop that now. Your indiscipline is killing me!" Michelle fought the urge to slap Melinda. "You're letting it kill you. I don't care." Melinda said and Michelle slapped her. "You stupid thing called a child! How dare you talk to me like that?" Michelle put in, and watched Mel's cheek turn flaming red. "I'm not your child." Melinda said, as she stood to her feet. Michelle arched her brows, "How?" "Because I'm on my own! You don't regard me any longer!" Melinda replied, but Michelle didn

confused. As far as she was concerned, she had not said anything funny. "I'm sorry to say this...but, I don't think the way you acted...is the way to correct someone like Mel." Rose answered, after laughing. Michelle gave her an annoyed frown. "So, what should I have done, Rose? Was I supposed to kneel and beg a girl

of you. She's just trying to keep up a bold appearance, meanwhile she's feeling the opposite. Many times, after you have corrected her, I would go to the room and find her crying." Rose said with a strong tone that bore her message through Michelle. "Is that?" Michelle asked, trying hard not to laugh. Rose nodded slowly. "Yes. Melinda is not a strong girl, and she's suffering from peer influence. If you can try to sit her down and talk to her gently, she would hear you out. She had a very soft heart. The same heart you think is hardened. She doesn't like yelling. She told me that onc

d far away from everything happening around her. Her thoughts kept on moving around inside her- Tim, her parents, her extended family, and her children. Rose had gone to visit her grandmother; Stella Benson at Bax City and she felt there was no one to talk to. Melinda and Jason were playing video ga

ied as she dropped the empty glass cup on the kitchen table. "Alright...can I talk with you?" Melinda asked and looked intently at her mother. Michelle looked startled. She was not used to hearing that from her daughter, and that was why it took her by surprise. "Okay, Mel." she gestured to a stoo

all over the place because her marriage is at the verge of hitting the rocks...do you understand that now?" Melinda said and Michelle felt as though she had been jolted from sleep. "That's true..." she saw the resemblance already. "So, Mom...I'm confused. I'm highly confused, if one wouldn't get married at all. I can't bear what you are passing through." Melinda chipped in, just as Michelle was coming into the realization of what her daughter had said. "But, most of the women in the family are enjoying their homes. It only happens that

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