eFiction India eFiction India Vol.02 Issue.09 | Page 42

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STORIES

“Abort the child.”
“Abort yourself.”
“Why?”
“Stain.”
“Witch.”
I didn’t tell them and I didn’t fight back but
I conceived and I am bringing up my own
daughter. “You are a woman now,” he had
said after all.
Settling comfortably in the United States
took time to get accustomed to. I didn’t
have the money, or the father. I became a
teacher, my Economics degree now defunct.
I saw the first graders, and wondered how
many of them were born out of such dark
nights and above the hardbound copy of
Tom Sawyer. None, I hoped.
“Sara, are you sure you’re okay with me
publishing your story?”
Yes I was. I am a woman now and a real
woman does not hide. A real woman
does not embrace pain in silence. No, not
anymore. A secret can only be bottled up
for so long. The bottle needs to be opened
and some secrets are meant to be unravelled. They say some of our sins are our
greatest secrets but this isn’t my sin after all.
I looked at the student. She was from the
thirteenth batch I had taught, a good fifteen
years after coming to the US. Well, my
daughter wants to be a writer.

eFiction India | June 2014