Ruby Heqet was brought up in a nice little town called Reine Riverside which was on the right side of the greatest river to ever exists, the deepest, widest and longest, The Great Mistral River. Her parents, Layla Nour and Levi Wyatt had never loved each other, so her family was never full of love and it greatly pained Ruby. You see, Layla and Levi were lovers at a young age and unfortunately for both of them, Layla got pregnant at a very young age and out of wedlock. Her parents were traditionalist, they therefore forced them to get married as a result of her unplanned pregnancy. It was according to Layla, the worst possible thing that could have ever happened in her life. She lost all opportunities to ever live her life and do all the things she would ever want to do in her life and for that, she hated both her daughter, Ruby and her husband Levi. Layla and Levi were responsible enough to take very good care of their daughter. They did not love her that much, or not at all really but they had a good understanding that she was a young human who needed care and protection. They got into a lot of fights though and it was always so unbearable for Ruby. She wished so many times that she could run away from home and find some peaceful place to stay in but she could definitely not afford living on her own.
Over the years Ruby grew jealous of the kids around her. They were always talking about what good things their parents did for them and complaining about how they would be punished for the things they did. Ruby wished her parents would punish her because then it meant that they loved her and they were teaching her to be a better person in the cruel harsh world. Unfortunately for her, she was always being treated like she did not even exist. On many occasions, she came back to their home so excited to tell her parents about her day but she would find them arguing and would not let her say a single word. According to her point of view it was her father who always started the arguments so she developed some hatred towards him. Her mother occasionally started the arguments too but she never despised her, even though from the bottom of her heart she wanted to let her go concluding that she was not a loving mother. Ruby was desperate to have love, to be loved and to have a mother and even father she could brag about like her peers. For this reason, the poor girl isolated herself, did not have any desire to have friends and decided to try making peace with the fact that she would never have the perfect kind of love she so desired. Despite the fact that she did not want friends, she did eventually get close with a girl she once met at the river while fishing. Halima was not exactly what you would call Ruby’s ‘bestie for life’ but she found Halima quite tolerable so she never minded being around her or even making small talk about useless things like ‘how do you find the weather today?’ Once in a while they would coincidentally find each other by the river and would spend hours in silence together. It was according to Ruby the most satisfactory relationship she had with anyone she had ever met in her life.
As much as her life was peaceful, Ruby still yearned so many things that she saw impossible to get and the environment around her was not giving her any peace at all. Yes, Reine Riverside was not the most peaceful place to live in. It was a beautiful town but the crime rate was so high. She wished she could do something about the crime cases that she heard about around her home. At times, Ruby would become overconfident, overflowing with determination such that she would decide to go back home late at night from work
she took a part time job as a janitor at Rai Minimart
in hopes that she would perhaps find a thug robbing a person so that she would be the kind of hero she dreamt of being. She was not a very social person so Ruby had a lot of time to spend in her wild imaginations. When she snapped back into her senses, which she rarely did, she would discover just how crazy she was. Sadly she never got to do any heroic actions and her anger grew daily because of that.
One night, after she could not find someone to help, she went back home and decided to cook a meal she could share with her parents. Layla was not a fan of cooking so, they rarely had home cooked meals and this was definitely going to be something nice for all of them. At least she hoped it would be. Ruby had enough money to buy something nice so she had earlier bought some fresh mutton from a butchery. She arrived home and prepared some naan bread and mutton curry. Her father was not home yet so they had to wait for almost two hours for him to get back. It was such a long time, long enough for the food to get cold which frustrated her but she managed to keep her cool. Her mother was seated on an old sofa, for a while Ruby thought she was sleeping but she realized she was not when she saw her reaching out for her black vape pen that was on the table. Seeing her dear mother use that little gadget saddened her but she was not going to allow herself to be brought down by that.
“Mom, papa is definitely going to be back soon. Why don’t you go and wear something nice,” she said in the softest way possible, in fear that she might annoy her mother. Layla sighed deeply and Ruby could sense her annoyance. She held her breath as she watched her mother go in to her room. Her parents never slept in the same room which was a huge disappointment really. Every single day she hoped that she would see even the slightest bit of affection between them but, it was endless disappointment. Ruby thought of giving up on that hope but she honestly did not want to give up on that. She took a deep breath and looked around the quite house. All she could hear were the sounds of the nocturnal creatures. She straightened her dress, which was a long sleeved sea green dress that Halima had outgrown and gifted to her, and then took a seat at the dining table.
“What if papa does not come home?” she rubbed her hands as she said in worry and looked at the wall clock and just at that time, Ruby saw the door knob turn and her father walked in. She suddenly rose in excitement and felt an enormous urge to run and hug him but she knew he would not appreciate it so she held herself back. Just at that time, her mother also walked out of her room, dressed in a long black dress. Ruby did not understand why she would chose such a color for an event she dearly wanted to be cheerful, “Mom, papa, welcome. I made us some food.”
“Why on earth are you so late?” Layla harshly asked her husband and as much as she wanted to know his reasons for being late, Ruby asked her mother to remain calm, to have her seat and enjoy the meal she had mad them. They all took their seats and Ruby helped them served their meal. The three were very quiet, all Ruby could hear were the sounds of her parents chewing their food.
“How is the food?” she asked them.
“Not bad,” her mother said.
“It is good,” her father said. She had hoped that a conversation would start from there but it did not. Her parents continued eating their food. At least they were enjoying the meal she prepared. Ruby decided to relish in that small victory. Layla took the vape pen out of one of the pockets of the dress and when Ruby looked at her father, she saw nothing but pure fury on his face, “would you please put that thing away!” Levi commanded her. His wife’s face remained expressionless as she looked at him and went on to use the pen. And that is when an argument between the two started. There was no stopping that. Their daughter had tried so many times to stop their arguments but failed on all occasions. It had even gotten physical and Ruby had almost gotten hurt a couple of times she eventually decided to stay away whenever her parents were having a disagreement. She felt her eyes getting watery and she fought so hard to fight her tears that threatened to show in that helpless situation. Ruby jerked backwards when her mother threw a spoon across the table, probably aimed at her father. She took her plate of food, went to her room and locked her door. There was a small table in her room, so she sat next to it and gently placed her plate on it.
“Mom what do you think about the food?” Ruby decided to play out what she wished would happened over at dinner.
“It is good but would use a bit more salt,” she imitated her mother’s voice and flinched when she heard something crash in the other room. It sounded like the glass bowl she had used to serve the mutton curry in.
“Oh it is fine,” she said again, now imitating her father’s voice. The strength to fight back her tears was no longer in her and she finally broke down. A single tear rolled down her cheek, “where did you get that dress. I do not remember buying it for you. It is very beautiful,” another tear rolled down her cheek, and another and then another, “how is it possible to get into a huge fight so easily?” she asked herself. Angered by how the dinner went, she took her plate and crashed it on the floor. She looked at the broken pieces of the plate on the floor and the food that was now spread on the floor, wiped her tears away and decided that it was time to get to sleep. Ruby took off her dress and put on a gray bright blue t-shirt that had pink peonies drawn on it. There was a small bathroom in her room. She went there and brushed her teeth and then came back and crawled into her bed.
It took quite some time but eventually, her parents left each other and went to sleep. At least that is what Ruby hoped. She had woken up on certain days and found that either one of them or sometimes both of them had left the house, meaning that she had spent the night alone in the house. The thought of being alone frightened her and when it started raining she got even more frightened. She had left her window open so she got up from her bed to go and close the window. Ruby looked out and for a moment she was sure she saw someone who looked like her, or rather, she saw an image of herself under a huge mango tree that was in their compound staring back at her. She rubbed her eyes and suddenly that image disappear.
“That was weird,” she whispered to herself. She proceeded to close the window and go back to bed. It was supposed to be less cold after that but it did not. Ruby added more bed sheets to keep herself warm but they were not helping. She decided to stare around her not totally dark room when she could not sleep. Light from the street lights outside got into her room. She breathed and saw a misty cloud form in front of her.
“Are you seriously going to ignore me?” an angry icy voice asked her making her jolt. Ruby got up and looked around but saw no one. The voice actually sounded familiar, because it was hers and it made her freak, “I am not here so stop looking for me,” the voice said again. Ruby felt like asking the voice to elaborate on what it meant but she felt stupid. She might have been talking to something or someone that was not supposed to be spoken to, “you need to go to the waters that carry life’s essence,” Ruby again wanted to ask what that was but was too afraid to do so. The voice must have realized that Ruby did not understand what it meant, so it decided to tell her a name she was familiar to, “The Great Mistral River.” She wondered why she would want to go to the river, it was two o’clock in the morning but then she remembered how it was always a peaceful place to be in. The joy she always felt when she was by the river, fishing or sometimes just having a nice picnic lunch on her own. The fishing was always for recreational purposes, if it was actually to get something to eat she would have been disappointed more than a thousand times. Ruby rarely caught anything. She got up, put on a her brown shorts, long socks that reached just above her knees and her favorite pink sweater that her late grandmother, Donna, made for her. Donna was her father’s mother and she was the best relative Ruby ever had.
“Why can he not be like his mother?” she was referring to her father not being as nice and loving as Grandma Donna. She put on her black converse shoes and left. Layla and Levi would definitely not mind her leaving the house at such a time so there was no point in her trying to be quiet. In fact, she made sure that she was loud to punish them. No one likes his or her sleep ruined. She was afraid that she was walking alone. Ruby had stayed out late but she had never been out past midnight, so she walked as fast as she could, looking left, right and back every once in a while, “this was a stupid idea. Why am I listening to something I do not even know?”
“Relax,” the voice came again, “a little darkness never hurt anyone. Besides, don’t you love the river? I see you go there so many times,” the thought that she was being watched sent chills through her body but she kept on walking. The river was not that far from where she currently was. Another ten minutes of walking in the cold dark night and she would finally get there.