Sitting on the street corner, she wondered why she had given everything up to come to this country. In the shimming puddles left by the afternoon rain, she could see the refection of younger self dressed as a bride. She was happy in that memory and surround by family and friends. Their voices were all repeating the same things; you’ll be happier living in a better country than this. Your children will have a better life. You can have anything you want over there. It’ll be paradise compared to this hell.
Sighing, she wished she could tell them how wrong they had all been. She pulled her shawl further down her head and tried not to cry. She noticed the shoes walking passed her and decided to concentrate on them. Hardly anyone in this country wore sandals and why would they? It seemed to do nothing but rain here. Dirty trainers and dull fake leather shoes filled her vision.
She eyed her coin bowl, which was simply a discarded plastic salad bowl, there was a handful of coins, but there was more copper then silver or gold. She wondered what she could get with that and the other few handfuls that were wrapped up in her skirt. She couldn’t read or speak this county’s language, so she just pointed to the pictures and handed over the money. Sometimes she got lucky and received a physical representation of the picture or else she would get something else. More often than not, she didn’t get anything but the coins back and a hand gesturing to the door. She would leave and find another place to sit with her coin bowl before her. She couldn’t believe she had fallen so far as to be begging on the streets like the old cripples she had seen back home. Her life should have been the opposite of this.
‘I’ll make you a Princess,’ he had said as they were allowed to talk for the first time after the wedding.
Had they been dancing or had he been walking her somewhere? She couldn’t remember.
Her chest had felt like it had wanted to burst. Here was the man who was going to give her everything she had ever dreamed of and more. How could she not been happier? He was going to help bring her out of third world poverty and into the lap of one of the richest countries.
She snorted to herself, but quickly covered it up by turning it into a sneeze as someone walked passed her. Shaking her head, she decided that if she had known this was how she would end up then she would have found a way out of the marriage. Though that might have placed her in a worse situation. Shaking her head again, she fell into pray and asked her God what he wanted of her and to help her see this lesson through.
The Story Files 