All I Want

Whining and sobbing ceaselessly, she sat in the middle of the junk-filled place. Putrid smell crept into her from all sides, overwhelming her senses. She had nowhere to go, or on a more appropriate sense, she did not belong to anyone or anywhere. Staring at the garbage before her, which once used to be a pristine lake, she forced herself into thinking about the miseries of the past.
Rabeeta was only seven when she had been informed that she would soon be a school drop-out and must contribute in the meagre income of her family. With four younger mouths to feed in the family, she hardly had any idea of what it was like to step out into the cruel world. At first, she was sent to a construction site where she had to assist the adults in collecting brick chips. Although she struggled in the beginning, working in the scorching summer heat, she'd never given up.
Rabeeta skipped a few years in her head and hopped on to the second year of her bitter memories. She recalled the time when she was forcibly sent to a home in the big city to work as a maid. Despite being away from them now, she gulped as she thought back, shuddering, as if someone had pulled her nappy hair and pushed her to the floor.
She remembered the time when she was beaten black and blue. Why? Because she had accidentally broken her mistress's precious little cup. And then the time when she had been stared at gruesomely by the mistress's husband. She did not understand much of his thoughts of course, she was merely nine back then. She did not receive any compassion in that home, not even from the daughter of the mistress, who would eat something from the pantry and later create a scene, alleging Rabeeta of stealing food. The girl seemed to enjoy Rabeeta getting punished.
Rabeeta cursed the world. By the lake, she lied down now and curled up in a ball, pulling her knees up to her chest. Her eyes were swollen, flooding its banks like a monsoon-fed river. Abandoned by her family and abused by the world, she was sure that she had absolutely no place to go. She looked right up, at the lilac sky.
''All I want is to be able to laugh and play, to learn, to love and be loved, to live… Is that too much to ask for?'' She asked the universe.
The words stayed, for a few fleeting moments, in the air next to her ears but a reply never came.

Anika Tahsin is a class 10 student at S.F.X. Greenherald International School, Dhaka.