Late in the afternoon, Siora came home; she did not go inside but sat at the back of her house. She sat quietly, looking at the forest, which she thought was beautiful. The forest behind the house looked ordinary in the past, but now it could attract Siora to enter it.
"Have you just come home, Siora?" asked Anna, who was always at the back of the house every morning and evening to feed the chickens.
Siora didn't answer; she just sat quietly, staring at the forest where the Axe King lived.
"Being questioned by your elders and not answering, you crazy girl!" growled Anna and went inside.
Hearing the noise outside, Solana came out and found her eldest daughter.
"Siora," Solana called out.
Siora turned her head but didn't answer, so Solana approached her daughter.
"Siora, your dad is sick. He asked to be taken to the doctor, but I don't have any money. I tried to get a loan, but I couldn't," Solana told her daughter.
"Our life is very difficult, let alone getting a loan. No one wants to give us a job. I'm actually tired of living like this; everyone insults us," Siora said and burst into tears.
Solana, who heard her daughter's complaints, could only exhale slowly.
"I'm sorry, Siora. All this time, I couldn't give you and your two younger siblings a decent life and education like your friends," said Solana, who felt guilty for her child.
"Mum's not wrong. If Dad had been more responsible with his obligations, we wouldn't be like this," Siora said as if she felt hurt by her own father.
Solana didn't answer; she invited her daughter to the house because it was getting dark. When Siora entered, the lights in the house went out. The only darkness was in the house because the family couldn't afford electricity.
Siora let out a long breath, her tears almost falling when she saw a candle as a means of lighting in her house.
"Solana, I'm hungry!" Cliff shouted from inside the room.
Solana quickly grabbed some food, I don't know where she got the rice from today, but it was clear that Siora and her family could eat for tonight.
"Sit down first," Solana said, placing a candle on the rickety wooden table.
"Where's the food? I'm hungry!"
Solana handed over a plate of rice with salt sprinkled on it.
"What's this?" asked Cliff.
"Rice," Solana replied briefly.
"Where's the side dish?"
"Nothing, just rice with a sprinkle of salt. I don't have money to buy side dishes," Solana replied, raising Cliff's temper.
"You idiot!" he scolded and slammed the plate on the dirt floor, "You useless wife, your husband is sick, but you only feed me rice and salt. You're so stupid!"
"That's it, this is all I've got!" said Solana in a high tone. "Where else am I going to find food to eat? No one believes in our family."
"If you want to eat well, you should work. All you can do is get angry and blame Mum. So being a husband is irresponsible!" said Siora, who couldn't take it anymore.
"Shut up, you useless child. All you can do is bring shame to the family, you insolent child. Why don't you just die!" growled Cliff, who was about to hit Siora, but his chest suddenly hurt again.
"Whether you want to eat or not, that's all the rice I have, but you threw it away!" said Solana and left the room.
Cliff's swearing could be heard in the neighbouring houses; it was common, but he never felt ashamed. Siora was really depressed about her family's situation.
***
The next morning, Siora's heart was set on finding a job in the neighbourhood's luxurious onion farms. However, no one needed her services. The sun was already hot, but Siora hadn't found a job yet.
Siora leaned her bicycle and rested on a large rock at the edge of the village centre park. Suddenly, Tracy came over with her haughty face.
"Oh, it turns out that this is the one who was talked about as a madwoman, who goes into the forest daily? Is that true?" Tracy laughed at Siora, even though they were cousins. Tracy was the woman Aiden married, who also happened to be Cliff's niece.
"Go away, leave me alone!" said Siora.
Suddenly, Tracy grabbed Siora's hair for no reason, and the two fought until the people around arrived. They quickly broke up with Siora and Tracy.
"This crazy woman grabbed my hair first!" Tracy accused Siora.
"Don't slander me, Tracy. You grabbed my hair first!" Siora defended herself.
"After what happened earlier, do you believe this crazy woman?" Tracy asked some of the people who intervened earlier.
They all said no, which made Tracy happy.
Siora kept quiet when everyone called her crazy because it would be useless if she defended herself. No one would believe a poor woman like her.
Once Tracy was satisfied that her cousin was being mocked, she decided to leave. Back at home, she complained to Aiden about Siora, which was an exaggeration.
"It's a good thing you didn't marry her. She's poor, she has a bad personality," said Mesa, Aiden's mother, who hated Siora to this day.
"Never mind, let's not talk about Siora. I'm bored!" annoyed Aiden, and they entered the room.
Tracy was really happy that Aiden hated Siora so much because she had loved Aiden for so long. She felt victorious after snatching Aiden away from Siora.
...
Back to Siora, this woman could only wipe away her tears. Her voiceless cries were so painful to her chest that she decided to go home, shedding her tears to make Solana weep for her poor daughter.
"Be patient, Siora. Let people insult us," Solana said as she stroked her daughter's hair.
"I'm tired, Mum. Tracy was the one who started it, but she accused me as if I had a grudge against her."
"Dad's family and siblings are no good; they're all crazy!" said an exasperated Maylin, "Our family is always insulted and humiliated."
The girl's eyes also glazed over. Who knew how long her family would have to endure this kind of poverty? Even from this morning until this afternoon, they had not put a lump of food in their mouths besides water.
"Mum, Dad's not breathing!" Neia announced.
Of course, this made Solana and Siora panic. They immediately went into the room to check on Cliff.
"Cliff, wake up!" Solana shook her husband's body.
Solana and her three daughters repeatedly called Cliff's name, but there was still no response or movement. Cliff's breathing was gone, and his pulse was no longer beating, indicating that he was dead.
The cries of Solana and her three children broke out in the rickety house that was about to collapse. They did not expect that the head of their family, who had been a burden, had died.