Chapter 5: Dark Cloud over Fairy Tale Castle

Onika is now 10-11 years old. Things aren’t going as good as she wanted. Her fairy tale thoughts were being interrupted by a dark cloud over her castle. Her dad was getting more and more violent and also came home very late. Onika over the years has created a sort of brick wall to try and ignore her surroundings at home. Jelani was also affected by his dad’s behavior and stayed away from home until late in the night. This had their mother worried about both of her children. She had to do something and FAST!

It’s now evening. Jelani is nowhere in sight. Onika was in her room playing with her dolls humming a Mariah Carey song.

Carol Maraj P.O.V.

I was busy cooking chicken pasta. I was hearing Onika’s little voice singing Hero from Mariah Carey. It only now dawned onto me how good she sounded. I started humming along with her. My thoughts were racing while I hummed and cooked. What was going on with my family? Why is Robert acting so strange? Why was he so upset? Why is Onika being so distant and quiet? And where in the living world is Jelani?

Just then I heard the front door slam. I cringed because I knew what that meant. Robert was home.

“Carol!”

“Yes?”

“Where mah food?”

I sighed softly. I knew what was coming if I would tell him that I was still busy. I didn’t want him to put hands on me again. I looked over my bruises on my arms. They were slowly fading.

“CAROL, DON’T YOU HEAR MEH ASKIN YUH SOMETHING?!?”

I jumped abit. The tears were slowly forming around the brim of my eyes. I slowly inched into the living room where Robert was. He looked at me dead in the eyes.

“Where mah plate ah food?!” he asked me again. I closed my eyes.

“I’m still busy cooking.” I whispered. “I didn’t know you would be home so soon.” He glared at me. I could clearly see the blood pumping through the veins on his neck. I was so scared right about now.

“Carol.. You should know that I come home round now!” He yelled at me. “ Don’t play with me woman!!”

All I felt after that was when his hand striked my face twice.

I yelped and held my face. He was yelling something while turning over pots and pans in the kitchen. I basically muted it all out.

After some time, he left. Not without slamming the door shut ofcourse. I slowly got up. I said a small prayer before I went back into the kitchen to see what destruction he did to the kitchen.

Onika’s P.O.V.

I could clearly hear what was going on downstairs and honestly I was too scared to go down this time. Jelani wasn’t home and that scared me abit. What was he doing? Is he safe?

I here sitting on my bed and playing with my hair. Just then I imagined a giggle.

“Hi pretty ladybug.” Said my conscience.

“Hi…” I muttered.

“What’s wrong?” it asked me abit sad.

“Nothing.” I was on the verge of tears.

“It’s okay you have to tell me but don’t let the fights between your mother and father get to you. Try to think of something pleasant and I will come.”

“Okay, I’ll try.” I said. It had me thinking abit in my daydream. “But how can help my mom because I don’t really understand why she doesn’t stand up to my dad.” I said abit upset and confused.

“I can’t really answer that.” It said to me abit unsure. “Call my name if you need me because I have to go right now. My name is Nicki.” She said to me before disappearing from my thoughts.

I sighed and started humming a tune. Maybe I should go by the neighbor. I decided to and got up and got my sweater and sneakers. I slowly tiptoed downstairs and saw my mother cleaning up the floor which had my favorite meal all over it; boneless chicken stew.  I sighed. Why was daddy doing this to my mother? It wasn’t fair. I slowly approached my mom.

“Mommy?”

“Yes baby.” She said abit scared. I guess she didn’t hear me walk in. I saw that her cheeks were glowing which meant that dad hit her again. And also her eyes were red and puffy. It made my eyes brim with tears. I really hated this.

“M-may I go o-over to the neighbor’s house for a little?” I asked abit unsure to leave her alone in the house.

“Okay, but be home by 7:30.” She said softly before sighing and turning to get a new pot out of the cupboard.

I speed-walked out of the house. I saw my neighbor outside listening to some rap song that was playing nearby. She seemed really interested in that. I must admit some of the songs were really good. She saw me and smiled.

“Hey Nika!” she said to me.

“Hi Nique.” I said softly and smiled. Her eyebrows crinkled abit before she returned to her normal grinning state.

“What’s up babygirl. Your abit too quiet for me.” She stated. I just shrugged and sat next to her on the bench. We listened to a few songs before she suggested to go inside and go up to her room. I saw this weird rectangular thing sitting on her desk.

“What’s that Nique?”

“Oh, that my new little recording equipment.” She said with this huge grin on her face. “You can hook up a mic to it and just rap or song or whatever noise you wanna make.”

“Oh cool.” I said with eyes of admiration. I ran my hand over it and picked up the mic. I giggled abit before thinking of something to say into the mic. It was a very indescribable moment for me because I’ve seen singers on TV with a mic singing.   

“Hello my name is Onika and today I’m going to sing vision of love.” I said with a slight accent.

Nique giggled. I started singing. I thought personally that I was Mariah Carey at that moment. I was singing with my eyes close. When I stopped to ask Nique to sing along with me, her mouth was wide open and her eyes wide like she was in some kind of shock.

“What?!?” I asked abit scared that I sounded really bad because the only person to ever really critique my singing was my mother. She just blinked a couple times before closing her mouth and swallowed her spit.

“Eww Nique, that’s nasty go get some water.” I said abit disgusted. She walked out of the room. I sighed. Did I really sound so bad?

After a couple of minutes she came back. This girl really scared me at times. The room went silent before she finally spoke.

“Nika, sinds when can you sing like that?” she asked me. I looked at her abit confused.

“What do you mean like that? I’ve always sounded like that.” I said abit sad because I still felt as if it was really bad.

“Oh Nika you should continue!” she screamed. I beamed instantly. This girl just had me thinking that I made something die or so. Oh god.

“Haha, Nique don’t ever scare me like that again.” I said abit with seriousness.

“Alright Nika.” She said.

We did a little more of singing before she wanted to rap.

“Nika, have you ever written a rap?”

“No, I don’t even know how to make one.”

“It’s very simple. You make sentences whereby the last word of each sentence rhymes.” She explained.

“Oh, okay I think I can do that.”

We both wrote a tiny rap in 10 minutes. She took my paper and read it. She bursted out laughing which made me laugh.

“Nika this is too funny. Why would you rap about cookies and lollipops?” she asked between giggles.

“I don’t know. It just came to mind.” I shrugged while blushing.

"'Cookie's the name, chocolate chip is the flavor. Suck up my style like a cherry Life Saver." Nique read and laughed out loud.“I gotta show err’body on the block this. This is really good and very funny.” She stated before running out the door with my rap in her hand. I was right on her heel. I wanted to grab it out of her hand because I didn’t want anyone to read it. I was really embarrassed. While she ran to get the rest I sat and waited. After a few minutes I saw a few of the other kids walking with her.  They all wanted to me to repeat my rap over and over.

The time flew so I had to go back home. Mom seemed abit happier now. It made me smile. I walked up to her and gave her a random hug.

“I love you mommy.” I said into her shirt.

“I love you too baby. Let’s go eat.” She said before taking my hand and sitting at the table with me. Jelani walks in right about then and doesn’t even acknowledge us. I shrugged it off before silently praying to God to bless the food.

“Jelani where were you?” mother asked him. He just shrugged and then washed his hands. Mother sighed and continued eating. Jelani comes back a few moments later and sat down to eat with us.

“I heard about the little rap thing you did.” He says to me. I smiled abit. “ Nique was telling my boys about it.”

“Yeah, I had a feeling you’d hear ‘bout it ‘cus she told err’body I think.” I say.

“Mmm cool.” He says and smiles at me before quickly finishing up his food and going up to his room.

I stayed behind with mother to clean up. We were singing emotions from Mariah Carey which so happened to be playing on the radio. We sang to each other and had a good time. I had to get ready for bed so I kissed her cheek before going up to my room to get ready for bed.