Chapter 3 Hinges

From the earliest of Juliana's memory, her parents have always been at loggerheads. They shouted, fought, and rained abusive words at each other. When she was younger around age five, her mother had tried to shield her from their battle episodes but as she got older, Juliana got to witness it more and more without anyone trying to protect her from the kind of damage these childhood traumas could cause. Even right now, she could hear them bickering. Juliana shuddered a bit even though the weather had been mild and she was wearing long pants and sleeves.

It made it hard for her to believe that there was ever a time her parents had been in love. From the pieces she had been able to piece from her mother Sophia over the last fifteen years, her father Rojo Alvarez had not been able to make it to college after his high school graduation because he had to take up a job to cater for Sophia who was heavily pregnant at that time with Julia. Her mother had said the confrontation had not been pretty and she always looked back on that day as the day that Rojo's feelings started to change towards her. Juliana tried to play it out in her head the way she felt the scene must have gone according to her mother's story. Her mother had waited for his father after his football practice. The high school team had been preparing for their final match with their seniors just before their final exit and graduation. She had watched Rojo happily hitting the ball, giving high fives, and shouting words of encouragement across the football field to his team players. He was an excellent captain and even their coach could not keep off the smug look on his face as he watched Rojo, he was counting on Rojo to play in the big teams when he went off to college next fall. Sophia knew this because Rojo had told her some time ago. The final whistle blew signalling that the ninety minutes plus two extra minutes were up. Sophia watched Rojo hug and clap the backs of his team members as he ambled over to where Sophia stood, he had spotted her towards the end of the football game. "Hey there beautiful", says Rojo happily to Sophia, damn glad to see her face. But Rojo on a closer inspection of Sophia's face noticed the gloomy look on her face and wondered what could be wrong. Was she sick? He thought it better he asked. "Sophia, are you not feeling well? Or did someone trouble you?", Rojo asks with genuine concern lacing his every word. Sophia had stayed up for the better part of the night wondering how she should go about telling him. She had stirred and turned in bed without getting as much of an hour's sleep last night. She knew she had to tell him, it was just the how that she did not know about. She just decided to be direct about it, Rojo has always commented on how much he liked her directness after all. As the day progressed, Sophia counted the hours until she had to see Rojo again. She debated telling him at lunch but discarded the idea, she wasn't sure how Rojo would take it, and what if he made a scene in the dining hall? But then she remembered it was a Thursday and Rojo had football practice on Thursday and she decided that after practice would be better. The time was now or never. "Rojo, I'm pregnant." "W-what did you just say? H-how do you mean? That's-that's not possible, it was only once", stammers Rojo. "I didn't see my period last month counting from the dance night and finally I had to take my friend's advice and get a pregnancy test done to rule out pregnancy. It came out positive, Rojo." Juliana's mum had told Juliana that this was the point her father had disengaged his hands from hers and the look of admiration had gone off his face in a flash. It was as if he realised then that they were in uncharted waters and their ship was about to capsize due to the raging storms in unfamiliar territory. By then, the last of the spectators had trickled out from the field and they were the only ones left by the bleachers. A boy with tousled black hair in yellow and purple sports gear and a girl in a pleated short skirt and oxblood-colored blazers slightly wringing her hands. "Are you sure it's mine?" Rojo asks in a voice he couldn't even recognize as his. Juliana remembered that this was the point in the story where her mother had raised her hands and slapped his father as hard as she could across his stupid handsome face. The temerity of the young man to voice out such a thought that she was some kind of bitch in heat who could not remember who she slept with and who she did not. Her mother had always gotten angry at that point of the story, always without fail, like the suggestion from her father had been a mighty smudge on her character. Which it actually was, anyway. Something crashed in the distance that brought Juliana back to the present and she listened carefully to hear what caused or followed the crash. "You're a pitiable weak man who can't even live with the choices he made", screams Sophia at Rojo. The walls were so thin that Juliana could bet that anybody outside could have heard her father and mother's voice as loud and clear as a new bell. "And you're a hateful, spiteful, ignorant woman. I regret the day you came into my life. I regret the days you both came into my life, you and your stupid ugly daughter", thunders Rojo from across the room. Juliana shuddered again and then she was out running away from the house, slamming the cheap door as hard as she could such that the door shook on its hinges.