Visual Trigger

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I hate you!” As Jane yells, runs off to her bedroom and slams the door behind her. She plants herself beside her white wardrobe and warm tears start to trickle down her red cheeks. Her mum had just slapped her. No handprints are left behind, only pain and hatred.

Images of her memory start to flash across her mind. The happy moments had only lasted for 4 years since she was born. When Jane was 4, her father’s family business had gone bust due to the bad economy. Her father often got himself drunk and abused his wife and Jane. Jane’s mum became depressed and started smoking. Her father ran away soon after, leaving his wife and child with tonnes of debt to be repaid. Her mum held 3 odd jobs a day, to repay the debts for her husband, and she only sleeps for 4 hours daily. She had no time to look after Jane and had to leave her at home all by herself as she had no money to hire someone to look after her. Jane became very rebellious when she was enrolled in a substandard high school as her results were very poor. Jane blamed it all on her parents and she started drinking and smoking with her friends.

Just a few hours ago, her mum found out that Jane had been smoking with her friends, since she was first enrolled in high school, when she was going to work. Her mum dragged her home and scolded her at the top of her voice where every one in the neighbourhood could hear and they were gathering outside the window to see what was happening. Jane felt embarrassed so she talk back to her mum and her mum slapped her as she did not know how to control her daughter anymore. Soon, Jane came back to reality, she hears the door slam and she knows that her mum is going back to work, again.

Jane and her mum have not been talking to each other for the next few months. One day, as her mum was preparing to go to work in the early morning, Jane hears a loud thump. She runs out of her room and sees her mum lying on the cold floor, unconsciously. Her mum is being sent to the hospital immediately and the doctor informs Jane that her mum had been suffering from lung cancer for at least 2 years. Her lung cancer is in the terminal stage and the doctors can do nothing to save her. Jane realise that she is going to lose her mum and she was wrong to go against her mum. She is very remorseful and she starts to take care of her mum every day after school.

After 20 odds days of struggle, her mum died on the hospital bed, with Jane holding her hands, beside her. On her death bed, Jane had asked her mum for forgiveness before her mum takes her last breath. Her mum forgave her.