A short story (Adeline Ng Ai Choo and The Father)

Adeline is a very unfortunate girl, you can tell just by looking at her. Her hair is always unkempt and her attire never fails to reek. You would shudder if you knew what hardships she had to face.


Her father, a spinster, earned a measly amount of money from his "job". His "job" was a loan shark at the "Three Skulls" a notorious gang that roamed the Bishan HDB blocks looking for "clients" such as drug addicts, people in need for loan and more members for the gang. It is a wonder how the neighbourhood police have not nabbed the Three Skulls yet. Adeline's father himself was an alcoholic and thus has a very violent personality, he is agitated by the slightest provocation which is rather unfortunate for Adeline.


As a dyslexic child, Adeline was never really good at her languages and do not even get me started on her other subjects. Every time her father saw her marks he would only see red and I mean literally, her whole paper is covered with red crosses or negative remarks. When her father saw her marks, though uneducated he knew what the term "fail" was, he would use a broken leg from the table and whack Adeline profusely. She would then scream and cry in agony until she does not have enough strength to carry on and she would just fall asleep on the spot. Her father would also have lost the strength to continue hitting her and would return to his room to turn in. By then the wound on Adeline's arm would be a sickly shade of purple with blood slowly oozing out.


Even so Adeline always tried to improve herself, always making an effort to improve her reading but the words kept slipping off the pages due to her dyslexia. She had never passed a single subject in her life, in fact her results was so atrocious that in her six years of education she had been expelled six times. But all that was going to change on that fateful day when her father's actions were finally brought to light.


That fateful day happened to be PSLE release day, before going to school to collect her results Adeline filled a bowl with water and put it in the freezer to numb her body so as to reduce the pain she would suffer when she was going to be beaten up by her father. Adeline's worst fears were confirmed when she saw her PSLE marks, she had failed once again. Although this was no surprise to her she knew that her father would be incensed, the tub of cold water wouldn't be for waste after all.


Her father usually came home around 11 p.m. but that day he came home around midnight, his eyes were bloodshot and his breath stank of alcohol clear evidence that he had been out drinking except that that night he was having a hangover. Adeline prayed that he might have forgotten that today was her PSLE releasal date and was just about to turn in when her father shouted in a husky voice, "Ah girl how much did you score?" Adeline bolted upwards in fright but finally overcame her fears and showed her father the result slip. At first her father had to struggle to try understand the numbers in front of him but soon he realised that Adeline had failed once again. He exploded in rage and advanced on Adeline with anger burning in his eyes, gripping his rattan he was about to whack Adeline when the door was forced opened. In charged three policemen armed with pistols, they all pounced on Adeline's father and pinned him onto the ground.

"You are under arrest for being involved with the illegal activities of the Three Skulls!" a policeman shouted while handcuffing Adeline's father. He tried to struggle but to no avail, the policemen overwhelmed him. Adeline's father had no choice but to follow the policemen for investigation. Adeline herself was brought along with her father to serve as a witness for investigation.

After the incident, Adeline's father was put in jail for drug trafficking and child abuse. Even though now she had none of her parents living with her, Adeline felt free for once as she have to suffer under her father anymore. In the matter of fact, without distractions from her father, Adeline managed to pass her tenth exam.