Term 1 week 9

Yati crept quietly into her usual corner. If her employer heard any sound from her, he would most likely be unhappy again. Then he might decide to punish her again. Yati did not want to think about that happening. She had just been whipped by his heavily studded belt for bringing him a cup of coffee, which was deemed too hot. She willed herself not to cry. Crying would not help her, it never did, not since the first time she did and was rewarded with two heavy punches to her temple which left her with a throbbing headache fir 3 days. She did not want to risk a headache for the coming weeks.

Mr Leong soon grew weary and felt asleep on the couch. Yati took the opportunity to steal quietly into the kitchen where she could tend to her wounds. The mosaic of lacerations on her bosy did not shock her. Afterall, she was used to such new prints being superimposed on her old wounds. They were nothing to gape at, she thought. The running water made her think of the little brook in her village in india which sang merily along each time she went to it to obtain water. The sun's ray would play on the clear water, making it look like a bed of shimmering diamonds. Yati's eyes filled up with tears as she thought how much beauty and love she had to give up to come here to work. She thought of her aged parents and younger siblings, sighing as she saw that there was really no choice. Her mere $500 a month went a long way before giving them a better life.

Suddenly a sharp stinging slap caused her t0 fall forward and hit her head on the tap. Lifting up her bleeding brow as she turned around, she held up her hands to ward off the blows that came raining down on her. Mr Leong launched into a tirade about how she was using water to clean herself, while at the same time hitting her non-stop. Yati closed her eyes and imagined herself in a distant place, far away from this psychopath that was her employer. She tried to ignore the searing pain each time his heavy hands lahed down mercilessly onto her, which opened wounds and made new ones. Yati concentrated on the little paradise she had created in her mind each time the beatings started. That was the only way of keeping sane. She could see her fmily in her paradise, together with her as in the good old days..

After Mr Leong finally got weary, he lurched back to his room and slammed the door shut. Yati picked up her battered body off the floor and dragged herself to the little space in the kitchen which has been assigned as her room. She took out the shoebox from among the sheets that made up her bed and opened it carefully. In it gleamed a shiny butcher knife, nestled in a few pages of few old newspaper. Yati fingered it gingerly, almost reverently. This was her way out of the situation. She only had to wait for Mr Leong to beat her near the box, and then she would plunge it into his corpulent mass...She knew it would not be a long wait......