This Girl's life (part 7)

Sofia lay on the bed looking up at the fan, spinning vigorously on the ceiling. She couldn’t sleep. Her eyes felt heavy, but whenever she tried to shut them close and force herself to sleep, they would open up again. Her brain was spinning as fast as the fan. Question filled her head. Where was Ana? Why did she run away? Will she recover from her eating disorder? Why wouldn’t she talk to someone who would help her? Sofia couldn’t understand why Ana was starving herself. Most of the articles that she read stated that patients with ED were caused by peer pressures and the urge to become thin, mirroring their celebrity ideals. But Ana never befriended that type of girls, she was never interested in fashion. Actually Ana didn’t have any friends except Sofia at school. If she only stayed she would have gotten the help she needed in Singapore. Sofia put the pillow on her face. Her alarm clock on the study table showed the digitis 4.45 am. It would be another 1 hour and 30 mintues before she had to get out of the bed and get ready for school.

Mr Faizal never came back to the house. Bai Yoon had to call his brother to come and picked them up. Both Bai Yoon and herself was quiet in the car even though his brother tried to make conversations with them.


Sofia felt restless and started turning in her bed. She wasn’t the time who could handle lack of sleep. 7 hours was the required time she needed to sleep. If anything lesser than that would give her a migraine for half the day. In fact Sofia was already feeling dizzy. So dizzy that she thought she could hear a faint ringing sound. Wait a minute…..it was a ringing sound…the telephone!


Sofia didn’t move. Hoping that one of her brothers would pick up the phone in the hallway leading to the stairs. The phone kept ringing. Nobody went to pick it up. After sometime the ringing stopped. Sofia turned on her bed and was about to close her eyes when the ringing started again. Groaning she got out of bed. The hallway was dark. The phone was located at the far side of the hallway, near the staircase. Sofia went to the phone and picked it up.

“Sofia.” Sofia grasped the receiver knowing exactly who was at the other side.

“Ana? Where are you,” whispered Sofia, not wanting to wake anyone in the house.

“I’m at Seremban bus station. Can you come here?” pleaded Ana. Her voice sounded sad and weak.


“Why are you there? It’s 5 in the morning. Where do you want to go?” asked Sofia. There was no answer except the disconnect tone. Sofia looked at the phone, bewildered. Where was Ana going? Most importantly, what was she going to do? Sofia looked at the round clock hanged above the telephone. Its long hand was on the number 3 and the short hand was on the number 5. There was no way she could sneak out of the house without waking her mother, the old rusty metal grill at the front and back door would make sure of that. It would make enough noise to wake up her mother. Her room was above the ground floor living room, with her window open she could easily hear the loud squeaking noise that the grill would make. Her mother would make such a commotion if she founds out that Sofia wasn’t in her room. The only choice for her was to wait for her school bus to come and then sneak off to the bus station once she arrived at school. She needed help. Sofia quickly dialed a number……..