“We must go on because we can’t turn back”  Robert Louis Stevenson

“We must go on because we can’t turn back” Sina said, as her dirty little children walked slowly behind her. “But Mum, I’m hungry”, said little Sione as he sat down on the dusty road. 

“Oi aue, Sione, you eat all the time, and always complain” barked Tina, his older sister. “Get up before Dad finds us and takes us back home! Aren’t you tired of him beating us all the time?” she said quietly. 

Their mother looked around worriedly then said to Sione, “Ok son, look here. If you walk with Mummy and Tina as fast as you can, I will buy you an ice-pop at the first shop we get to, ok?” Sione eyed his mother suspiciously then got up, brushed the dirt off his shorts and reached out to hold her hand. Tina walked quietly beside her mother holding the shopping bags with their clothes and other items her mother had hurriedly packed before they quietly left their fale. 

“Mum,” she asked, “where did you get that money from?” 

“Oh baby, I had been saving some money for a long time for this day. Don’t worry I’ll buy you an ice-pop too, ok?” 

Tina nodded her head excitedly and walked a little faster. 

Sina knew getting to her parents’ house was their only option of surviving so she knew they had to hurry and make their way through the familiar thick forest of trees before her husband knew they were gone. As she walked, memories of the night before came rushing back to her as she watched her little son Sione’s hair blowing in the wind. She rubbed her big belly as tears silently flowed from her big brown eyes. She reached up and rubbed the bruise below her right eye and almost yelled when pain shot through her entire head. 

“Mum? Are you ok?” said Tina with worry in her eyes as she looked at her mother’s swollen face and cut lip. She stopped walking and reached out to rub her mother’s back. 

“Yes. I’m alright.” said her mother, “Let’s hurry up and get to the main road to catch our bus”. 

As Tina struggled with their belongings, thoughts of sadness almost made her cry as she thought of her mother’s yells for help the night before. She was afraid of her father and had always felt sorry for mother, but there was nothing she could do. Every time her father came home drunk, he beat up her mother and it had become a daily thing. He always found something wrong with the food, or the house, or his clothes especially when he was drunk and would always take his anger out on their mother. Tina herself had also received some blows from his big hard hands, but the worst treatment always fell on her mother. Last night’s beating was the worst as he dragged her mother out of their house by her hair and used their washing stick to beat her. She watched with her little brother as her father used both his hands and the stick to hurt their mother and didn’t stop until he was tired. After he was done, he spat on her before going inside and calling Tina to fetch him his food. 

Tina hoped that was the last time she was going to see his mean face. She had never left their home before and as she followed her mother, she was both excited and scared. One thing she knew for sure though was that she was never going back. She had no idea if they were going to a place where they would be free, but she knew her father wouldn’t be there to hurt them anymore. 

As the scared little family walked on, the only witnesses to their emotional journey were the birds in the trees, the bees on the flowers, the little insects crawling around the forest floor and the footprints left behind as their tired feet walked on to find hope and a safe place for all of them. 

Just as they stepped out of the trees, a yellow bus with a pink roof came roaring around the bend in the road. Sina, with a sigh of relief, held out her hand as she picked up little Sione whose eyes were as round as a full moon as he stared at the sight in front of him. The music from the bus could be heard through the rainforest as it slowly came to a stop in front of the tired and scared little family. A young man hopped down to help them up and take their bags inside. 

Sina and her tired little children found an empty seat and they all squeezed themselves in as they sighed in relief knowing that they had left their old life back and were heading to what they hoped was freedom for them all. As the bus roared back to life, Tina held on to her mother’s hand and prayed silently as she closed her tired eyes, hopeful for a new beginning. 

Marturion Su’a is a Year 7 student at Pesega Middle School. This literacy piece won her first place in the Year 7 English category of the Samoa Observer Short Story Competition.