Mansole before we can deal with our own business. You tell Margarita you have found her a new daughter. She will have her soon."
Yordan's ten-year-old niece Galina disappeared as she walked home from school along the outskirts of Yuzhen Park, south of Sofia, six weeks ago. His sister Margarita was relentlessly melancholic over the gap in her family.
Galina was snatched by a children traffic gang and started her new life as a street beggar in Amsterdam. Yordan decided that Jess would fill the gap left by Galina. Jess wouldn't work the streets begging but she would work long hard hours in the house as second slave to Margarita's large, ungracious and violent family.
In Yordan's circle the fundamental law, an eye for an eye, means; if someone steals your child, you steal someone else's child. Two hundred and fifty thousand children disappear in Europe every year. Around five percent are abducted by strangers.
Jess and Laraine sat at the top of the stairs cuddling each other. Why is the world shitting on me ? Laraine screamed in her thoughts.
"Mummy I'm scared."
"Shush darling they've gone."
"What did they want?"
"I don't know darling."
"I want daddy. When is daddy coming back?"
"I don't know sweetheart," Laraine said and her voice quivered.
"If I promise to be really good. Will daddy come back?"
"He knows we love him. He just needs time to think about things."
"He doesn't need to think. I'll be a good girl, tell him, please, I'll be good," Jess said and she got up and ran to her room in a flood of tears.
"It's not your fault sweetheart," Laraine called after Jess.
"It's not your fault," she repeated quietly.
Jess lay on her bed, hugging her pillow, sobbing painfully. She missed her dad. Laraine stared through the front door at the bottom of the stairs. She felt a near death moment with everything seeming to flash past.
She remembered her wedding day so happy and wonderful. The proud day her husband Bob came back to tell her about his new job as a personal trainer. The special day her child Jessica was born. That day was wonderful and everyone was so happy and relieved that Jess was born healthy.
They were comfortable and the house was proud in those days. Bob was happy in his job. Money was good. Love was strong for them both. Seven wonderful years then without warning it started to change when Jess was almost four. Life just turned upside down.
His parents seemed to know what was happening to Jess. At first they offered understanding and advice on specialist treatment. Then they insisted. Bob supported Laraine when she refused the treatment they suggested. Then his parents demanded, as if they knew best, as if they had the right to make a decision for Jess.
That's when the thundering arguments started. His parents forced him into an impossible choice; them or her. He was torn between his wife and his parents over what was best for Jess. Her in-laws became outlaws. In fact she grew to hate them.
She felt betrayed and abandoned. It was nine months since Bob left her. Nine long months without one word from him. Nine painful months without his salary to pay the bills. She had no idea where he was or what happened to him.
He left her on her own to look after Jess; to face his parents who blamed her for his disappearance. He left her to run a home and put food on the table with no income. He left her alone to cope with Jess's curse. He left her a bank mortgage, credit card debt and a car loan to deal with. Eviction and all the ensuing pain were around the corner and making their way straight to her door.
Laraine's elderly mum helped although she was living near the borderline on a meagre pension. Laraine knew her mum was doing without food and heat to help her and Jess. The thought made Laraine feel sick with worry but she swallowed her pride to put on a face for Jess. She was still to tell her mum about the impending eviction. She was still to ask if she and Jess could move into her mum's small pensioner flat.
Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko