When You Try to Hide Fire

One

'No, but I could break your back and I could put it on ice.' He winked at Tina

'Yeah I guess so.' Tina sighed and smirked

There was silence.

'The papers came in this morning' her father said. She was listening attentively 'so did the milk'. A pause.

'Last week's milk was expired daddy.,, are you still buying from the farm?' she asked her father. Another silence.

'I read that the Sheltering Wings Foundation will be holding programmes for youths to participate in this year's humanity project fund... do you want to be a part of it?'

'That is not my thing.'

'It's better than going to parties' he assured Tina as she gave him a puzzled look...

'Do I even go to parties?' she asked 'are you being serious right now?'

'Not that. I am just trying to say that you should try to be a different breed. Your own style. Do what makes you stand out.' He spoke as he dusted his trousers 'It is a great opportunity. Besides, it gives you a platform to connect with other youths that have the same interests'

'As I said earlier, it is not my thing.'

'Then what is your thing?' Her father asked 'I don't think I have ever seen you express yourself as a normal teenager before. You are always backing out from the crowd practically because you confide in timidity and inferiority complex. You don't even have any close friends yet and you are turning sixteen for God's sake.'

'So, where are you going with all of this?' Tina asked her father

'Hmm...' Her father sighed 'Tina, time flies quickly. You will never be a teenager forever. Try to take the right paths and start building the future you want for yourself starting now. It is principle.'

'Every one is different' She was fighting back. Trying to win the argument. The topic now annoyed her.

'But not everyone has prospects to build on'

'I still have time I think'

'No you don't. start building assets for yourself a time will definitely come where I will not be there to build them for you.' He finally understood and realized that his Tina, his little pumpkin pie is growing into adulthood. It dawned on him that he had already started preparing her to live in the replica of his shadow. He wished her mother was here for her. She was turning sixteen and it was the most important stage of her life. She needed to start pressing on the needful. He understood what was coming her way. Tina did not, she still thought that a few weeks were still too long. After all age is just a number isn't it?

Later that evening, Tina put her brother George to bed early. They both had school the next day and she had to focus on writing and practicing her talk on environmental degradation in front of the whole science class tomorrow. Tina had a fear of generally anything public especially anything that would get to her attention. She always stayed behind it all. She was a backbencher. She was barely noticed in class. To some point, her presence never mattered because, nobody did care.

Tina could not believe her ears when she was called upon to raise the week's topic for the science class. She was an average student and she had only one circle. The circle that had always been there in her life from the very beginning to the very end; her family: just her, her father and her brother. That was the circle, nothing could ever come in between them. As she studied and wrote, thoughts about what her father said earlier in the day crossed her mind. 'Where was he driving to exactly with all those comments?' she wondered. 'What is he up to?' it was too difficult to focus with all those distractions. She looked at the time...