Surviving the Cycle — Part 1: Pilot
It’s 7:00 am, and just like any other Monday, Farhiya’s phone alarm buzzes in her ear. The sun finds its way through her blinds and gently kisses her dark brown skin as she hits the snooze button in an attempt to grasp those ever elusive “10 more minutes” that somehow always find their way to become 30. Except for today, where her non-REM sleep is interrupted by a missed call from her mother, shortly followed by a voicemail. She rubs the sleep out of her eyes as she presses play.
“Naaya hurdada ka kac. Your brother came home late and isn’t able to take me to my doctor’s appointment. Bring me some tea on your way downstairs as well, and don’t take forever in the bathroom getting ready”.
“She could at least address me by my name” she mutters to herself while she is figuring out how to word the email she has to send her boss explaining why she won’t be able to come for the 3rd time this pay period. She begins to compose an email and just for a second forgets that her inner thoughts are finding their way to escape from her head through her fingertips and onto the keyboard. “My enabling mother can’t depend on my present-but-absent “step” father who is a misogynistic excuse of a man, nor my youngest brother who switches between opioids and marijuana to numb his depression from the abandonment our own absent father has caused us. Seeing that I’m the only child she…
