Ruth Leaves Home

She was apprehensive about breaking the news to her parents but decided that it was the decent thing to do, instead of just leaving when they were at work, and sticking a post-it on the refrigerator for them to find when they returned: that would be cruel, and unkind. She loved them too much to break their hearts like that. She figured that even though there would be arguments, and raised voices, at least she would be going about it in a mature manner.

As far as she was concerned, her parents were both too protective, and a bit old-fashioned. They thought that she should stay at home until she was about to get married, or at least when she had completed all her studies, and had settled into the career of her choice. If she decided to do that she envisaged being at home at least until she was twenty-seven! She loved her parents, but couldn’t bear the thought of living under their watchful eyes until she was that old. Goodness, how could she possibly meet any interesting people, and try being independent enough to finally settle down with someone if all she heard was what the Bible said. Mind you, she was a regular church-goer, and believed in God, but she knew in her heart that she could never win an argument when she was up against the word of God! She had considered going to university in another city, or even another country to escape their watchful gaze, and prove to them that she was capable of succeeding without their approval on every matter, but her close friends Elizabeth and Shanice were staying in London, and she wanted to be with them, seeing that they had been friends since primary school.

Ruth had quite a few decisions to make regarding her new life, and the biggest one that was weighing on her mind was whether she would continue attending church, that is, the same church that she had attended for the past eighteen years. She had grown up in that church, and really enjoyed it. There were times in secondary school when her friends teased her about being a born again Christian, and not being allowed to go to parties, or even spend the night at friends’ houses. She always laughed it off with them, but began feeling slightly differently about her life when she attended a seminar in college on women as free thinkers in the modern world. A few of the concepts presented clashed with what she had been taught at church, and at home, but she did not see the harm in expressing herself as a free thinker alongside her Bible foundation. She felt personally convicted that she was responsible enough to have a successful life, making decisions on her own. As a matter of fact, her two future flatmates had said that she was the most responsible out of the three, and they felt that she was the one who could be trusted to make major decisions; she would have to remember to tell her parents that during their discussion at dinner time.

She took a deep breath as she put the key in the door and turned it. As she entered the hallway and began taking off her jumper, the smell of her mother’s cooking wafted towards her. It smelled better than she could ever remember, and she began to feel nostalgic about it even though she had not yet moved out: she was going to miss mother’s great cooking, but she was grateful that she had learned to make most of the dishes she enjoyed. She secretly wished that she could still come home for meals though.

She entered the kitchen and hugged her mum from the back and kissed her on the cheek. Her mother turned towards her and smiled. She looked sad. She took Ruth’s face in her hands and kissed her on the forehead. Ruth loved it when she did that, it made her feel like a little girl again: very reassured and comforted. She stifled back the tears and went into the living room to say hello to her father. She felt strangely brave. Telling them that she was moving out was the hardest thing, and since that hurdle was over, she would just have to steel herself for whatever arguments and counter arguments they would try to present to her to convince her not to leave.

“Hello dad.” She said as she bent to kiss him.

“Ruth. I didn’t hear you come in. Hello. How was your day?”

What? Did she hear right? No mention of her decision to leave home? Was she awake?

“It was ok. I got an email from the bank saying they approved the loan. I can save Nan’s money, and use it in case of an emergency, and to help buy a few things for the flat.” Should she have brought that up so soon? What was she doing? She had everything all planned out, and now she was not going according to script. What was wrong with her?

“What a blessing. Did you tell mum?”

“No. I was going to wait until dinner, but I got excited and blurted it out to you.” She was more perplexed than excited. Her father seemed very calm, and this was unnerving her. According to the script that she had in her head, things weren’t supposed to be going so smoothly. Oh well, there was still dinner to come, but she couldn’t see things turning out that bad if they had begun so well.

She left the room and went to take a shower before dinner. Actually, she just wanted to think. The reaction of her father had really thrown her. He wasn’t a tyrant or anything like that, but when he felt really strongly about a matter he let it permeate through every action, and conversation. So far, he hadn’t said a single word about her moving out.