Echoes of Semino in Humdrum Life

Elena Semino was reading a novel in the “Everyday Library.” The library was open to all students from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. There was a bookstore nearby where students could buy books at reasonable prices. Semino, with her bundle of books, slender legs, and brown hair, moved slowly like a tortoise. She found her favorite novel in the bookstore, pleasing others by commenting on their book choices.

“Excuse me, Miss Bookworm,” a handsome boy entered the bookshop as if Oedipus had stepped into the city of Thebes.
“Umm, yes… excused,” Semino turned toward him.
“What are you looking for?” the boy asked, keeping his car keys in his pocket.
“I am looking into your eyes, your silky hair, your healthy figure.”
Semino answered sarcastically. The boy, confident, turned fully toward her.
“Oh, yeah, no doubt, I am so handsome,” the boy said, looking furiously at Semino.

Semino chose a novel for her next month’s reading target.
“Umm, is this worthwhile? No, I must check it first,” she started thinking.
“My First Love, oh, it seems romantic…
But should I read this genre?” Semino was afraid of reading romantic novels. She lived in a hostel with three weird roommates. They used to taunt her, saying, “Psychopath, bookworm,” but Semino’s ambitions always persuaded her to think positively.

Buying the romantic novel and stepping into the library, her soft gait and long hair amazed everyone.
“Where is my seat?” She was baffled to see the whole crowd.
“Miss Bookworm,” a voice came from the left side of her seat.
She moved back, “Who, …oh, Mr. Handsome, you also come here?”
“Why? Should I not come here?” he asked, putting his favorite novel on the table, standing up in her reverence like an honest husband.

Semino started thinking about him, “Why does he always come in my way?”
“My First Love, umm… leave it.
The cacophony of humdrum life,
To live like a wild kite,
Oh! Look at him,
He also needs a wife
Who makes him feel alive.”

The interior monologues in the form of poetic lyrics symbolized her conflicting thoughts. Her mind forced her to think about the handsome boy, but she resisted herself…
“It is all due to such romantic novels.”

Sitting in her seat like Queen Elizabeth, flipping the pages of the novel, feeling the fragrance of words, and enticing herself with mesmerizing memories of her deceased mother, she suddenly stood up.
“Yeah, I am coming,” Semino was called by the librarian.

She returned to her hostel and packed her bag. Everyone was baffled to see her at an odd time.
“Semino, you came early today,” one of her roommates asked.
“Yes, I have to go to my hometown,” she replied in a mild voice, tears in her eyes, arranging her stock of model papers in a worn bag.

Her stepmother came to receive her.
“What is in this bag?” her stepmother asked, gazing at her with wild eyes.
“You do not know?” Semino answered disdainfully.
“I know, but keep in mind, these books will not stay with you,” she said, turning away from Semino and trying to push her.
“What do you mean?” Semino asked angrily.
“You will be getting married very soon,” she replied confidently.
“What? Are you mad?” Semino got angry, twitching her hand as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t.

Her stepmother, a great shackle on her road to destiny, asked the driver to stop the car and pushed Semino toward the road.
“Your explanation seems incomplete,” Semino said, gritting her teeth to show her anger.
“Shut your mouth,” her stepmother said angrily.
“I will not marry anyone,” Semino spoke up audaciously.
“I said stop it, otherwise, I will cut your tongue,” her stepmother said, coming close to slap her.
“How dare you threaten to cut my tongue?”
“I will show you,” she said, standing like a wild animal.
“I will not get married,” Semino pointed her finger at her wild stepmother.

After a couple of hours, they both reached home. Semino observed that guests were waiting for her.
“Come inside, pretty doll,” one of the women said with a pleasant smile.
“Doll? Am I a doll?”
“Stupid people, stupid talks,” Semino uttered scornfully.
“You, stupid,” her stepmother came like the West Wind and slapped Semino with full force.

Semino started weeping, her tears flowing like the Pacific Ocean.
“How can you do that?” she asked in a toddler’s voice. She mustered the courage to speak her inner thoughts about her stepmother.
“A cruel mother,
A cruel mother,
Listen, people!
She is a cruel, wild stepmother,” she said, wiping her tears like a chimney sweeper.

“Go inside your room,” her stepmother pointed furiously.
“Not a mother, a wild animal, a greedy woman who married my father to get his wealth,” Semino could not stop her hopeless, complicated feelings looming in her chest.
“I said, go inside,” her mother clutched her hair forcefully.

Semino started weeping, her brown hair seeming like a bird’s nest.
“Be brave, audacious girl,” she motivated herself, managing her hair.
“I want to achieve my dreams,
My first love,
My mother’s dream,
No, no, I will become a strong woman.”

Thinking of her dreams and making up her mind to show her strength, she got up, patting her shoulder. Suddenly, her wild stepmother came into her room and thrust some papers at her to sign.
“What do you want, madwoman?” Semino spoke rudely.
“Sign it,” her stepmother said, stepping forward to hand over the papers.
“What is this?” Semino raised her voice.
“I said, just take a pen and sign it,” her stepmother commanded as if she were the President of the UK.
“I will never sign it,” Semino tore the paper into pieces.
“Stop it. You will regret this, you will regret this,” her stepmother said.

Her mother moved forward and locked Semino in her room.
“Please open the door, please!
For God’s sake, open the door.”

Lifting her papers with a hopeless sigh, she asked herself, “Why, why does life always throw me in such a dunghill?” She took a rope and tied it to the fan.
“It is only my helper,” she said, looking at it like a new bride waiting for her groom. Suddenly, she heard a cacophony of people from the opposite door.
“Alas, alas,
Time has gone,
Time has gone.”

A man came inside with a dagger in his hand….