Her last words

The slamming of the front door sounded an ominous note, warning of trouble to come.

Maria braced herself as 11-year-old Minou bounced in, trailed by the sullen footsteps of her teenage sister, Emilia.

A fragile peace prevailed as the girls freshened up after school. But once lunch was served, the battle well and truly commenced.

"What is this garbage?" Emilia sneered, eyeing the stuffed cabbage rolls on her plate, "Can't we just have hamburgers like everyone else?!"

"Studying at the American School doesn't make you an American, Emilia! That holubtsi is your father's family recipe from Kiev, so stop complaining", Maria said, wishing Viktor was there to witness his daughter's disrespect.

"God, why are you always so mean? Allison's Mom lets her eat whatever she wants!" The practised sneer that graced Emilia's finely curled upper lip left no room for doubt that any mother who wasn't Maria would be a better choice in her opinion.

Maria knew this was her punishment for daring to protest the school's plans to organise a food fight for the children. Despite her reservations, she had felt unable to let such an obnoxious idea go unchallenged.

Viktor and Maria discussed it after both girls had brought home suggested lists from their teachers requesting donations of "suitable" items.

"The pandemic and the war in Ukraine caused worldwide food shortages, Viktor. It's wrong for rich kids in international schools to be throwing bread rolls around! What kind of message does that send to impressionable young minds?"

"I'm sure the school thinks it's harmless fun for the kids–you know, like all those American high school movies..." Viktor protested mildly.

"But do you think it's harmless?" his wife persisted. "For heaven's sake, you work for a global charity here in Nairobi! How does that fit with allowing your daughters to waste food? There are kids begging outside the gates of that school who don't get enough to eat.

"Meanwhile, Emilia refuses to listen to anything. She just storms out once she's had her say! And even Minou doesn't want to miss out on the so-called fun they're planning..."

But unfortunately for Maria, Viktor hated conflict. So, even though he didn't approve of food fights, he was unwilling to risk his 'favoured parent' status with his daughters by saying so.

And unlike Maria, he was endlessly patient with their teen queen's daily dramas. Perhaps because the length of Viktor's workday meant that he didn't have to deal with the fallout very often.

Now, as Emilia raged about how she wished that Allison's mother, or their homeroom teacher, or basically anyone but Maria had given birth to her, her usually stoic mother abruptly interrupted her tirade, shocking the teenager into pausing.

"Well, it's too bad I'm such an awful mother, Emilia! Because guess what? I'm. All. You've. Got!"

And this time, Maria got to stalk out of the room, leaving an outraged silence in her wake. How rare and delightful it felt to have the last word with a teenager!

Farah Ghuznavi is a writer, translator and development worker. Her work has been published in 11 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and the USA. Writer in Residence with Commonwealth Writers, she published a short story collection titled Fragments of Riversong (Daily Star Books, 2013), and edited the Lifelines anthology (Zubaan Books, 2012). She is currently working on her new short story collection and is on Instagram @farahghuznavi.