Before you drop me off at school

Before dropping me off at school, my aunt Brenda brought my cousin Brad to our house, their arrogance practically radiating.

“What’s the point of a girl going to school anyway? You might as well marry her off to my family. We’ll give you a full twenty thousand dollars for the bride price.”

Everyone tried to convince my mom to marry me off, but she insisted on sending me to school.

I was gone for five years, and my mom endured five years of mockery.

They’d say it would all benefit some other family in the end, that after five years, she still hadn’t turned into a golden phoenix.