“I don't know if I'll be able to say it after the train, so I need to say it now.” Her mother made sure the suitcase was tightly closed when she reached for it from the back seat. “This suitcase contains everything you need to know. You can find Grandmother's cookery and gardening secrets here, as well as all the letters we have received, your clothing, and a few other things.”

Hesitating for a bit, she pierced a hole in the suitcase with her gaze. She wishes not to give her what she left inside that suitcase, but Miya needed to know the truth about the horrible person she dearly loves so much, as well as the one standing in front of her. What she almost committed to her only child that night and many nights before that.

Her eyes started streaming again. No mother should ever consider taking away her children's lives. No matter what, she could do to make amends for her past mistakes. She recalled the first night she attempted to harm Miyana. She regretted that night so much, but she attempted numerous times after that to subtly harm her while keeping the reality hidden from her.

Miya clutched her mother's coarse, dry hands, she has been cautiously trembling as she stared down the suitcase. Her mother tried her best to hold back her tears when she started to cry. Miya was also trying her best to hold back her tears. A small tear did manage to make its way down her face. Raising her mother’s hands alarmed her, she looked at Miya as she placed her hands close to her face. She was reassuring her. Regardless of what happened, she was here and wanted to be close to her mother. Although all Miya wanted was to feel the warmth of her mother's hands on her face.

As she regained her composure, she didn't look at the suitcase. “All I want to say is that you should read my journal when you're a few years older. It explains a few graphic incidents I almost did, and I want you to know that I did it out of love, and I'm sincerely sorry.”

Miyana's mother gently pulled her hands away, wiping tears from her swollen eyes. She reached inside the back seat of the vehicle and revealed two additional bags loaded with food previously harvested from the garden back home, as well as a few cans of food. “I'm worried that I will repeat my mistake… Considering how serious the situation and the people are being handled now, I might not be able to restrain myself this time. As this is the only peaceful manner to go now.”

She didn't say anything further, and hastily loaded Miyana and a few of their possessions into the train's private cart. They had purchased before leaving. As the crew and passengers departed to and from the platform, they sat on opposite sides of each other, watching them load their belongings as they did earlier. Miya insisted on whether her grandma would accompany them later, on their journey. Her mother simply smiled and agreed, fiddling with her wedding ring. After she realized her mother had been driving all night and might want to rest peacefully, she stopped asking questions.

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Placing her head on the windowpane, she purposely fogged the glass. She squished her palms together with the glass to make footprints and smiling faces. She glanced towards the position of her father's truck, repeating the fogged glass. Wiping the foggy glass, she was startled to notice a group of unidentified individuals in mucky black uniforms were hauling everything into another truck as the other men ripped the metal and cushions apart from her family truck.

“No! What are you doing, get away from our truck!” She began beating on the window, hoping they could hear her from afar, without thinking about the loud noises the train was making. She addressed the dilemma to her mother, but all she did was fiddle with her ring and nod as she, too, watched the truck get ripped apart to basically nothing.

Sinking back in her seat, she watched as the men dressed up as soldiers paraded around in her mother's clothing and nickers, enthusiastically dancing and eating the food Miya and her grandma worked so hard to produce last season. “All that time and energy squandered to feed a horde of barbarians. If Father saw these primitive soldiers today and how they are dressed, they would all be reprimanded and condemned to a day or two of fasting.”

She huffed as she kicked the ledge of the sturdy window, venting her frustration. “Miyana. I need you to understand something, so please come here.” Her mother waited on Miya, who ignored her since she was too interested in the men and women, who were enjoying stuff that didn't belong to them. The things that were once theirs were being contaminated by them.

She yelled at them to put everything back where it belonged, pounding on the glass. She wanted to jump from the train and frighten everyone off. She was tired of the people impersonating soldiers who were not present. She was sickened that her friends and family had been snatched away from her. Sick because she wasn't able to get back to schooling, her house, and her entire existence was taken away, and now with what little that's left to keep her and her mother from sinking into the depth of despair.

Her head was hanging from her shoulders as she slumped. She was unable to do anything, she was unable to defend what belonged to her family, she was just a tiny girl. All she can do now is hold back her tears and pray that all she has lost would be returned to her tenfold. “Everything changes so quickly nowadays. When you're young, it can be difficult to keep up.” She threw a couple of oranges toward her crying daughter after snatching the bag labeled food from the highest shelf above Miya.

She sat back down and picked an orange she had thrown earlier, peeling away the skin. When she looked back at Miyana, she found that her daughter was fighting back tears, and she couldn't take her gaze away from the window. She tugged Miya towards her seat. Drawing Miya close to her body, swaying and singing to calm her down, as well as to hide her sight from the window, preventing her from seeing the knuckleheads who were stealing their belongings.

It was an early morning for them, and all they could do now was push on. That's all they can do for the time being.