Cally held her breath as she struggled to stifle her tears. She stands by the front porch with Rebecca and her grandmother, and they watch the car she had just ridden on with her parents slowly fading in the distance. Once it was out of sight, Cally sighed and hung her head down.
Rebecca had slowly guided her inside her house. “We have no choice. Your parents have to work far from your home to get you to school,” she said, albeit slightly annoyed. But poor little Cally, too engrossed with the thought of her parents being away, did not notice the menacing gleam in her grandmother’s eyes.
As evening approached, Rebecca started to prepare dinner for herself and the five-year-old she now had in her home. “Why did I have to take care of this thing? This child is a burden! I’d rather care for a dog than this,” she muttered. As she shoves the dough into the heated oven, she thinks about Cally’s mother, whom she despises. If it weren’t for that woman, her son would still be helping her with finances. Rebecca would have already started the bakery business she had longed for. But all that was ruined when, one day, her son brought home that woman carrying a baby in her arms. They had married without her presence, much less even her blessing.
At dinner time, while Cally was trying to eat the Pork N’ Beans she had served, Rebecca spoke. “Listen up, kid. I have some rules here that you have to follow.”
Cally sits up straight and looks at her.
“Number one: no loud noises allowed. You will be punished if I hear anything loud coming from you.”
“Number two: You will have to eat anything I give you. If you don’t, you will be punished.”
Cally’s eyes grew fearful, which made Rebecca smile in triumph. The child sensed power looming over her, and her eyes started to tear up.
But Rebecca leans close to her and says her final rule with a sneer: “Finally, you are not allowed to cry anywhere—whether you are at home or school.” With that, Cally trembled slightly in fear.
Cally has now entered Kindergarten, and while she did well in class, she hated going home. She realized that school was better because even though there were rules, they were not scary. The school had provided her a release from her tense home, and she could balance herself enough to be a well-rounded child. She had friends at school and learned how to play with them, exchanging toys and bringing them home.
One day, she brought home a talking doll she borrowed from her friend in class. Cally knew she had to be quiet around the house, especially when her grandmother was nearby. She had set the doll’s volume to its lowest so it would not make much noise. Unfortunately, the doll’s controls broke, and it ended up making shrieking sounds.
Rebecca storms into the scene and screams, “What did I tell you about Rule Number One?!” She yanked Cally’s little arm and dragged her into the kitchen.
“Please, Grandma! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Cally was in tears, pleading.
Rebecca yells at her, “Rule Number Three! I told you, no crying allowed!”
Cally stumbled to the kitchen floor, leaning on the oven’s door. Rebecca sneers. “You will be sleeping in this kitchen tonight!”
With a loud thud of the door, poor little Cally had no choice but to spend the night on the cold kitchen floor without any mat or pillow to use.
The kitchen overnight punishment was not just the only thing Cally experienced at the hands of her cruel grandmother. A few months had already passed, and she was still fed the same can of pork n’ beans she had eaten since her first night there. And each time it was served, Cally struggled to finish her plate because she had become sick of the same, never-ending meal. Still, she tried her best to shove the beans into her mouth and ate them like her life depended on it.
But one night, her stomach had betrayed her. After a few bites, she was unable to control herself and threw up.
Rebecca drops her fork against the ceramic plate with an equally horrified and enraged look. Then, without a word, she stood up, grabbed Cally by the collar of her shirt, and dragged her into the bathroom.
Cally was now crying, pleading for forgiveness for the mess she made. But Rebecca was not listening. As she threw her onto the bathroom floor, she quickly shut its door, locking her in. The light switch was unreachable for a small child, so the room was engulfed in darkness. She then proceeded to scare Cally by saying that the cockroaches were coming in the dark to eat her alive. The poor child endured this for hours until her forbidding grandmother was satisfied.
While there were no bruises around Cally’s body, her mind was beaten up. At school, she became listless and detached, prompting a sense of worry from her teacher.
Once, when they were studying the different kinds of animals in the garden, Cally shrieked and trembled violently at the sight of an insect in the textbook. Curled up in a ball while crying and trembling at the same time, she pleads over and over, “Please, no, Grandma! Please save me from the roachies!” The teacher suddenly realizes that Cally was having a mental breakdown and decides to call her parents. Cally loses consciousness and was sent to the hospital.
Cally wakes up in a cold, sterile hospital room at the sight of her worried parents. Her mom was crying at her bedside while her dad had a sullen look on his face. Her grandmother was not around. She sighed with relief.
Her mother spoke to her softly, teary-eyed. “Cally, my sweet baby. Dad and I are really sorry for being away. We will not leave you again.”
Cally’s father smiles briefly at her and kisses her on the forehead before leaving the room. Outside, he dials the number to his mother’s house. After a few rings, Rebecca answers the phone.
In gritted teeth and teary eyes, he speaks:
“Mother, I know what you did to Cally. And although I love you, I cannot find the courage to forgive you for destroying a five-year-old child’s mind just because you had a hidden grudge against my wife. I am sorry, but my family and I will not see you anymore.”
Click. The call ends.
Ding! In Rebecca’s home, she hears the oven bell as the bread she baked is finished. The high-pitched “ding” was the same sound she heard when she made dinner with Cally that first night and scared her with punishments for breaking her rules. It was the same sound she heard when she threw Cally on the kitchen floor and hit the oven door. And it was the same sound she heard when she dropped her fork on the ceramic plate before locking Cally in the bathroom.
Now, the silence that followed afterward made her realize that she had destroyed her only connection with her beloved son. She had been like a heated oven that cooked nothing inside but resentment—and each time her bell rang, she only knew how to serve empty anger to the person she was supposed to love.