Tell me, New Year! Do you bring us some happiness?

It was around 7 o'clock in the morning on the last day of 2021 when my mother and sister were almost crying on the street. My sister was trying to hug my mother while my mum was pushing her away. She was apologizing; "Forgive me! It was my fault!". At the same moment, my mum was trying to roll up her sleeve to look at her achy arm. Luckily, it was Friday so not many people were around to witness the surreal scene. What had happened earlier? It wasn't that different from what regularly happens in our pathetic life.

A day earlier, we had traveled to Aswan to attend our cousin's wedding. My mum had a clash with my brother and sister about her abayas. She insisted she had brought three of her abayas, brown, black and blue. She thought that someone had taken the blue one from her. In fact, she had only brought two. My brother was the one who arranged the bag so he got almost all the blame and my sister got some as well when she tried to clear the air. Although I avoided getting directly involved in the clash, my mother always mentioned the three of us in her swearing.

Early in the morning of the following day, we were leaving to return to Luxor. My mother had another clash with my brother and sister about the same issue. We went down the stairs and waited for her to join us but she was late. My sister went back to check up on her. They got into a fight again and mum slipped on the stairs. Neither of them said anything when they came out of the house. When I went to check what was delaying them, I witnessed this dramatic dialogue between Sister and Mother.

After seeing my mother's arm, I wanted us to take her to the hospital. My sister said she couldn't miss the train because she had to go to work while my brother kept silent. In the end, we went to a pharmacy where we were told it was better to go to a hospital and then we went to catch the train. As soon as we had arrived at Luxor station, I took my mother to the hospital. After check-ups, thankfully, we were informed there were no broken bones. Her arm is still bruised and it hurts her whenever she moves it.

The first day of the new year had a similar version to what had happened before. My mother and I went shopping. It went smoothly until she was looking for the house's keys in her pocket while going up the stairs. She stepped on her abaya and fell to her knees. She yelled at me and accused me of being the reason behind her fall.

What do the upcoming days carry for us? Is our miserable life going to continue on the same path? Is there a ray of sunshine at the end of our gloomy tunnel?