[saral]
Saral’s POV
I entered the orphanage premises. Everything was same. I was brought here when I was shot to death seven years back. I’ve noticed since then, nothing has changed. From the colour of flowers in the garden to the mind of people here, everything is crystal clear, pure. The watchman smiled at me as I entered. I replied with one and went my way inside. Every kid I met in my way wished me a morning and so did I. I reached the way where my darling was and intentionally I moved forward from the room where she was and soon she identified my arrival.
“saral…. I’m here…” she says.
“coming mother….” I reply back.
I entered the room where there was an old couple speaking with mother. I see them and turn my gaze towards mother questioningly.
“they are parents of the girl I told.” She says. I was willing to cancel the ‘date’ she had set.
“mother…” I say while she cut me off.
“wait…. Let me finish…… the girl just ran away with her guy friend. These people came to apologise over.” She stated.
At once I just couldn’t explain how happy I felt.
“nah…. Uncle its fine…. I guess you should get your daughter married to the guy whom she loves. I guess that would be far better for her, leading her life with one she loves than with one whom she doesn’t know at all. And I guess….” Mother trailed me off.
“you have guessed enough. Now go have something, I’ll be back.” She says and I nodded and turned to go.
“he is always the same don’t mind…” I hear her tell them with a frown. I smiled to myself for finding one such woman in my life. Well, I didn’t find her…. I got her. Ever since there was a news of me being jailed for forcing myself on my girlfriend and killing her guard, which was of course utterly lie, I couldn’t help myself face people around. I didn’t know the reason but I could feel myself destroying the real saral in me. The joyful me was far gone. That’s when I found this wonderful woman of my life. She had been my real god, guide, happiness everything since then. I didn’t want to face my family before I could clear the non-sense created in my life. They would trust me, no matter what, but I wanted to prove myself for the society so that none would blame my family keeping me as an arrow. Dad would be very sad by the things that went on. I hadn’t met mom for a while I disappeared. I had met my baby doll, Radhika the day before I left. It kept me from being sad for not seeing her at last. I had asked her to promise me that she would not do something that made mom sad. I did meet her friend samaira with her boyfriend and asked them to look after my doll. I sounded casual enough in the meet though my doll kept questioning my idiotic behaviour. I had dismissed all her questions and tried enjoying myself with her for a while.
Well, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m saral Mishra. Son of Dilip Mishra and Mala Mishra. I have a baby sister, Radhika, god knows what she does now. I did have a very happy family which split into two pieces’ coz of some reason. My mom had me and my sister when they split and eventually my dad earned my custody. My dad was the sweetest of all. He was the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Mumbai. Everything was good until I was sent abroad for my studies. There I met my friend, most likely a brother of mine, Surya. I did meet my girlfriend, Sadha, there, who cheated me by blaming me for the thing which I could never think in my dream that I would do. She lodged a complaint against me stating I attempted to force myself over her. My heart told maybe it was not her, or maybe she had her reasons, but my mind didn’t give a damn to it.
I entered the dining hall, where all the kids sat with cereal in the bowls that clad their hands. They smiled at me and some hi-fived.
“mother said we would meet your special friend today. Who is she? She didn’t come is it?” a cute girl of four asks me.
“there is no such special friend sweetie, mother is too old and blabbers something….. don’t believe her…” I said sitting on my knees to reach up to her level.
She giggled and I smiled but later screamed as mother held my ear twisting it.
“you, old man, you are saying that I’m old? That wouldn’t be good for you.” she says reaching out for the stick nearby.
I ran around the hall while she chased me but soon she stood gasping for her breath.
“I told you old woman, but you never listen.” I said rubbing her back. She smiled cupping my cheeks in her shaking hands.
“that’s why I want you to settle. And I believe you would look after these kids after my demise.”
“don’t speak rubbish mother” a yell comes from the door. We turned towards the voice to see my best friend Surya standing there throwing angry glares towards mother with a frown on his face.
“sorry….” mother utters when this man engulfs her and me into a hug at once.
“you didn’t tell you would come?” I asked him.
“something important. I need to talk to you about something.” He says sounding serious. He had been to Mumbai. I guess its not about my family.
“have you breakfast and then speak” mother says while pouring some cereal into three bowls.
“okay…” he says.
My mind kept fidgeting around all the while about what he wanted to speak. He never spoke to me in this tone. Not even when sadha was about to drop me behind bars.
“we would leave and most probably leave the city by night.” He said. I tried processing things while they decided not to connect with each other.
“what’s it? spill out…” I ask him very badly controlling my eagerness after reaching my apartment. His eyes had lost the glow they had before he left.
“uh….hmmm…. that’s…..” he stammers and my anger grew exponentially.
“will you just tell me what the heck is wrong?”
“saral… I met your….. your sister…. And spoke to her….”
“really? How’s she? Mom? You met her too?” I turned really curious and way too happy.
“yeah… she’s fine…. Your mom…. She…. She died a week ago…”He says and I shattered.
“what are you speaking? That’s not true…” my voice came like a whisper.
“I’m telling the truth. She passed away a week ago…”
Now that’s it. I could feel some pointing sound shoot my ears as my eyes go blank. Before I lose my control totally, he held me and fed me some water after letting me sit on the nearby couch. I felt a pang on my heart. It wrenched. My eyes were emotionless. There was no tear dripping but still the pain was just un-explainable. If I’m this way, then what would have my baby doll done. How had she been since then? Dad? Did he go to see her at last? Did he do her last rights? Did radhu leave him to do the last rights? My mind revolved around many questions while I sat in utter silence.
“speak saral. Don’t scare me…” surya yells shaking me.
“uh….huh….mmmm…. how’s radhu now? Who did mom’s last rights?”
“radhika did it. it seems she didn’t allow your father near your mom.”
“oh!!” my voice was emotionless.
“where is she?”
“with her boyfriend.”
“boyfriend?” I was slightly taken aback.
“she has grown up too fast.” I said more to myself than him.
“yeah… sisters do grow up fast…” he said with a smile which I hardly tried to return.
“I want to see her once but I don’t want her to see me.”
“but why?”
“you know why. She wouldn’t leave me come back.”
“and why do you want to come back at least? She has lost her mom, she’s hurt by her dad and even you. she needs you please go stay with her.” He said.
“I need to gather proof”
“she is more precious”
“I want to prove myself. So I need proofs.” I yell.
“proof…. Proof…… proof…. What will you do with the proof when you have none with you to celebrate your glory after proving yourself….? What will you do if you lose her? Will you still think of proof to prove yourself? How will you guarantee that she won’t take some drastic step that may take her away from you forever? Don’t be so selfish saral. Do think about her. She needs you, she needs her brother. You have always made her suffer in one or the other way. At least now you wake up. She won’t ask you for proofs. She would just trust you even if you lie. What else can you give her in your life if you can’t give her your shoulder while she’s suffering?”
His words were so true. If I couldn’t give her my shoulder, then what could I give her?
“I’ve booked tickets for us. We need to be there soon. Got it?” he asked and I nodded.
I was left with no other option. I’m still scared about her reaction. We left the apartment soon and got into the airport two hours before departure.
“think again surya, she might not want me there… she has…” I stopped as he glared a murderous glare at me.
“the flight to Delhi, India from the Sydney airport is delayed for an hour due to some problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.” Comes the computerised voice. I sighed. Maybe I was happy that I would get some more time to think about answers. Again at the same time I was sad for being late to see my sister. I felt a shot of happiness at the thought of seeing my doll. I wonder why am I not feeling that sad for losing my mom. Maybe because I lost the connection as I spent most of my days with dad.
Why didn’t things turn out simple? I loved someone and expecting the same wasn’t really wrong right? I met her when I was doing my second semester in mechanics. She was beautiful and good at heart, or so I thought. I did propose and after getting a positive response from her after about a month of pleading, we thought of revealing our relationship to our families. The night we were about to spit things out turned dreadful. She came to my house and behaved weird. I doubted if she was the girl I loved. She said she wasn’t interested in me anymore and got a better guy to date with. I was broken and relaxed too for not introducing her to my dad. I finished my masters and planned getting back to India. The night before my departure she had called me and I stupidly thought that things may get better. And that was exactly her plan I suppose. She tried seducing me and later there was a raid by the cops. She stated that I almost molested her. She even told that I killed her body guard. I didn’t have a clue about her body guard though.
I came back from my day dream or what seems to be a dreadful past of mine to the earth when surya nudged me.
“to earth saral” he said shaking me.
“times up. Gotta go….”
“yeah…” we started our journey back to India.
“we have our flight to mumbai in the morning at 11. I have booked a room for us nearby.” He said when we reached delhi. We were too tired to travel anymore that day.
Next day we travelled and finally reached. My home. Sweet, beautiful, little, cute. I expected my sister to jump on me giving a hug. I would twirl her around. I would take care of her from now. She’s stubborn. She wouldn’t let me, but I would leave her no choice.
“I would see you later.” Surya said and went away before even I could reply.
I went to the door and knocked. I door opened instead at the lite knock. It was calm. It was never so before. Memories of mom chasing us to feed us, we watching TV together, pillow fight of the trio everything were as if playing like a video. Mom’s photo was hung there with lamp in front which wasn’t lit though. I motioned my glued keg towards it. my heart was still aching, but not aching. I wasn’t sure how to feel. A part of me was sad while the other was confused about why am I not as sad as a son would me after losing his mother. I lit the lamp and my hands automatically joined, my eyes closed and tears trailed down. I immediately sought a look at doll’s room. I ran over to find her absence.
“radhika..” I yelled.
“radhika I’m here…. Your brother saral is here…” I yell again.
“doll please come… I want to see you…”
I was now choked and I whisper yelled, “please come to me… I would never leave again…”
I ran to mom’s room. I windows were open. I rushed in as searched around to get no clue of her. I stepped a step back and I heard crackling sound of paper. I bent to see a crumbled paper on the floor. My heart rate increased with anxiousness. I slowly opened the paper. It was mom’s handwriting.
“mishra’s I destroyed you…” I could feel her smiling wickedly while writing this. She was also a Mishra right. I looked away at the bed. There was a paper peeping through the duvet.
My legs gave up and my hand trembled while I sat on the floor next to bed after reading it. dad always told me that my mom wasn’t good and I had always huffed at him. This was the only topic which we always fought for. I had been with my mom for a while and I thought I knew her well. But everything was upside down. She was not all my mom. Or so the paper said. I really was shattered. Felt cheated.
I felt soft hands on my shoulder. I turned but my vision was blur from tears to see the person. My heart told me it was someone important. I leaned towards the person wrapping my arms around. I felt comfort. Due to the bangle sound I could tell it was a girl. But who? I wiped my tears and broke the hug. I saw the girl and she was……………
To be contined…..
So whos the girl now? Will vampires find him?