Arun

Arun walked home from school everyday. Alone. He liked his friends and played with them all day. But the walk from the school to home was his journey to make.

Why? Because he took a lot of detours and his friends were too hungry to accompany him every day.

His mother worried when she saw him returning, later than all the other boys. She asked him why he was late. He said he walked slow. His mother worried.

So one day she walked to school and watched him leave.

She was curious. She had been a kid once. She had a world she lived in. When touching every railing, every wall on the way home was necessary, deciding which route to school she should take. There weren’t men she was afraid of. It was the dogs. She loved her white uniform. She was proud of being prefect. In school, obedience was the ultimate duty. Being a kid was nice.

He walked like her. With a skip and a hop. Like there was some jazz playing. He stopped to stare at flowers in the cracks of stone. And walls with drawings. He removed a pencil from his pencil box and drew a house. He loved drawing on walls. Her house was proof. The house was made with two windows and a door. Also, a mountain and a sun between them. Then he walked some more. Stopped near a puddle of water and pretended he was fishing. She laughed.

Then he went some more, stopped near a bunch of elderly vegetable vendors, smiled at them, took a free carrot and walked along. She was worried, the carrot was unwashed. Maybe he’d fall ill.

Then he sat down on a ledge and dangled his legs. Then looked up straight at her.

“What are you doing?” “Nothing. I came to school to pick you. Teacher said you already left. So I was walking home. What are you doing here?” “Nothing. Waiting for you. You shouldn’t wander alone.” “I am the adult here, kid.” “Okay, if you say so.”

And then he jumped from the ledge and held her hand.

He wasn’t like her. He didn’t need his mother as much she has needed hers. And as much she needed him.

But he needed something else, she realized. He needed mountains and the sun. He needed the water. He needed old wise men around him.

This cold world with manufactured mountains, blocked sun, artificial lakes and broken families was not enough for him. So he was creating his own.

When a woman smiles

She was sitting on the beach, writing. She was afraid of water but she loved watching it. She loved all dreamy things.

He walked past her, and then turned. The hair tied in a bun. The slight tilt of the head. The eyes staring into nothingness. The tattoo on the neck. He walked back. “Hi.” He said. She threw her head back and looked at him with one eye open. He smiled his most charming smile and plopped down next to her.
“I am Aditya. You live here?”

Always too eager.

“By here if you mean the beach then I only wish I could.”

Unwanted company never made her happy. He looked like he wanted to say something then thought better of it and kept silent. Finally, after some silence she closed her book and got up.

“I should get going. Nice to see you.” She smiled. And he knew he would like her. It was one of those few brilliant smiles that lit everything up. Only cliché about her.

“See you around. Do you come to the beach often?”

“Whenever I can, and whenever it isn’t too crowded.”

Then she turned and walked away. He wanted to stop her and talk to her. He stared sat her till she walked to the road. The legs in shorts and just the right amount of curves was what he noticed the most. He turned and looked at the water. It was turning out to be a pleasant Sunday.

A sudden urge gripped him. He had to know that he would meet her again. So he got up and ran faster than he knew he could. He reached the street and there she was, walking away. He casually caught up with her. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He had never been more embarrassed. Just as he was wondering what to say, she gave him a smirk.

They talked about inconsequential things for some time. Then he finally asked, “Your name is? Sorry if I am intruding.”

“Anya. Don’t worry; I’d kill you if you were troubling me.” She winked. He gasped and then laughed too hard. Trying too much.

They walked for sometime in silence. She stopped outside a building. She asked in a suddenly animated voice, “Have you seen the water from up there? It is hauntingly beautiful. I go up there once in a while. You want to come along?”

He knew he had a chance with her. He didn’t want to go. He didn’t like tall buildings. He said, “I’ll come. Don’t really have anything to do.” A doubtful shadow then crossed his face. “But isn’t this the haunted building? No one’s lived here apparently.”

“I know. And that is what makes the view all the more surreal. There’s only water and rocks below. Nothing else.”

She took his hand and led him. He followed. He felt he knew her. She drew him in. She raced to the top laughing her enchanting laugh. As he walked behind her all he could think of was how beautiful her body was.

They reached the top and like she said; it was stunning.

He turned to look at her. She pointed towards the corner of the building and they sat there at the edge. They listened to the rhythm of waves for some time. Then he said,” You are beautiful. Your eyes gleam.”

She looked at him with a distant look, “I said that to a guy some years back. His eyes gleamed too. I really loved him.”

“What did he say?”

“He called me fat.”

Then he remembered. Tania.

When he fell, the last thing he saw was the wicked smile and the sexy body.

Next morning, the newspapers had a small mention of a suicide from a haunted building.
“Now he’ll know not to call a girl fat.” She smiled.

Mother

The last time the mother saw her daughter, it was the train.

There was that one careless moment when she looked away. She doesn’t even remember what it was that caught her attention.

It was late. She was working late that night. She remembers.

She remembers that steady blowing wind. She remembers her tired, sleeping daughter. She was holding on to her. Then as her daughter fell asleep, she lay her on the train seat. With her head in the mother’s lap. But then. There was that one moment that she would regret all her life. When she looked away. And her daughter wasn’t there anymore. She yelled frantically for her.

That split second when she looked away.

But then there was something she forgot. Or overwrote.

The last time the mother saw her daughter, it was the front seat of the car.
There was that one careless moment when she looked away. She doesn’t even remember what it was that caught her attention.

It was late. She was working late that night. She remembers.

She remembers that steady blowing wind. She remembers her tired, sleeping daughter.
The mother doesn’t remember the truck that she didn’t see. She doesn’t remember the car she slammed into. She doesn’t remember the part where her daughter died.
There was that one moment that she would regret all her life. When she looked away. And her daughter wasn’t there anymore. She yelled frantically for her.

That split second when she looked away.

The Little Girl

“Murder!” She screamed.

Ah! The damned woman. Never could keep quiet, could she? He pretended to be alarmed and surprised too as he saw what lay on the floor.
The body of a little girl.

As the woman continued shouts of murder, he stood there staring at the familiar body. The beauty of it. The beauty that he didn’t see when it lived. She, he corrected himself. Now that she was dead, she was more real for him than she ever was.

“Oh my god!” muttered a neighbor. “Who is she?” The fat one with the apron asked.

“I don’t know! We entered the house and there she was. Why would someone kill a stranger in our house?” The woman’s voice made him want to strangle her sometimes. That thin quivering voice.

The little girl had a deep one. A soothing deep voice.

The woman made the whole scene, a pity show. It shifted from being the death of a little girl to a dead body in her house. He hated her. Someday, she would die at his hands, too, he thought.

One good thing that came from the ruckus was he didn’t have to do the dirty work. Somehow the police turned up. Somehow people who were not even around when he and his wife reached home to find the girl were giving statements about it.

He smiled. The girl deserved more. The little girl with the pig tails and the torn dress.

She had lived on the same street as all of them for years now. All of them had just conveniently forgotten her. Like he had.

He went and sat on his rocking arm chair. He was too old for this now. He was happy he had done away with the children and could drink beer without the permission of the missus.

Every day on his way to work, he’d toss a coin to the girl as he chatted with her and answered her harmless questions. He didn’t once pay attention. He didn’t once look into her eyes. He should have. Then he would have known. Then maybe he could have saved her. Maybe, he could have talked her out of this.

But he was selfish. Wasn’t he? He never thought he’d care if a girl killed herself. A girl no one cared about.

But he cared. He did.

So he reached for the gun in his drawer. As he stood facing the window and felt the nozzle of the gun on his temple, he felt a memory rush back to him.

“Do people care about each other?”

“They don’t. They pretend to but they don’t. One of us would otherwise have picked you and given you a home. But have we? Because we don’t care.”

“So it wouldn’t matter to anyone if I died?”

“You are a tramp, my child. It wouldn’t matter to my family if I died.” He scorned.

“So I’ll kill myself then and see if it matters.”

He ruffled her already ruffled hair and said, “Go ahead. Try it.”

“Mind it if I do it in your house?”

And as he tossed her a coin, he nodded and said, “I do not mind. Just don’t mess up the place too much.”

He pressed the trigger. He hoped no one would care about his death. Not as much he had cared about hers.
That little girl with the pigtails and the torn dress.

Afterlife

I had this severe pain in the left side of my head. My head throbbed. I continued working hoping the head ache would stop. 10 minutes into work, I knew I needed a drive. So I got up and left.

I was 29. Horrible, I know. I need to really start smoking.

I lived alone in a fall-on-your-face-and-you’ll-probably-hit-your-head-apartment, without my parents who found it perfectly fine to die when I turned 18. Yes, they left me no siblings. The aunts and uncles and cousins were all perfectly too annoying.

As all these depressing thoughts passed my head, I found myself near the elevator. As I waited for the torturously polite elevator to finish its pleasantries on each floor and reach mine, the Greek god of my office walked right up to me and said, “I think you dropped these.” As I smiled at him and extended my hand, a strip of anti depressants fell into my hand. I looked down and said, “But these aren’t mine.” I swear they weren’t. But he smiled and walked back.

Asshole.

I mean what does he think of me? Yes, I am not exactly chirpy but come on, I wasn’t on anti-depressants.

Maybe I should take it.

The headache was worsening.

I reached my pityingly small car and sat in it. Seriously, did I look depressed?

I took a quick reverse out of the parking lot and drove onto the main road. After a physically torturous 10 minutes in the traffic, I reached an absolutely empty road. And I drove like a maniac.

It felt nice. The wind in my hair. The absolute freedom of an empty road.

Then crash. Boom. Pow.

Dead as a doornail.

Holy shit. One time I drive recklessly and you kill me!

Okay, wait! How was I still talking? I mean, in my head.

I was dead. I somehow knew it. I was still there on that hauntingly empty road. But just that I wasn’t there. As in my now-should-be smashed car and my mangled body wasn’t. But I was.

This is confusing, I agree.

And as I stood there with a bewildered expression, I realized the left side of my head still hurt.

But they said there was no pain after death. Aw, crap! So they were lying.

I walked on that empty road.

If I had to choose between whether this was heaven or hell, I would say hell, alright. This place was empty except for me. Maybe only I sucked at living.

Then absolutely out of nowhere entered a man. A man with boyish eyes. A man with a crooked smile.

My ears. Violins did start playing. The street did fill with colours.

A man who seemed like he was waiting for me.

“Anya? I was waiting for you. Thank God, you are finally here. Hi, I am Aditya, your soul mate. Sorry, we couldn’t meet in life. I kind of died young” He said.

I knew it! My soul mate had died! I wish I could tell all the people that once mentioned that I was meant to die alone.

Okay, technically they were right. But whatever.

Oh, by the way, the lies about love are all true. All pain does vanish, music does play, and yes, you do start believing in life. Sorry, after life.