From Leeward to Windward
I sit on the bed with my feet dangling, a reminder of how short I am. Or maybe all these beds are supposed to be a little too high, making me feel like a kid that has been rebuked and grounded for a week. I look out through the window, it’s frame so rusty and it’s pane so dirty you could draw a scarecrow on it. The sun blinds my eyes and makes my head throb so much I wish I were dead. I lie down again, force shutting my eyes. I’m exhausted. I try to remember something, anything that would tell me how I landed here. A few images sear my eyes. A child bundled up in woollens. Green, to yellow, to red. A woman’s screech. Loud honking. Everything turning black. What I remember as clearly as day though, is the pain. So much of it, that those fractures in my ribs and limbs feel like nothing. I wonder if the doctor saw my bruises. I hope he doesn’t ask me any questions, I would be so embarrassed to tell him how I got those. What if the doctor is a ‘she’? Would she give me a look of mutual understanding and pretend to overlook the scars or would she judge me for them?
I never wanted this in the first place. Life was so perfect all throughout school and college. I had everything a girl could ask for. Doting parents, amiable friends, loving cousins. But I still can’t remember what happened that night. All I remember is waking up next morning to a bloody fist and a bloodied wall. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t tell anyone. The smell of the blood seeping down the drain of my bathroom basin still haunts my nostrils and makes me retch into the bowl next to me.
Sometimes I feel so good. Like I could do anything, absolutely anything I please. And then there are days when I don’t want to leave my bed, even opening my eyes hurts. Someone is tapping my hand now. Oh it’s her. She smiles at me and I try smiling back although it probably looks more like a grimace. I like her a lot because she never asks questions. The questions they ask me, God forbid! Sometimes I want them to just leave me alone, but I can’t say that of course, it would hurt them. Anyway, now that she’s here, I feel better. Maybe it’s time for the sun to shine again. How I look forward to sunny days, although they make the gloomy ones feel the way they do. She kisses my forehead and leaves me to myself. I look out through the window and it seems like a beautiful day. The sun sparkles onto my face and I decide to half open the window to breathe in the essence of the forest beyond. I draw the face of a smiling girl as I start humming to a song that seems to be stuck in my head. As I finish my Magnum Opus, I smile at the window as the girl smiles some more at me.
As I had to write a flash fiction on any topic, I decided to write one about bipolar disorder. It is one of the first times I have ever attempted to write a serious short story.
Her First Bicycle Ride
It had been such a long time since she had first asked her older brother to teach her to ride a bicycle. Mummy wouldn’t let her because she was always afraid she would get hurt. Daddy wouldn’t let her because he didn’t trust her brother enough and he never had the time to teach her himself. But one afternoon when mummy was asleep, her brother decided it was time she had her first bicycle lesson. He took out the bicycle from the shed. It was gleaming in all its glory. She couldn’t wait to start. Once her brother finished telling her how the brakes, pedals and bell worked, he helped her sit atop the bicycle while he held it firmly. Soon enough she began to push the pedals, her brother helping her balance as the cool breeze slapped her cheeks. She kept thinking, “Oh! I’m not going to fall! Bhaiya will keep the bicycle steady.”. And so she cycled off the mud lane and into a plain filled with beautiful flowers and grasses of intense green. She could see a shallow pond glimmering under the sun a few metres ahead of her. Her joy knew no bounds! She couldn’t help grinning, a smile was plastered on her face. While she was looking around, she saw a dainty butterfly which had various shades of blue. She couldn’t help exclaiming to her brother, “Bhaiya looooook!!! Isn’t that a pweety buhtafly???”.When he didn’t respond, she remembered mummy saying he sometimes was ab-sunt-mayun-did, and so she told him once more to look at it. When he refused to pay her any attention, she violently turned her head as much as she could backwards to ask him why he wouldn’t listen, only to see him broadly grinning at her achievement from a 100 metres away!!!!! This caused a sudden wave of panic in her lungs. She lost her focus as well as her confidence and she fell straight into the pond. Bhaiya panicked as he watched the entire scene unravel and he ran forward to save her from the pond. But before he reached, she emerged out of the pond, howling with laughter as spirogyra cascaded down her braids and mud caked the entirety of her body. Bhaiya rushed forward to make sure she wasn’t hurt. He gave her a tight hug and murmured an apology. He made her promise never to tell mummy or daddy about the incident, warning her that if she did, he would never teach her to ride the bicycle again. She nodded, her head moving up and down frantically. Bhiaya made her sit behind him on the cycle and took her back home quickly, praying that their mother hadn’t woken up already. He quietly put the bicycle back in the garage and sneaked himself and his sister into the house. He quickly grabbed a towel and clothes from her cupboard and hung them onto the pegs in the bathroom. He then caught his sister, who was trying to pull out a biscuit from a jar with her muddy hands, and shoved her into the bathroom to do away with all the evidence. Before she shut the door, she beckoned Bhaiya to bend down as if to whisper something in his ear, but instead, she kissed his cheek and as he looked at her in mild astonishment she gave him the sweetest smile which held silence that spoke immense gratitude. He smiled back, his pale face a little less pale. His face soon became stoic and he told her to finish cleaning up quickly. While she bathed, her smile never stopped showing in the mirror above the basin.
The following morning, mummy seemed to be cross as everyone sat at the table for breakfast. She looked at her daughter with semi-angry eyes and said, “Why do you let your clothes get soiled so easily? Can’t you learn to take better care of them? When are you going to learn to be a responsible child? Are you grinning? Are you actually grinning at me? Where do you learn all this disrespectful behaviour from? Daddy has spoilt you to no extent.”, to which daddy, who was busy reading the newspaper and had only heard his wife say ‘Daddy’ and ‘spoilt’ looked up with astonishment at the potential re-incarnation of Durga and timidly asked, “What did I do?”. As they went on with their dissection of who had spoilt whom and how, their daughter looked up and grinned even more at her brother who gave her a stern look which said don’t you dare say a word! As daddy who was mildly upset with his wife’s illogical accusations, opened the garage to get the car out, she had a small glimpse of the bicycle. Her hand immediately went up to tug at Bhaiya’s sleeve and she gave him a grin which he returned with an amused look which meant they would soon embark on their next adventure. Her grin wasn’t the only evidence they didn’t do away with, for the biscuit jar sat on the kitchen table with muddy fingerprints, waiting to be discovered by mummy.
I wanted to try writing about a simple incident that takes place in the lives of most children and I also wanted to portray the innocent relationship between a brother and a sister.
The Date
He looked up at the clock. Half past noon. The calendar hanging on the wall said it was the fourth of December, Sunday. If only Aunt Agatha hadn’t been up to her regular nonsense. How nice his afternoon and evening would have been. A hot, comforting meal, followed by a steaming cup of coffee. After which he would nap for an hour or so and then wake up to play the piano all evening accompanied again by some hot coffee and solace. Solace. Oh how he longed for it. But here he was. Setting out to supposedly end his phase of solace and begin what Aunt Agatha described as ‘the true journey of life’. He wondered what he had been doing for the past 28 years if not ‘journeying through life’. His mind wandered to how his life would have been different if Aunt Agatha had never existed. Well, he wouldn’t have ever received apple tart every Sunday evening, and he most definitely would have never become the pianist he was today if it weren’t for her enthusiastic guidance and support. But he would have been spared the ordeal of courting a lady. He snapped out of his trail of thoughts as the apartment door slammed at his back, sucking away the warm and cosy atmosphere of the apartment and as the cold wind bit the tip of his nose, he stepped his first step towards what he considered ‘foreign territory’. He couldn’t fathom why any lady in the right frame of mind, would want to meet a man in this cold and harsh weather. Just how desperate was she to have a ring on her finger? He couldn’t help smiling to himself when he thought of her disappointed face as he imagined her leave after the wretched date they were supposed to have. As he watched the trees all white and grey, his cell phone beeped. He took it out to check who it was. As expected it was Aunt Agatha. She had sent him a message reminding him of his date and telling him to be nice. She also asked him to keep his WhatsApp live location on, so that she could track his movements. The previous evening, he had been set up for a date by her and instead of meeting the lady he had wandered off to a pub and spent the evening watching a Chelsea v/s Manchester United game with his office friends. This was her way of making sure he didn’t pull that one on her again. He rolled his eyes and sent her a reply saying his battery was too low. As he put the cell phone back into his pocket, he passed by the pub he had used as an escape the previous time. His feet lingered at it’s entrance for a few moments, but then something at the pit of his stomach made him walk away from the alluring dilapidated pub. Although he hated to admit it, he wondered who this mystery woman was. One that would be so willing to meet up with him on a cold winter’s evening. As he neared his destination, he saw a familiar figure in a red dress walk out of a hot pink car and into the same restaurant where he was supposed to meet the lady. His interest in entering the place peaked as he wondered why she seemed so familiar. From what he managed to see, she was a short, slender girl. Probably his age or a little younger, with waist long blond hair. She was formally dressed and had an air of confidence around her. He quickened his pace and crossed the street to enter the restaurant.
The table he had reserved was empty, which probably meant the lady he was supposed to meet was running late. He thought how that could be a good reason for telling the lady that he didn’t like her, simply because she was tardy. Better still, if she didn’t turn up in another fifteen minutes, he could just leave and tell Aunt Agatha that the lady never turned up. How perfect that would be! He could only hope for his plans to materialise. As he told the waiter to return after a while, he remembered the mystery girl he had seen outside the restaurant. Not recognising the girl really annoyed him. She seemed very familiar. But now, she was nowhere to be seen. Women are so weird, he thought. He spent the next fifteen minutes munching on the complimentary breadsticks that had been most graciously kept on the table. When another fifteen minutes passed by and the breadsticks were long gone, he began to wonder if the lady had stood him up after all. Perhaps Karma did exist and his share of suffering was already beginning. Just as he was thinking about how he should have probably turned up the previous evening for the date now that he knew what it felt like, he saw the mystery girl walk out of the ladies’ wash-room and go sit at a table right across his. He wondered whether she had been in the wash-room all this while and if she was, what she had been up to. Just at that moment, he saw her look at him from above the rim of her wine glass. As his eyes met hers, he remembered who she was! She was in his biology class for two years. How could he have forgotten her? She was one of the best students in his school, winning awards every year for everything under the sun. She caught him staring at her and he snapped out of his thoughts. He watched from the corner of his eyes as her company left the table and walked out of the restaurant. She whispered something into their ears and started walking towards him. He felt his palms sweat and his heart beat faster. What would he say if she asked him why he had been staring all this while? He had always found her a little intimidating even as kids.
He her mumble something. When she repeated, he realised she was asking if she could sit down. He replied in the positive and got up to pull out the seat for her but she beat him to eat and sat down gracefully. She was the first to talk.“Wow, you haven’t changed a bit! You’ve probably gained a few pounds, but besides that, you’re the same boy that sat next to me in biology class.” He replied, “Yeah I guess. I didn’t think you’d remember me after all these years.”. “Nonsense! What do you mean all these years? We’re not eighty something yet!” She burst into laughter. “You don’t seem to have changed either, your hair is longer now, and you dress more like a woman than a man now, but your humour is still the same.”. “I wouldn’t change for the world!!!” she said. “So! What are you up to? I heard you’re performing in East Europe next month. Must be so exciting, travelling the world, doing what you love, and getting paid for it!”. He replied with a polite laugh, “Well, it’s great fun. A lot of hard work, but it always pays off. I didn’t know you were so up to date with my whereabouts. What have you been doing for the past few years? I’m sorry, I haven’t really heard anything about you ever since we graduated from school.” She smiled warmly and said, “I teach at the state University. I teach History and Archaeology.”. “Oh wow! That must be nice. Although, I must say, we all thought you would go for research or something of that sort.”. She replied, “Yeah, I thought so too. But life had other plans in store for me I guess.”
Just then, a loud crack echoed in the quiet restaurant and before he knew it, there were five men standing in the doorway of the restaurant. One of them had probably fired the gun-shot and the other four also seemed armed. The men were dressed in black outfits with masks keeping their identity a mystery. She tugged at his sleeve and managed to pull them both out of the restaurant through the back door. She seemed to know her way around the place quite well. Upon seeing his astonished face, she explained that she had worked at the restaurant for a while when the financial situation at home wasn’t great. They sneaked into a dark alleyway and stopped to catch their breath. “Whew! That was one hell of an experience. Shouldn’t we have called the police?” She replied, “I think the manager will get that done.” He continued,“I wonder what they were after…. Probably just extortion… But I always thought this area was one of the safer ones in this city…. Who would have thought we would get so much action on such a cold winter’s evening!” He began to laugh at what had just happened, when she replied, “Do you think that was a lot of action? Well you’re a lucky man, because you’re in for a lot more of it!” He looked at her in disbelief, wondering what she could possibly mean by that statement. For a split second he thought she was going to kiss him, and as she came in close proximity, he actually grew certain she would do something of the sort. She pinned him to the wall and leaned into him and just when he was about to ask her to hold her horses, he felt something jab his abdomen. When he looked down, he saw a shiny silver pistol threatening to spill his guts out at any moment. “Did you really think I would let you get away after you humiliated me in that manner? What pathetic excuse of a man stands a woman up during a date on a cold winter’s evening? I wore my favourite black dress because I thought you were actually serious about the date. How dare you make a fool out of me? I sat in that restaurant all by myself for an hour and a half. I missed watching an important match only so that I could meet you. The waiters threw me such pitiful glances that I had to leave in shame when you didn’t turn up. Now you have to face the music.” She began to cackle at her own pun. She then raised the pistol and pointed it at his forehead. “I hope you go to hell you jerk!” He tried to scream for help but his voice was caught in his throat. She pulled the trigger and he collapsed onto the cold ground. She walked away as he felt the warm blood spill all over his clothes and began to lose consciousness.
He heard someone approach him. It was probably just the person who was going to dispose off his body. But that person began to shake him violently. “Wake up you lazy bum!!! You’re supposed to be setting out for a date. I knew you wouldn’t go so I decided to make sure you would by coming here myself. She’s such a sweet girl. I promise you’ll like her. I said wake up!!!” He rubbed his eyes and looked up to see who it was. It was Aunt Agatha looking very stern and annoyed at him. “That was one hell of a nightmare!” he said aloud. “Well if you don’t leave the house in ten minutes, I promise I’ll be your living nightmare!” boomed Aunt Agatha’s voice from the bedroom. “Now. go get changed and leave!!!”. He looked up at the calendar. Third of December, Saturday. “She’s an old classmate of yours, sweet child she is. She’ll be wearing a black dress, just so you can identify her in case you don’t recognize her.” He looked at his aunt in alarm and for a moment considered making a run for the pub, but he knew better now.
This was my term end submission for short story writing.
Kuki Goes to School.
“Tring trrring trrrrring…..” the alarm started to ring. Mama woke Kuki up with a warm hug. It was pouring outside, it had been pouring all night. “Kitu paus go! It’s only the first week of June!” The aroma of freshly roasted chapatis and bhaji wafted towards Kuki, making her stomach grumble with hunger. Kuki got out of bed, yawning and stretching her limbs as Minnie, her cat, usurped her warm bed. She got dressed in the new uniform that Mama had gotten her stitched. Mama tied up her hair in braids with shiny new black ribbons. Breakfast was yummy as usual, Kuki ate until she could eat no more, and then she wore her brand new school shoes. Mama brought out her school bag, full of books, her tiffin, water bottle and her pencil case.
She hugged Kuki tight, it was her first day of high school after all. Kuki couldn’t control herself any longer, and she burst into tears. “I don’t want to go Mammaaaa, please don’t make me go!” Even the Rain God seemed to take pity on her as it began to rain even more heavily and the thunder crashed in response to her wails. “Kuki, what’s wrong? Kiteak vospak naka tuka?” Kuki looked up at her mother with a tear stained face and tried to mumble a few words in between sobs, “Friends…..na…..kon…..na, I don’t want to go…” Mama’s heart melted. She hugged Kuki once more and said, “Everyone will be new to school, no one will know each other. You’ll make friends very soon! You just have to be the nice girl that you are, it won’t be long before you get to know new people! Look at your cousin Alisha, she was also sad like you on her first day of school, but then she met Kenneth and Carol and Rahul, and now they’re all best friends! The years passed by so quickly, she’s already in the tenth standard. I promise, you’ll like school so much, you won’t even realize how the time passes by.” Kuki retorted, “But Mama! I miss Rhea soooooo much! Why can’t Rhea come to my school?” Mama replied, “That’s because she lives in Assolna, you can’t expect her to travel all the way to Curtorim every single day! You can meet her on weekends, but you should make friends with the children from our village too. I know it hasn’t been easy for you ever since we moved here, but you’ll get used to it soon enough, who knows, you might end up liking it here more than you did in Assolna!”
Just then, Dada entered, “Kite zale? What’s all this noise about? Kuki, why are you crying?” Kuki replied, “Mama says I have to go to school here in Curtorim, but I don’t want to, I don’t know anyone, I’ll be all alone! Can you please tell her I don’t want to go? Please?” Dada glanced at Mama and then replied, “I see, okay, here’s what we can do, how about you try going to school for a week? Just a week? If you still don’t like it, Mama and I will think of something else. But you must try, how will you know what it’s like if you don’t go at all?”
With a small face, Kuki nodded her head. This was a one against two fight so there was no way she could win. “Our neighbour, John’s son Joseph, is as old as you. He’ll be in your class, maybe you can try talking to him.” said Mama. The rain was substituted by a light drizzle now. Dada and Kuki kissed Mama good bye, wore their raincoats, and left for Kuki’s first day at school. After what seemed like forever, they reached the school premises. Dada kissed Kuki goodbye and told her to be a good girl. The school seemed so huge and Kuki felt so lost. The teacher to whom Dada had entrusted Kuki was slightly built but had a strong voice and a stern expression.
She led her to a classroom that was bustling with activity. There were girls and boys running everywhere in their crisply ironed uniforms, some kids were trying to get the last benches while others were playing games. There were a few shy and quiet children too who sat all alone in the corners and peered at the newly arrived student and the teacher beside her. The teacher beckoned Kuki to take a seat next to a boy who looked very mischievous indeed, after which she rapped a long ruler on the wooden table at the end of the classroom, “Silence! All of you sit down, it is time for the morning-prayer.” At this command, all the students suddenly stopped whatever they were doing and slipped into their seats. The morning-prayer was short and peaceful, but Kuki couldn’t keep her eyes shut for too long. She was very curious to see so many new faces, they didn’t seem too bad after all.
After the prayer, the teacher told everyone to sit down. Kuki felt someone tap her shoulder from behind. She turned to see who it was, and when she did, she realized it was Joseph, her neighbour. “Hi! I’m Joseph, aren’t you Coquette, the one who moved in next to our house a few weeks ago?” “Kuki” “Kite?” “They call me Kuki” “Oh okay! Kuki, it’s nice to meet you!” he said. She smiled back at him. Suddenly someone poked her shoulder, it was her bench mate, the naughty looking boy, “I saw you no? That day? There go…..Near that Lotlin’s posro…..You and your Mama were buying milk….” So that’s where she had seen him, he did look familiar now that she thought about it. “What is your name?”, she asked. “Thomas, but everyone calls me Toto!” Kuki started to feel a little less uneasy. These children seemed warm and kind, maybe studying here would not be such a bad idea after all. The teachers didn’t teach much, as it was only the first day of school, but they made everyone introduce themselves. Mama was wrong about the children not knowing each other, almost everyone knew everyone in class, some of them had studied together in the village primary school and some were even cousins! So when Kuki went up in front of the whole class to introduce herself, there was pin drop silence in the class. Everyone stared at her with full attention, and when she finished talking, they all clapped and cheered her on. Kuki started feeling a little happier as the day passed by.
During recess, some of the girls from the class came up to Kuki as she was eating her tiffin. “Come here go, barabor bosya!” Joseph and Toto had run out to play football with the other boys, so Kuki thought it would be better to join these girls instead of sitting all by herself. They introduced themselves, “Lucy, Vanessa, Soha, Nisha and Neeta.” Nisha and Neeta were twins who looked alike. They told Kuki how they would trick their teachers in school by pretending to be one another, and Kuki who thought it was very smart, laughed at their pranks. Lucy, she found out, lived in the street next to hers. Vanessa lived close to school, and the twins lived in the house next to Toto’s with their grandmother. The girls asked her whether she would like to play ‘kill’ with them in the evening on the village ground. Kuki agreed immediately, she loved playing with the ring. Rhea would really like these girls too, she thought. The bell rang as recess got over, and the tiffin boxes that had been passed around were hurriedly stuffed back into the bags. The boys returned, all sweaty, “Vos re, you’re so stinky!” yelled one of the girls to a boy who apparently was her cousin.
The remaining lectures got over soon, and everyone ran out of school while screaming “Bye! Bye! Falya melya!” Kuki anxiously looked around for Dada as she reached the entrance of the school. She spotted him waiting under the mango tree with his bike. With a wide grin she ran all the way to him and hugged him tight. “Avois! You seem very happy! How was school?” Kuki looked up at him and said, “It was so much fun!” On the way home, Kuki told Dada every single detail that happened, she proudly told him how she had managed to make friends with at least half of her classmates and how the teachers said she was a smart child. Just before entering her house, Kuki heard Joseph call out to her from his house. She waved at him excitedly and asked him whether he’d come to play ring later in the evening at the village ground. Joseph said he would and they both smiled and said good bye. Mama greeted Kuki and hugged her tight while throwing a smile at Dada who joyously watched them from behind.