Awesome Blossoms: Horn OK Please (18 page)

She only had facts and figures about her life, not stories like the others did, and it embarrassed her no end. It was embarrassing for her to tell her friends that she had never called anyone “Mother” or “Father”.

In addition she was subject to a lot of mental abuse, not by her newly found foster parents, but from her foster mother’s immediate family, who hated her very existence. She was treated as an outcast, a beggar, unworthy of living in such a home. The very people who acted as the pillars of the church, were cruel enough to chase away a little child from their midst, calling the child all kind of names.

To add to it, she also had had a bad accident, and following that it was not only her foster mother’s relations but the rest of the world that shunned her. In a world that accepted beauty, she was a pariah, not by choice but by fate, and at times she dreaded going to school, she preferred staying at home with her books and her own thoughts.

She dreaded walking the short distance from her home to school, with the remarks, insults and questions from the passers-by. She would always want to lash out at them, hit them with whatever she could reach
out to, but she didn’t, because she couldn’t.

Her biggest fear was being ridiculed in school someday. Well, she was certainly laughed at on a few occasions and her classmates were the audiences of a few mishaps, and that made her despise school; her only consolation at school being her two friends with whom she shared fun, and laughter, and school lunches. They were the people who did not laugh at her plight, but treated her with empathy.

She did not have many memories of school, since she preferred to stay at home on most of the days, and yet she was glad to share the moments with her two friends, memories that brought about a smile to her face and lightness in her heart.

***

How much each one of them had gone through, they thought in unison. Yet, it was an amazing feeling to experience the bond of togetherness that they shared. They were always there for one another, to advice, to lend a shoulder or an ear and to assure that things would be alright. They didn’t judge each other by what had happened to them in their past, but rather they stuck together because of it.

Each meeting that they had
had, had brought about the same emotions and stories, the same memories, and yet, those same memories retold many times over all these years, never seemed to lose their excitement. The same jokes, the same escapades, talked about a hundred times over, and yet each time, they laughed till their stomachs hurt. Those moments, those memories, those special recollections, forged the bond that kept them together...

There were still a million things that they did not know about each other, and yet, it did not seem to matter at all. The few things that they did know, held them close, in a vice-like grip through the years, through the thick and the thin. Like super glue holding them in place.

That was true friendship!

***
 

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

By Mayank Jain

***

There’s no place like home... except Grandma’s.

- Author Unknown

Sunshine Calling

T
he first few days of summer were always tough. The sun would lose its mild, charismatic warmth and begin spewing scalding
arrows that pierced through the calm of the young and the old. Alexander would say, “Summers are winter’s revenge for not keeping aplomb and saying au revoir to the cold fairly early!”

But the other sid
e of the coin narrated altogether a different
story. The small town of Catalonia would wake up to warmer
mornings that were made bearable by the newfound melodies of the big birds that travelled from the Polar Regions and swarmed the city’s lake as soon as the summer set in. The kids couldn’t hate summers as much as their parents would do because of the renewed license they would get to gulp down delicious ice cream and watch the birds dance in the gardens, every evening. Winters meant comfort and comfort was ‘boring’.

Alexander was going to celebrate his 10th birthday this summer and he was overjoyed at the thought of getting to blow more birthday candles. And of course, presents, it was implicit. His books on geography were beginning to educate him on the big ball that he thought was hung in the sky because of magic someone did a long time ago. He had always wanted to own a model of globe and birthday seemed like the right time to ask for it.

His father served in the military and couldn’t spare much time for the kids except when the rains would come and his regiment would get to stay at home for some time to rejuvenate themselves before they would be off to the borders battling the biting cold.  Summer also meant that the rains would follow soon!

“When father comes, I will ask him to get me a globe!!” He proclaimed to Maria who partially observed his remark and purposely ignored it, thus breaking the little boy’s heart.

She was the most loyal servant Alexander’s father could find to take care of him. Maria, a young girl in her late 20s, had seen the brutal massacre of her family during the police crackdown on the refugees. She escaped by the skin of her teeth and found herself in this small town. Anonymity became her weapon and she changed her name to Maria and tried to figure out for a way to survive. Alexander was only 5 when she was brought to their house and introduced to him as ‘the new member of the family’. The old maid, who was part evil and part indifferent to young boy’s wellbeing, was fired immediately.

As soon as Alexander was in his room, she made a call. It was a normal reporting call she had to make every day when the boy wasn’t in the vicinity to inform his father about his
behavior and her workday. Though the army man would be out of the house for almost 10 months out of 12, his strict discipline would always be in place. Maria was his weapon to exercise control over Alexander, however cruel that might sound to the young soul. Father defended the country’s independence but his idea of independence changed perilously when it came to raising his son.

His only son
.

The phone rang incessantly as soon as Maria entered the kitchen to clean the dishes.
She used to listen to her favorite CD while working. It kept her going and gave her strength. The CD had the mellifluous voice, nonetheless. The lyrics were paragon and the singer’s passion synced with the chords of his guitar only added to the magic it did to her soul. She was enchanted by the voice and his songs were her only escape to happiness. 

Alexander’s was a car shaped bunk bed. The lower bunk was turned into a mini playground where he spent most of his time building bridges and houses with his blocks or smashing monsters with his bats.

Unimaginative, black-colored, antique telephone failed to catch his attention except when it rang at its highest pitch. Generally, Alexander would use the telephone only when he needed to talk to Jeffery. Due to irritating high pitched ring, he rushed towards the phone anyway only to make it stop ringing and picked up the receiver.

“Did you watch the latest episode of Junior High?” It was Jeffery and he didn’t have time to waste on greetings and goodbyes because his mother had disallowed him to touch the phone anymore after he had made an accidental call to the Fire Department and the police vehicles encircled the house which showed no sign
s of distress.

“Could you tell me what happened? There was no electricity today either.” Alexander sighed and asked him. He didn’t own a TV and he didn’t want Jeff to know
that, so he made up the same excuse every day. And every day, Jeff would tell him the story.

Jeff went on telling him about the episode but Alexander couldn’t imagine the characters since he had never seen them with his own eyes. He was clever enough to nod and hum at the right intervals though.

The phone call lasted for about 5 minutes with Jeff quickly summing up the whereabouts of the magic sparkle, the mood of the fairy and the horrible mistake the professor made on the show. Alexander however, was more interested in talking to Jeff than discussing the show.

“How are you, Jeff?”

Surprised at the question, Jeff recited the answer he had learnt all along: “I am fine. Thank you. How are you, Alexander?”

It was the first time they had cared about each other and actually portrayed it but the words looked more mechanical than they were, so Alex narrated his day to him. Jeff found no mention of important things like ice cream, chocolates, playroom, Television etc. but the word ‘sleep’ came in the end and calmed him down and stopped him from worrying about the wellbeing of his friend.

His best friend.

They said their goodbyes and Jeff went back to watching more shows which he would narrate in school the next day while Alexander, having nothing better to do, curled up in the bed and went off to wonder and wander in his make believe world of dreams.

The next morning, Alex woke up to a harsh sunny day which made the walk to school impossible. Only after much cajoling and a peck on her cheek, Maria allowed him to stay at home. He was supposed to complete his work books and get grammar lessons from her instead of running around the house or calling up Jeff repeatedly to check on him.

Maria’s heart was the softest thing in the world, made of glitter and love. No doubt, she loved spreading happiness. After seeing the days when she was suddenly devoid of parental love and sup
port, she had realized the importance of home, as they call it. She knew what it meant to be able to depend on someone to hear you out or solve your problems. She knew why a mother was always so worried about her little children and she probably understood why her father never denied her anything. She knew what it meant to love selflessly. And she was passing it to Alexander.

He needed a mother but never let it show on his face. He was trying to be happy and comfortable but he knew he lacked something. He missed the outpour of love that other kids in the school would get and he also missed the fun. He wanted a mother, not to care for him but to tell him that things would be all right when he would scratch his hurt knee or be troubled by bullies in school. He needed the presence of a guardian angel. He never felt his father could take that place and rightly so.

Maria was the closest to a mother Alex could get
.

Maria picked up the phone after it had rung several times. She had to leave the dishes half done in the kitchen. One of them got knocked down as she hurried up and turned to run towards the living room, but she didn’t care. However, the noise reached her master and he made a mental note to act upon her carelessness.
However, the subject of this phone call was more important than anything else.

“Hello Sir, How are you?” Maria tried her polite best to appease him but he had no time for the niceties.

He breathed for a minute and tried to catch the jumbled up words and letters in his mind to form coherent sentences that could make sense and wouldn’t invite too big a storm before he finally started speaking. Maria didn’t know what to do other than just pray that it would not be another disciplinary action that she would have to face. Or worse, Alexander.

As the voice on the other end became deeper and deeper, Maria’s face turned pale with terror. Her heart was crying already and her eyes couldn’t hold
back the emotions as tears started rolling down while she hummed mechanically without the slightest of an idea of the aftermath of this whole incident on her piece of heart that was Alexander. When he was done talking, he asked her to repeat all she had heard so far to reinforce her duties. She couldn’t go past a few words before she started sobbing loudly. He almost expected the soft soul to break down but he had no time for that.

“Are we clear on this?” He asked in his baritone.

“I think so.” She mustered up some words and threw them at him in the harshest way possible.

“Okay. Take care and good bye.”

He didn’t wait to hear her response and ended the call. A long beep replaced his clamoring speech but the former one was more soothing to Maria. The phone receiver was still placed on her ear as she stood there, wondering. She wondered about her own times with her family and more so about her times without them. She pondered over the times when she would wait for death to eat her soul slowly because she couldn’t take the pain anymore. She thought about everything painful she had to go through and realized that even all of that cannot be compared to what she had just heard for Alex’s future.

Another spoon fell in the kitchen as Alex went inside to take his jar of candies and the loud crackling sound managed to bring her consciousness back. She didn’t want to rush anywhere. She had lost the will to perform her duties. She knew she had to take whatever chances she had at happiness and they were all exhausted by now.

Alex didn’t wait for her to come into the kitchen and stood on the stool by himself to reach the jar that was kept above his reach only to prevent him from ‘ruining his body with sugars’ as his father had once ordered. He came running outside in his soft cloth slippers which made no noise at all on the wooden floor but the earth beneath Maria had just crashed open. He held her from back and in his shaky voice that seemed to echo, asked “How are you, Maria?”

It was the first time Maria had felt a human connection that was not one way. She wanted to pour her heart out to her little master who was now the sole purpose of her life. She couldn’t come to terms with what she had heard on phone just minutes before and all she could do was bring Alex into the safety of her arms and give him all the love she could ever provide. Alex kept tugging at her and tried to run outside her embrace whenever she tried to hold him but he kept wondering what kept her so silent tonight. He wished he had an answer and the usual suspect on his mind was
the heat that Maria was not used to. She had come from the northern part of the country where mountain ranges overlooked the plains and when Alex had come to know about that, he had hundreds of questions that he kept bombarding at her every time he would get a chance. She couldn’t answer most of them because of her need to be anonymous but she chose to answer a few of them as well as she could.

Alexander was a lost soul in this mad world. He was an unfinished painting that still had to experience the touch of so
me colors. Others that had colored it were too new to be embossed into a masterpiece. Maria was aware of the impressionable mind of the youngster who hadn’t seen and experienced the ugly truths of the world so far. He still believed in inherent goodness of the humankind. He had an unshakeable faith in the power of believing. Hope and optimism twinkled in his eyes while fear of losing the shelter had its vague shadow cast upon his tender heart. Maria was left wondering.

How could his own father do this to him
?

The supper was ready and the rules were being broken today. There was no scolding for Alex when he didn’t wash his hands before touching the crockery and Maria even let his constant clinking of spoons go without a warning. Her mind was clouded with the remorse that could become a storm in the child’s world any time now. She was left wondering and gasping for breath in the swiftness with which things had changed. She never thought she would be the one to break Alex’s heart one day.

She knew she had to do this as soon as she could. The boy’s future could not be bared to a fate like that and she had decided to act. She resolved to break it to him before he went to sleep and discuss the solutions. Alex’s one considerate “How are you?” had changed everything. She was hopeful he would grow above it and find happiness in some corner of the world. But, Alex had grown up a long time back.

Telling him was tougher than she thought and the ghosts of her own past haunted her all the time. She was looking for the mildest possible words to deliver the harshest of messages and it was no easy hunt.

“What is wrong, Maria?”

“Alex, you know I love you. I love you very much and I have always loved you.” She tried her best to cushion it up with love but it was as futile as wishing away the darkness by closing one’s eyes and imagining light.

“I know you love me, Maria. I love you too for all the candies you let me eat today.” Alex was far removed from the gravity of the situation.

Maria recounted the whole incident of that fateful summer seven years back when his mother had committed suicide. She didn’t shy away from using the word and told Alex about the very manner in which his mother had decided to take her life as she sought an escape from the world. Alex was shocked and numb and only expression coming out of his body was the reflexive gripping of Maria’s arm and she responded by holding him tightly.