The rain and him

“Can I be there with you for the evening?”, he asked.

“You can do anything you want.”, she replied.

“All right. May I be there with you?”, he asked again.

This time she looked at him, as if trying to read his face, his eyes and his soul thoroughly.

“Some thing is wrong with you is it?”, she quizzed as if cracking a joke.

“Yes. Something is wrong. And I can’t go unless the half good and half bad thing is ok”, he replied in a sober tone.

He sounded hopeful, and that gave her strength. She wanted to feel it strongly now, that it was her, and he would tell it to her pretty soon.

So she paused for a while and said, “ You can wait. But you need to give me some good reason for it.”

He stood up immediately and screamed, “A good reason for your best friend??”.

She giggled and said, “Well, why not!”.

“I’ll tell you this time… the reason..”, he said.

Her heart skipped a beat. She almost could see him telling that to her now.

He continued, “The reason… the reason is love..! yes love!!”.

She could not stop smiling, and dreaming. Her world seemed to have stopped for the good this time.

“Finally…”, said she, smiling and blushing.

“Yes, finally I had the guts to ask her out. God! She was just more than willing and that gave me such a high! And now, if I move out in the rain, I’ll spoil the flowers I bought for her, also the dress. So yes, I am here .Thank God you exist! Else my first gift for her would have been all messed up”, he said all this in a hurry, moving towards the window.

“Oh , the rain’s stopped.”, he smiled again kissed her on her cheek, “See you later. Love you. Pray for me. Ok?”, and he rushed out.

She watched him run down the pavement, through her window, towards the same place where once he and she had a “mock date”.

She smiled, looked towards the sky and said, “I wish it didn’t rain. But keep him happy always.”

Closed the window, and vanished somewhere inside her house.

Do I know you?

She was returning from Iza, and while seated in the coy seat of the "Executive" class in the flying machine, she felt great. Because she had promised herself someday that she would fly back to the country in it. As she repeatedly blinked, she saw flashes of the life she left behind in the place she was returning to. Her family, her little daughter, her house, and even her husband, whom she had once married out of love. The rusted chains of matrimony came undone tem years after her daughter was born. She was thirty five then, and had discovered love in a twenty eight year old man by then. She wanted a divorce and she got it. She wanted the custody of her daughter, she did not get it. Afterall you do not get everything. Along with the man she fell in love with she went to Iza, where just an year back he died of a chronic desease. So now that she had lived her life, and was of sixty five, she wanted to look back. Her first husband had told her, " He might seem like a better man than me. But I am the father of your first child." These words rang through her ears all these years. She felt like, it was all her mistake and all the unending occassions when she felt neglected, was just some mistake. Some gory mistake. So she returned. And it was raining heavily. She took a cab till the hotel where she was to stay put. Then from there she decided to walk the same roads again. The roads where she met her first and second husbands were opposite to each other. Things have a way with irony, she thought. Each drop of the serene thing poured on her, gave a painful sting to her soul and body. "Was it me who strayed?", "Did I run away from my daughter?", "Was it me?", these questions kept eating her up in peices. She reached the gate of the house which she once lived in as a wife and mother, an unhappy one. "Mr.Burn, is it Mr.Burn's house?", she mumbled. "Yes it is. Please may I know who is it?", said a young girl. "I am, Mrs.B.......Mrs.Gunther, Mr.Burn's friend", said she, trying to hide the mistake she was going to commit. She knew she had no right to think of it. "Oh!, Please come in. I am Elizabeth, Mr.Burn's daughter.", said the pretty girl smiling. These words burnt her from within. She could not face it any longer. "I ... I am, Bella. I am Bella Gunther.", she said almost in tears. She could not hide her guilt. It was eating her soul up faster. Then she stood up, as up in a hurry,and said, "I am sorry I made a mistake, I need to go." She was half way to the door when Elizabeth said, "Mom...!" She turned back, and watched Elizabeth looking at her.Elizabeth turned back again and cried, "Mom! It is some Bella Gunther here!". Her mother rushed out, It was Miriam, Mr.Burn's sister. She came out running,saw Bella, and the room fell prey to silence. Elizabeth excused herself to make some tea for the ladies. The absence of Mr.Burn, no presence of any other woman and Elizabeth's calling Miriam "Mom", explained it all. Mr.Burn was no more, he did not marry again. Elizabeth was adopted by her aunt. Miriam said, after a lot of time, "Yes, Mrs.Gunther , Do I know you?". She had tears in her eyes, could not speak more. Rose from her chair. "It was one such rainy day, when I had said these same words to my daughter. I don't know if I said them to the rest of the family too. It is one such rainy day again, and my daughter doesn't know know I am. Some, "Mrs.Gunther".", and she began crying. She handed over a choclate bar to Miriam and said, "Too less for a compensation though, but give it to my darling." And quietly left the place. Later that same day, she was found lifeless in a Church.

Yumi

He was drenched every bit in it, the cold clear thing that dropped from the heaven. He knew not what the other creatures in the place he lived in called it. That was because he was not born among them. He was born someplace else but was picked up by some more similar creatures and put inside the jail and these few other creatures he lived with now, freed him from there. For now, he was shivering, and he was limping, because he had been kicked. Kicked by one of the familiar creatures, who had once hugged him so dearly that he felt there was no one who loved him more than him. He was not among them, but he knew what love was, because he had yearned for it when he was in the jail.

White he was, but had no pride, and now that he was so wet, he looked sillier than any darker creature of his kind would look. He saw a shed and struggled to rush towards it. He was almost successful, but just the moment a car come and hit him. He was already dying, but the few last moments that he could still breathe were stolen away. The driver said nothing and just drove away, and neither did anyone around say a word.

Back in the party by Martha Clara, the leading pop singer of those times, Kenny and Angel stood worried.

Kenny: Where do you think dad left Yumi?

Angel(worried): I don’t know but we have to look for him.

Kenny(concerned): Yes.(angry) How could dad just kick the poor creature so brutally on its belly and throw it out of the door this way?

Angel(sad): You know dad Ken, mom and him often fight and break things, and this time it was Yumi..

Kenny: Yumi wasn’t a “thing”, he was our playmate! He was our loyal guard! Our best friend! To dad he must have been just a dog…

Angel: True… Shall we go and look for him?

Kenny: Yes.

They left the home in the rainy winter night, looking for their dear old pet, who was left brutally several kilometers outside the warm shelter by his own owner, and just because of human rage, the momentary heat. It was so cold and Kenny and Angel knew well that Yumi had never been at ease without a sweater during these days. They ran from one corner to another. Finally, at the end of a street they found a dog lying lifelessly. Kenny took off his raincoat and wrapped Yumi in it, and Yumi made no noise. They took him to a shed and realized that their once cheerful Yumi was no more. He was wet and dead. The rains had washed away his pains and life.

Back home when things were calm, with Yumi’s body, Kenny approached his father.

Kenny(teary eyed) :Look dad, here is our Yumi..

Father :Oh no… Is he dead?

Kenny :Yes he is.

Father :Why did you bring him home? Just dump him somewhere. Its Unhygienic.

Kenny(crying) :Stop it dad…!

Father :We will get you another pup..

Angel :So that next winter monsoon you kick him harder and we can never even find him?

His father had no answer. It was just an animal to him, but his own animosity had killed Yumi. Yumi would never come back, and the children denied adopting a new pet. Every such winter monsoon night, the Father would cry in his heart remembering what he had done to someone who thought love was something that he gave him…