Mum, Where are You ? Short story,

 

Short story

  mum, where are you....?

(An Indian classical short story)

                                            By Chandran

                                  mkchandran.blogspot.com

 

He tried to stamp upon knees of his own shadow which moved as fast as it could along with his movements; that zigzagged and snaked on the golden sand of Chavakaad beach.

The sun was in its death bed with a high feverish pallor. There were many people colourfully dressed and a few bikini foreign tourists enjoying the beach dusk and its cool wind.  Many wavelets secretly hugged the shore pasting their foams and ripples on the wet lips of the soft golden sand.

He sat under a neon light and watched the half died sun at the far end of the sea. It would go deep into the bottom of bottomless sea soon, inviting the darkness, he thought.

He sat on the vast golden sand for long thinking nothing. He couldn’t see either the bikini clad foreign tourists or colourfully dressed natives.

Then he curiously searched a face among the moving clouds at the far end of the western sky that he longed to see since childhood. But they didn’t become the shape of the face what he cherished in his heart of heart; instead they shaped some cruel beasts and unknown bearded men. No sooner did he scrutinize them than they disguised into some shapeless shapes and moved along with the fast blowing wind.

“Bill”, he looked back from where the sound came. He couldn’t believe his eyes and a faint smile lingered on his lips.

“I know that you’ll be here ….. on all Fridays”, she smiled and sat beside him.

He looked down, took a handful of sand aimlessly and let them down among his fingers.

“What happened to you? You said that you were to town hall library!” She placed her soft and beautiful fingers upon his shoulder and slowly made them move to his ears. Down the far sand and on the lap of rippling wavelets many lovers were kissing hungrily upon the lipstick stained cheeks when the beat police started directing them to desert the beach.

He looked down, the still born words chocked in his throat and he struggled hard to set forth a few fumbled sounds out.

“Bill, don’t be sad Bill. Am I with you no…? Am I your mother, sister, wife …and all? If you cry; how can I bear it?”

“You don’t know anything about my past. It was …..”, Bill sobbed uncontrollably.

“I don’t want to know that, Bill. You’re my loveable and tender hearted, gazette”.

“Ann, I haven’t yet had courage to unveil it……… even to you, though you’re my wife. I am afraid, that I’m a coward…..”.

“No my sweet naughty lad, you’re my best strong boy”, she murmured softly in his ear.

He gazed at her dark blue oceanic eyes as she’s seen the first time. But he couldn’t see her nose, lips, cheeks and all, shone in the yellow neon light.

When the sun knowingly vanished down into the lap of the sea to take rest at night from the day, there blanketed thick darkness everywhere. There were no stars in the sky as they were shyly veiled by thick rain clouds.

It started drizzling.

“Let’s go, Bill. You may get cold and fever. This first rain is very dangerous”, she covered his head with the end of her sari tail.

There blew a cool breeze followed by a heavy downpour. Red muddy water canalled down. The sudden lightening and thundering put off all the street lights.

Many people shouted along with the drumming rain, some yelped and some others cried fiercely on the other end of the dark road. Some people were challenging loudly and some others shouting slogans of their political party.

Bill and Ann stood up; her dress thickly adhered to her beautifully carved body.

He placed his hand upon her shoulder and slowly walked towards the tarred road where the head lights of many vehicles splashed and died.

Heavy drops of water strongly hit on their faces and heads. It pained her. She clung upon his back and looked down. The flint like rain drops gave him an indescribable pleasure. His childhood days, slowly hooded and danced in his memories.

When he was reading for class two, he and his mother used to be there in almost all dusks. His mother was young and beautiful. When the black blanket of the night covered head to foot of the beach, he would be told, “Sit and play under the neon light, eat fried groundnut and maze pop corn. Don’t play or go far away, I’ll come soon”

Almost all days his mother would be late to come back.

After eating the fried groundnut he would make castles in the sand, each day a new model. But the beach policemen would crush his mansion angrily or stamp their feet upon its top floor and scold him to get out of the beach as the visiting hour was over.

“Sir, my mammy didn’t come back”

“No prostitute would keep up their words my lad. You go and stand in that waiting shed; she will come when her work’s over”, the policemen would laugh at him.

Unwillingly, he would pretend to leave from there but no sooner did the policemen leave the beach than he would go and sit under the same neon light because he was asked to sit under the same lamp post. Many a days he was able to reconstruct his sand castle in a better style than the destroyed one by the policemen because his mother used to late during those days.

Suddenly all the street lights opened their eyes. The beach was flooded with a milky light. Ann and Bill reached the tarred road and stood on the veranda of a closed shop.

“At mid-night my mother would be back with a pretended smile on her lips while I was reconstructing my dream castle. She seemed to be very tired most of the days and on some particular occasions like temple festivals or churches’ feasts, there would have bleeding……… in the corner of her lips”, he sobbed.

Ann ate silence and stood rigidly holding the iron pillar of the shop when she realized that she would fall down.

One day he had high degree of temperature. His mother carried him to the beach instead of taking to a hospital. She spread an old torn cloth on the loose sand under the neon light post and asked him to sit on it.

“You be here Bill, don’t play in the sand today, don’t try to make any more sand buildings. I‘ll be back soon. I’ll get you nice food and sweet medicine, today. OK!”

“Mummy, don’t go away. Don’t leave me alone. I fear ghosts, mummy. If you go they will back to me”, he pointed uniformed policemen and said.

“No, my son, mummy has to collect some money. As soon as I get it, I’ll be here with you”

“You are lying. Don’t go away mummy”, the boy protested.

“Don’t you need medicine? A good doctor will give you sweet chocolate medicine? Mummy will be back soon with full of money for medicine and candy!”

When his mummy left, he closed his eyes and lay on the torn cloth as he had no energy to build any more sand castles on that day. He slumbered soon on the dirt-stained cloth that spread on the sand, forgetting all. He was alone among hundreds of the visitors of the beach. Some merry men, who passed by, threw a few coins to his cloth on which he was sleeping.

“My son is not a beggar lad, these dirty people don’t know where ass and pussy be”, she scolded the people who gave alms and picked up money from the cloth.

It was a rainy season. The monsoon rain poured down. The mother and her child became completely wet. The boy started shivering on her shoulder.

“Mummy….mummy…..”, he groaned painfully.

When there were thundering and lightening, all the lights closed their eyes at a time. A thick darkness blanketed the beach.

There blew a strong wind.

The boy shivered uncontrollably.

A plastic coated banner of a political party fell down with a heavy thud.

She saw the colorful lettered banner lying on the bare sand.

“It can be used away from the rain”, she thought. Without wasting a single moment, she untied the banner from its frame and covered the shivering body of the boy protecting from the rain and walked towards the waiting shed.

“I don’t want to hear more, Bill”, Ann said wiping her tears.

“Still I remember that black bull night”, he stopped.

He and his mother were standing in the waiting shed praying god to reduce the rain. She consoled him that she would take him to hospital when the rain stopped.

But it continued for a long time. Suddenly a police van came there and halted in front of the waiting shed. Its yellowish beam hit on their eyes and made them blind. Though there was strong wind and the rain, one policeman asked them to go near to the van.

Much unwillingly his mother moved towards the van holding him tightly on her shoulder and covering his body with the banner. It was an icy downpour. The rain drops drummed on the plastic banner in a rhythmic order.

“Where did you get this banner?”, sitting in the van a police officer asked.

His mother pointed to the sea shore and stood silent.

“Are you dumb and deaf?”, he asked again.

“My son is not well sir. I have to take him to a hospital……because of this dirty rain……”

“You can go to any hell in the world, but you come with us to the police station first. How many flags and banners did you steal?”, another policeman asked.

“No…… sir. I didn’t steal anything. I took it from that unwanted post which was lying on the mud…… just to shelter my son from rain. He is being shivering due to fever, nothing is with me to cover him sir, that’s why I took……..…… I am ready to give it back if anyone needs it.”

“Do one thing, you come with us now and explain all to the sub-Inspector. Here people murder one another because their flags and banners were lost day by day. They think their opponent might have stolen them. Many youngsters were murdered because of it”.

“I didn’t do any mistake, Sirs.  I am afraid…….I have to take my son to a hospital. I’ll attend the station tomorrow and explain all to whomever it may need. Please spare me today, sir…….you may punish me tomorrow, not tonight”.

“No! you… young lady. Now you come with us and meet the Sub-Inspector and go where ever you wish. We have to prove that their flags were not removed by their opponents but they are done by the people like you”.

When they reached the police station, the Inspector ordered to lock them up. Soon the barred door closed behind the mother and son.

Both of them sat on the wet cemented floor. The tiny drops of the rain tried to kiss them through barred door. The boy shivered and murmured something in an unknown language. The mother patted his head with her sari tip. Along with the whizzing of a cool breeze some droplets were sprinkled in the cell and made them wet.

Many great people came in and many went out.

The church tower clock struck twelve.

His mother was called for investigation. When she left to the Sub-Inspector’s chamber the boy cried aloud.

“Don’t cry my sweet child. Mummy will come soon”, she consoled him when she was going with a big mustached bulky police man.

When she left he cried loudly rolling on the wet floor. His lament fell upon deaf   ears. He squatted for a while placing his hands on his head and later he leaned his back on the wall expecting his mother’s arrival.

His mother didn’t come back. She didn’t listen to his sound. His whole world stood still and frozen.

When he cried for his mother again, one policeman threatened him brandishing his poker. He closed his eyes thinking that there were full of ghosts with long teeth and out stretched blood oozing tongues.

The rain stopped its fury. There blew a cool breeze.

When he woke up the next day, he asked for his mother.

“She went out to get you medicine. Don’t worry baby, she’ll come back soon with full of chocolates and medicines”, a policeman said and extended an artificial smile.

After a couple of hours, the boy started crying again asking to meet his mom.

Many policemen consoled him.

One gave him breakfast, which he refused to take.

Holding the iron bars of the door he looked out imagining his mother’s smiling with bleeding lips.

But she didn’t turn up. At last, he coiled down fainted and sleep fondled him.

“Wake up, wake up bab”, the door was opened and they forcibly carried him up to a jeep.

“I won’t come with you. I’ll only go with my mom. I want to see my mom”

“She will come soon. She went out to get you medicine. After buying medicine, she will come to you”, a policeman placed him on the back seat of the jeep.

“I don’t want to come with you. Call my mom. I want to see her”

“Don’t cry, child. We are going to your mother’s house. You can see her there”, when the jeep started a policeman said.

It was hard to believe him.

The jeep halted in front of a big building where a board ran in white letters “St. Mary’s Orphanage”

“Now I know how you became an orphan…Enough Bill, I’ve no strength to listen more”, Ann said wiping her tears.

He didn’t reply as he knew nobody wanted to hear sad news. She caught his hand and walked out of the closed shop. Suddenly the street lamps opened their eyes.

“Today I’ll drive. You are very tired”, she opened the door of their car and sat on the driver’s seat. He sat on the front seat as a corpse. His wan pallor turned down cursing his own life. “I am a cursed sinner. Why did I get this life?”, he thought.

When they reached their beautiful mansion she said, “See Bill, you are very lucky.

You are a gazette having good salary. You have a beautiful building, many servants and all possible facilities. And I am with you round the clock to make you happy. We have to thank God”, she put her long slim hand around his hip and climbed up the stairs.

‘Because of the orphanage you reached up to this much height”, she said hugging him when they were on their bed.

Suddenly he got angry and pushed her off the bed and cried, “You mean, if I was with my mother I would not grow up to this level! I hate you dirty bitch, hate you more than anything else. I don’t want this flowery forth, this building, this car, this job, this status and even you”

“Sorry Bill. I don’t mean that. I like your mother more than you. I earnestly wish her proximity in this house. If she is with me, how good it will be… She will come back one day”

He stood up and walked to the parlor. He sat there looking out to the dark sky.

“She can’t live without me for long thirty years……..”, he said to himself.

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