The Mind Creative NOV-Dec 2016

She lay down on the bed of fallen flowers and leaves and
scooped up some dried frangipani from the ground and smelled
them deep. She lay there hugging the ground, as if afraid to let go.
Someone honked from outside the gate. Rimu got up slowly
and brushed off the frangipani flowers from her hair. The movers
have arrived.
As the last piece of item was taken out of the house, Rimu felt
light. This burden of memories was too heavy to carry on forward
with.
Rimu looked at her mother; she seemed to have gained some
composure since morning. She was silently closing the open windows.
Mitali walked out in the garden, as the truck went away
towards their new flat. The women looked at their beloved house
one more time. Rimu had her hands wrapped around her mother’s
shoulders.
This was a deeper loss than death for her.
‘Sometimes I feel I was alone all these years anyway,’ Mitali
suddenly said, stroking her daughter’s hair, ‘He was there with me
professionally, but deep down, somewhere, within, he was alone
too! I never noticed he needed more from me, from us, than what
I gave him.’
‘I never noticed it too Ma, I wished we both had given him
some more time. But it still doesn’t justify what he did. He broke
our home.’
‘He did.’
Rimu fought back tears. It was hard for her to live without her
father, but it must be a million times harder for her mother whose
husband had cheated on her after thirty two years of companionship.
*****
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