world. A red and yellow serpent like number sixteen bus passed by. He felt as if he was standing in the middle of mayhem. He felt like putting his hands on his ears. His eyes were misty, so he blinked hard to clear his vision. Swirling clouds ready to engulf it in its embrace surrounded the town hall tower clock on the other side of the road. The thunder and lightening cracking down the tower, vengeful.“Daddy, daddy”. He heard a little boy screaming in the middle of his reverie. His heartbeat started racing, he rubbed his eyes with his hands and wiped them on his trousers. The boy was standing right there in front of him in the middle of the busy traffic with a red ball in his hands, screaming daddy. He started running towards the boy blindly, ignoring the blaring horns and screeching brakes. He reached and scooped the boy up in his arms and ran towards the town hall. He embraced the boy hard and told him repeatedly,
“I’m hear, I’m here, everything is going to be alright.”
Suddenly a man tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Thank you very much”. He looked up with uncomprehending eyes. The man said, “For rescuing my boy, Thanks once again”. The man tried to get the boy from him but he would not let go, not now, never. He was supposed to take care of his son not to let him go. The boy started crying, "I want daddy", flaying his arms and legs in all directions. The man gently extracted the boy from him and went away taking the boy with him saying, “It’s alright sweetheart”.
He stood there immovable with both his arms hanging on the sides as if they were of no use any more.
by Smita Singh
No comments:
Post a Comment