Family Short Story – The Prodigal Daughter
“Mommy, that’s not fair”, whimpered the five year old Sheila. “Mommy, you are favoring Monica again”, said Sheila.
Monica and Sheila were two years apart and Monica felt that her mother favored the seven year old sister all the time. Monica was everything in physical beauty that a mother could want; she was tall for her age, lovely large innocent eyes in an almost oval face with long shiny black hair all the way down her shoulders. Sheila was born after a tough pregnancy to Nancy and the last minute complications and distress at birth had led to Sheila being a slow learner but what she lacked in physical beauty, she made up in her mild ways and a heart of gold.
Nancy cuddled her five year old and said “beta, you are too young to play with Monica and her friends and you can’t run as fast as them. I will take you to the park instead and you can play on the swings with kids your age.” But deep inside Nancy knew that what she was doing to her second born was not right, because of her outgoing ways and a cherubic smile, Monica got away with things not only with her parents but also her grandparents. Her in-laws staying with her spoiled Monica no end, she was the favorite grandchild. Nancy had tried to speak on this matter often to her husband Mahesh but he would just laugh it over. But Nancy had begun to realize that this was not right and Sheila should not grow up believing that she was a lesser child due to her disabilities.
Making up her mind to discuss this with Mahesh and her in-laws, Nancy put on a smiling face and picked up Sheila and took her downstairs to the park. Out of the two children, Nancy realized that Sheila was the sensitive one, always polite, caring towards her grandparents and always ready to help someone who needed anything. Wasn’t this then unfair that her own family treat her lesser than her sister? Soon the shrill voices of the little children at the park broke through Nancy’s thoughts and she felt Sheila tugging her hand to put her on the swing and push her. Sheila loved to be on the swing and given her smiling face, many older kids loved to push her and see her shriek with delight as the swing went higher and higher. As an older child offered to push the swing, Sheila broke free from her mother’s hand and rushed to be given a chance to have fun. Nancy let out a sigh of relief and happily went to sit on a bench in the park and watch her daughter smile and mix up with other children.
Nancy’s in-laws wanted the second child to be a son and when Sheila was born with a few disabilities, they totally ignored her precious little child and just doted on the first born. Mahesh worked long hours and when he came home tired, he did not have it in him to answer the zillion questions that Sheila always had, so he unknowingly favored Monica and Sheila felt left out. Nancy tried to make up for the lack of involvement by her in-laws but she always felt sad when even Monica did not show the special love and care to her younger sibling.
Later that evening, when Nancy brought this up with Mahesh, he just laughed it over and said the kids were young and Monica would always take of her little sister as they grew up. When Nancy tried to talk about this, he just switched on the TV and that was the end of the conversation.
Next morning, just as the kids were getting ready for school, Nancy asked Monica to hold her sisters water bottle for her and take her safely to the bus. “I wouldn’t do it mommy, she is so slow and ugly, I don’t like her”, shouted Monica and ran for the school bus. Rather than create a scene, Nancy quietly took Sheila to the school bus and told the conductor to ensure that he was careful with her little girl and took her to her class and not leave her outside the building. “Don’t worry madam, I take extra care of the little girl, I will ensure that I hand her over to her teacher”, said the conductor and Nancy just nodded her thanks and walked back home.
Just as Nancy was preparing her to go the bus stop to pick up the kids, her father in law said he would go today and pick them up. Just ten minutes later, she saw, Monica holding her grandfather’s hand while he held her bag and chatting away noisily while Sheila was quietly following behind them trying to balance her school bag and water bottle. Tears sprang up in Nancy’s eyes as she saw her little girl being treated in this discriminatory manner. Hadn’t the class teacher mentioned just last week that despite the little disability that Sheila suffered, she was still the best child, well behaved, eager to help and studious and with time and love, she could easily come over her disabilities. It was true that she wasn’t a beauty like her elder sibling but her caring ways made up for the lack of it.
“Mommy, am I ugly and what does ugly mean”, asked Sheila as Nancy waited on the dining table while her little one finished lunch. “Didi said I was ugly and she hates me, does it mean I am a bad girl, mommy”, asked Sheila while she finished her lunch. No beta, didi doesn’t hate you and ugly just means that you are special and that Mommy and God loves you more than anyone else. Satisfied with this response, Sheila quietly took her plate to the kitchen and washed and dried her hands. Nancy tried to remember when Monica had ever shown such good table manners and all her attempts to make her learn were foiled by her grandparents. In their eyes, Monica could do no wrong.
Years passed and the two children grew up. Monica just became more headstrong and spoilt as was both a girl with beauty and brains. Sheila given her conscientious ways, made up with more hard work and also got good grades and turned out to be quite good at painting. While Monica was out with friends on holidays and weekends, Sheila was either studying away to catch up with the rest of her class or just painting away. Nancy had ensured that Sheila attended art classes in her vacations and the teacher had taken to this unassuming quiet girl and gave her extra attention. Sheila had unfortunately grown up and understood the meaning of disability and ugly but she did not let that ever dampen her spirits. Nancy’s heart went out to her little girl and she always prayed that she never get hurt and while happiness in her art since she didn’t find that with her family.
Time went by and Monica had finished college and wanted to go the US for her MBA but there was not enough money to send her and then there was also Sheila to be thought about. She too had college to finish. But Monica had set her eyes on a college in the US and couldn’t care that there wasn’t enough money for that. Sheila was studying to be a doctor and that needed money too. When Sheila heard about this, she said she was willing up to give medicine and the money could be used to send Monica overseas for further education. Without telling anyone, Sheila quietly sent her paintings for an exhibition that her art teacher was holding. Sheila never wanted to part with her paintings but then it was a question of her sister’s career, so she waited to see whether someone would buy her paintings.
Just as Sheila was finishing a painting, the shrill voice of the phone ringing made her get up and attend to it. Everyone had gone for a wedding and she had pleaded headache and not gone. But her mother Nancy knew the truth. At these social events, heartless relatives often compared the two children and left Sheila mortally wounded. Was the facial beauty everything? Did those cruel people not see the heat that lay beneath that quiet not so beautiful exterior? But rather than see the daughter hurt, Nancy had compromised with her daughter not wanting to be seen at these social dos.
Sheila picked up the phone and heard what her teacher had to say with bated breath, she couldn’t seem to believe it. Could it really be true? All her painting sold and all to one person? Why would one person want to but all her paintings? Sheila agreed to meet her buyer the next day as per his request. Next day, Sheila met the buyer and the buyer turned out to be a Mr. Oberoi, an Indian settled in the US and he offered a generous amount for her paintings. He asked Sheila what her dream was and she said, it was to see her sister do her MBA overseas and fulfill her dream. But unknown to Sheila, the teacher had shared the details with Mr. Oberoi. He was touched to see a young girl who had been taunted all her life to be willing to sell her paintings for money so that she could contribute to her sister’s dream and was not hassled by the fact that she would need to drop of medicine course due to lack of money.
Mr. Oberoi was taken in with this unassuming quiet girl whose eyes spoke volumes of her dreams and he paid generously for all her paintings. “Five lac rupees, where did you get this kind of money from”, screamed Mahesh at his daughter. “What have you done to get this kind of money”?
“I earned the money papa, I didn’t do anything wrong”, said Sheila quietly. “I just sold my paintings at an exhibition; you can ask my teacher if you don’t believe me”.
Mahesh called up her teacher since he did not believe that anyone could have paid such a large amount for the paintings. “That is true”, said the art teacher when Mahesh quizzed him on his daughters explanation on where the money came from.
The sacrifice that Sheila made was all but forgotten and everyone got busy preparing for Monica’s leaving for the US for her MBA. Nancy tried to convince Sheila to not let her dream of becoming a doctor fade away but Sheila said she could always paint and earn some money and that would be more helpful since Mahesh’ salary was not enough to run the house and pay for her grandparents sickness and old age ailments. Did her in-laws ever realize that the little girl they always ignored was the one paying for their old age problems, whereas the one they favoured had gone away without a consideration on where the money came from for her education.
“Sheila, come here quickly”, screamed Nancy “and see what you have done my girl”. Sheila was just putting the finishing touches on her painting but on hearing her mother screaming, she quickly ran down. “You have a won prize money for one of your paintings in a contest, Sheila. With this token amount, you can pay your fees for at least a year for medical school”.
Nancy’s happiness knew no bounds that finally her little girl could study to be a doctor. “ No Mommy, let’s not tell anyone about this. Let’s use this money for the knee surgery for dadi and get the cataract surgery done for dada”.
Nancy was speechless, how could one daughter is so giving and the other one believe only in taking? Sheila won the argument with her mother and just paid the money for her grand parents operations and yet again put her dreams behind her.
Another year went by, Monica had done well in her MBA and had picked up a job in California. She was earning well and Nancy asked her if she could send us money home so that Sheila could do her medicine rather than just earn by selling paintings and taking care of her old grandparents alongside her father. But Monica always had reasons on why she couldn’t send money, she had to buy a house, then a car, then travel on holidays and maybe there was none left at the end of it.
Nancy had begun to worry that Monica had started to drink and try drugs with people who she enjoyed living with and that could be dangerous. Even Mahesh was beginning to worry about his elder daughter who seemed to heading the wrong way but there was nothing he could do sitting so far away. And he was beginning to realize that his younger one had without letting anyone feel small, slowly taken over the running of the house, picking up medical bills for his parents and never mentioned that she had let go of her dreams of being a doctor. What a sacrifice by the little girl who had always been compared with the older and prettier sibling. How will he find the money to marry his younger one who wasn’t as pretty as the elder one, had no foreign degrees like the elder sibling? Nancy however consoled him by saying that Sheila always did the right thing and God would always take care of her.
While he was still cursing himself for his treatment of his younger one, the phone rang. There was one Mr. Oberoi on the line and he wanted to come and meet them. He said he was the one who had bought Sheila’s paintings a few years ago and was in town and wanted to meet them all. “Why would such a rich man want to meet us”, wondered Nancy as she prepared some eats for their guests expected that evening.
Mr. Oberoi came with his son later that evening and seemed happy to meet Sheila again. Unknown to Sheila, he had kept in touch with her art teacher and heard of how she had given up on medicine and even spent her contest award money on her grandparents. He could not believe that such a young girl shouldered the responsibility of the family without caring for her own dreams. After enjoying a cup of tea, Mr. Oberoi asked Sheila’s hand in marriage for his extremely well educated and handsome son. Mahesh was shocked and said that Sheila had certain disabilities and that he had a prettier and well educated daughter in the US. Why would they want his son to marry a not so pretty girl like Sheila?
“We want a girl who is beautiful inside, Mahesh and not a show piece. I don’t believe that we can ever find a better girl than Sheila. So may we request that you agree to giving her away as a bride to my son, we would like her to study medicine in the US and be the daughter we have never had”. Mahesh and Nancy were tongue tied and didn’t know what to say.
Soon, Sheila was married to Mr. Oberoi’s son and they treated her like royalty. She not only got to do her medicine and become a doctor but also convinced them to come back and settle in India, so that she could take care of old people like her grandparents and serve people as a doctor in her own country.
Nancy never tired of seeing her little girl all so grown up and bringing happiness to the family. Someone rightly said that beauty is only skin deep, the true beauty lies in the heart and she was so happy that someone had recognized her little daughter’s true worth.
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