Friends Short Story – Fragrance,Frangipani and Friendship…
Photo credit: kseriphyn from morguefile.com
Red eyed bloody zombies with fresh blood dripping from their wounds were trying to attack Nyasa. Though she managed to kill all of them, however the bosses “the Armstar”, “the Rocky Zombie” and “the Santa Venom Zombie” attacked her from three different directions. They were attacking her relentlessly and wanted to kill her,….she got gagged with fear and wanted calling her mama, “Mama, mama, help me…save me….the Zombie bosses are killing me….”, but yelled almost in an inaudible voice.
Nyasa searched for her mother in every possible nooks and crannies but could not find her…she was sweating profusely and was almost suffocating with fear….the fear of death glued her in the bed. She woke up and reached her hand for a touch of her mama but could not get her…
“Where’s mama gone at the mid of the night?” She rubbed her eyes, scratched her hair fully matted with sweat and grime, she felt like going to the bog, but was too scared to go there….the three powerful bosses might be hiding behind the door. She was in a semi-conscious state of mind, half dreaming and half awake. Waiting for her mama for another couple of minutes she regained courage and chatted to herself, “I need to find Mama right now.”
She removed the bedsheet with a kick, jumped out of the bed and headed towards the other room of the house. “Who’s at the computer table?” It must be Papa”-thought Nyasa as her Papa was a regular surfer of the websites at this time of the night. But, no Nyasa was utterly wrong, it was Mummy sitting at the computer table, she could see a glimpse of her face, she was absorbed in her work totally. She scampered to her like a scary mouse, hugged her and said, “Oh Mama! What are you doing here at this odd hour leaving me behind…..am so scared, the zombies attacked me and they were going to kill me”
Naina signed out from the FB page and replied, “Ohhh! That’s nothing, babe; I was only looking for a long lost childhood friend of mine in FB. Chalo my apple pie, let’s go and sleep.”
The next morning continued with its usual pace with Shivanna’s office, Nyasa’s school and Naina’s daily household chores that ran till afternoon. Nyasa was now in standard six. It was the month of April with hot summer afternoons, however the evenings were accompanied with thunder and lightning-it was the time of occasional Nor’westers. When the afternoon sun almost completed its westward journey after long hours of profound work and was about to take rest for the day, the thunder clouds decided to show their prowess, they accumulated all over the North West corner of the sky. They roared and thundered and the winds blew as if to uproot the trees and after the dry dusty squalls, came the intense spells of rain.
Nyasa had returned from school by then, had yummy parathas and both the mother daughter duo sat in the balcony watching together nature’s quaint match….the dancing of the trees in the rain, dry leaves flying here and there, the dust storm blowing every little and big thing in swirls and people like puppets running for their lives. All of a sudden, Nyasa broke the silence and asked, “Mama why don’t you tell something about your childhood friends? Whom were you searching on the FB friend list desperately last night?”
Nyasa and Naina were the greatest friends ever. Nyasa though she was three winters short of stepping into the precious sixteen, tried to understand the essence of being a woman and she considered herself almost a woman. She pretended to know all about womanhood, the secrets of the woman body and even knew about the monthly cycles that all women experienced, though Zombie games and online chatting appealed to her all the more. The two women of this mismatched age group often shared with each other some soft sugary tweets which had little significance to the male world. Shivanna had little patience and time to comprehend all those feminine feelings and usually stayed away from their day to day conversations.
Naina spoke in a very soft tone, “Do you really want to know, whom I was looking for?”
Nyasa replied, ‟UMmm…yes I do want to”. She leaned her head over Naina’s right shoulder.
While watching the incessant drizzling, Naina began, “Well Nyasa, when I was exactly of your age, my parents shifted to a big metropolitan city leaving our small town behind. A coy and timid girl then, I left all my friends in the town along with my childhood. All I could take with me were some speckled memories of the kiddy days with me. The big city school where my parents admitted me throttled me quite a lot with its urban snobbishness. It was difficult for me to adjust with other chic city- bred girls. As you know at that time we lived sans smartphones and life went at ease without the internet.”
Nyasa interrupted, “Mama, didn’t you make new friends in your school? Who was your best pal?”
Naina smiled at her daughter’s impatience and replied, “I’m coming to it Nyasa, just hold on. The special time which I enjoyed in the school was actually the long Tiffin Break. I waited earnestly everyday for the manual bell to chime. DHYANG DHYANG TYANG TYANG TYANG….Narru Bhaia struck the metal dong with all the possible force on the earth. And the children rushed out from our classroom pushing and jostling each other shouting with joy, “Break, Break, Break!”
Some of our friends even dropped their tiffin boxes and lost their treasured food items in the hullaballoo sometimes. They cried, screamed and soon a scuffle would commence but that was occasional. I was a loner amidst the pack. I sat silently in the class, munched whatever was there in my plastic tiffin box. And after finishing it, I used to go to the playground, but I played little with my classmates. There was a velvety green compound in our school- a large and open breathing space. Inside it, there was an enormous tree that showered white fragrant frangipanis during the season. I loved roses, tulips and all other flowers but frangipani appealed to my senses to the utmost echelon. At that time my dear, we never played Zombie games, in fact we never knew what a Zombie game was.
One afternoon, while we were on the class, the thunder demons occupied the sky, they were much like the Zombies that destroyed everything whatever stood in front of them. They progressed with destructive forces, ran havoc and after they recoiled the playground turned into a battered battlefield. Leaves young and old, shoots tender and strong, branches long and short, bits of papers, plastic wrappers, twigs and all other tiny stuff were strewn here and there in the murky sludge, poodles of water rested in between.
While we the senior girls sat and gossiped in our respective classrooms, some foolish kindergarten girls heltered and skeltered in the sloppy playground trying to collect de-stalked flowers. No sooner Narru Bhaia struck the Tiffin bell, the swarm of kindergarten girls vanished from the place. Only one little girl remained behind, she was still collecting those fallen yet fragrant gems in her skirt pocket. As she tried to get hold of the last piece of frangipani, she slipped and tripped on the shoddy ground. She tried to get out of it umpteen times but could never do so. After repeated attempts she gave up and started crying. Till now Nyasa you know your mummy was a silent spectator,” spoke Naina and stopped for a breath.
“Oh mummy, then who helped the girl to get out of the muck?” Nyasa asked in a worried tone.
Naina had a unfathomable smile on her lips, and uttered, “Who else my dear, the other girl who was then twelve years old.”
“I ran to her and offered my hand to her. She clasped my palm with her tiny little fingers in no time…her heart- a little one trembled and pounded heavily…. I felt it immediately. I took her to the tubewell nearby, washed the grimy muck from her white uniform and then told her to go to her class. But she refused. “Run baby, run, else you gonna get a good spat from your aunty.” She shook her head in refusal and stood still. I understood, she was scared to go as the next period has already started. The next moment she almost dragged me with all her strength to her class and stopped in front of the class teacher. I explained her class teacher about the entire incident and ran back to my class.
But I was not as fortunate as her. Our Maths period had started by then. Mrs. D`Souza was very strict. She did not allow me to enter into her class and I had to stand outside the whole period for being a latecomer. I stood with a gloomy face, and tears almost rolled out off my cheeks, I cursed the little silly girl, for you see Nyasa what I had to undergo was all because of her stupid act.”
Nyasa replied, “Oh Mummy! That was a brave little thing to do, but what morons you both had been. All this chain of incidents for such a stupid cause….smitten frangipanis….Ha.. Ha… Ha…. What happened next, Mummy?” Nyasa chuckled, then yawned and asked.
Naina replied, “Nyasa, in those days we never had any mobiles or any other communicating gadgets, we depended only on what our hearts said. The next day, the same time, at the same place we met each other. She was standing like a little fairy in the white uniform. With her feather weight body she rushed close to me, stretched her hand and offered me a handful of fresh Frangipanis…it carried the fragrance of friendship with it and we became friends forever. Do you know Nyasa how is the fragrance of friendship?”
Nyasa nodded her head in negative.
“The fragrance of friendship is as sweet as the fragrance of frangipanis, very mild yet intoxicating” added Naina with an enigmatic grin.
“She was my best friend despite of our age difference… she was six while I was twelve, we met each other during the long tiffin break for the next few years . I left school six years earlier than her. Definitely we exchanged postal addresses and made several promises before I left school. But Nyasa, during my college years I lost contact with her. As she had a hearing aid in one of her ear…Yes, Nyasa, she was a special girl with hearing difficulties; she got admitted to a special school very soon. We lost contacts after that, both of us stopped writing to one another for some unknown reasons. I got engaged preparing for my upcoming exams….am still yet to know what were her compulsions.” Naina stopped with a deep sigh.
“What was her name mummy?” Nyasa asked.
Naina replied, “Akshara, Akshara Jain.”
By this time the Nor’westers had called off for the day. Nyasa was sad and happy at the same time. She was sad because she came to know about a lost friendship and happy to know about the two angel hearts. She stroked her mother’s hair, kissed her and said, “Mama tonight I will help you to find Akshara Jain on the FB friend search list”.
She held her head high and sniffed in the air; she tried to sense the fragrance of frangipani and friendship hitherto incognito to her.
__END__
