4 Short Stories
Photo credit: octaviolopez from morguefile.com
[Short stories, shorter ones rather. Not precisely in the order I wrote them though, sharing just four of my stories with you. These stories are titled more than once. However, none has its title here as one for each has not been fixed.
These are all works of fiction and by no means, at least intentionally, the situations or characters relate to reality. Any, if found, would absolutely be coincidental.]
[1]
Sit and view is what the entire family would do. A routine, I know not why, they know not why and so we know not why. The children bored, the not so aged instilling moral values in them, the aged in the chair murmuring the past. The youngest, clasping the grill, smiling.
Known faces, familiar movements and the damn bewilderment. Houses along the streets and perhaps the street too have changed for the not so aged, differences none whatsoever for the young and old. Clasping the grill, smiled the youngest.
They always looked outside .The aged no more in the chair. I know where, they know where and so we know where. The youngest through the window, looked inside, into a world that changed with the colors of his imagination.
I still smile by the window clasping the grill – the view unchanged but the color stationed to grey.
[2]
Lenient by nature, we were the wild borne. Below the roof of stars, we walked wherever we felt soil under our feet. Our feet smelled of the petrichor, body sweated earth and mind bereaved a soul. We stopped whenever mercy was needed for we had to feed our appetite and what could be more forgiving than killing. Down the ages, in doing so, we have lost too many of our people. Thus we chose to be hard-hearted. We complemented hunger by singing, we fought fear by shouting and we lived on finding our soul.
“Useless are those without a soul” – we heard our ancestors say.
“Where do our souls live?” – Chorus of vengeance.
“They fly around, miles away to right here next to you” – they would say.
Thus we travelled far, across generations in search of soul. And we found them. What we lost by then were our body.
“Laid off are souls without bodies” – our descendants heard the souls say.
[3]
We ran where we could. Playful pants, gusty gowns. Strewed, dusty and ill shaped nails – we laughed.
“Scream” – “And why?” – “Because you have to.”
“Gaze” – “What for?” – “Because you are shocked.”
“Why so” – “Because you ran and laughed.”
We ran again. This time towards home. Through the alleys, into the mud and up to the dark. We looked through the holes, we banged our chest.
“Do not scream” – “Why not?”–“Because you don’t need to.”
“Do not gaze” – “I am shocked.”
“No you are not” – “And why?”
“Because you are lost.”
[4]
We sat by the window in the dusking sun. We saw a part of the sky blazing while the road was sooner to be eclipsed by the shadow of its pedestrians. We held each other and questioned. No one answered.
The street lamps illuminated patches of the road. The stars blinked. We held each other and questioned – from then, till now. No answer still.
Supper was served. One empty, the other bowls full. We freed each other and ate. All bowls empty. One trashed. We held each other and wished good night. I fell every time I climbed on the bed.
“Shadows grey and dark have no right to sleep” – they held each other and said.
__END__
