Short Story Social Issue – Stranger
Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com
Sara walked in from School and the clock struck 4:00 in the evening, she walked into her room hurriedly and threw her bag on her cot and switched on her computer, before she could even change her clothes. She connected to the chat room and waited. A small screen popped up. On the screen, Cool dude says:
“Hello Sara, good evening and how was your day?”
In response to it, Sara as she changes her clothes, says,
“hey Rishi, good evening, I’m fine thank you, how are you? ”
Rishi says he is fine and again asked her how her day was?
Sara starts speaking all that had happened through the day, sharing her feelings, moods of the day, what she ate and what she didn’t do. So did Rishi. As they were chatting, the door bell rang…ding..dong…ding …dong!
Sara screams from inside, one moment, I’m coming! She hurriedly bid bye to Rishi, saying that she will speak to him tomorrow same time and disconnects the internet. She quickly runs towards the door and opens it, her mother walks in.
Hello Sara! How was your day dear?
Sara greets her mother and says it was fine and walks back to her room and shuts the door.
6 months back
Sara was the only daughter of Mr & Mrs Nelson. She was a very brilliant student, with a smile on her face. She was a little silent and had few friends. Her parents were a little strict, since Sara was the only child. They would not send her alone anywhere.
There was sudden happiness in her that she would sit in the balcony and smile, suddenly giggle to herself lost in thoughts. So parents thought it was the age. Slowly she would stay confined to her room for hours together on a holiday. She would say she is studying and preparing for her tests. Slowly her grades started dropping. Mr & Mrs. Nelson where getting a little worried about Sara’s behaviour.
A week later
Sara wakes up and sits and sobs, her parents hug her and console her, giving her all the comfort that she requires. Mrs. Nelson tells Sara, It was a bad nightmare, look at it that way and forget what has happened in the past few months.
Sara turned 18 a couple of days back, when she decided to meet Rishi & elope with him without her parents knowledge. Sara and Rishi met one another on the net through one of the chat rooms. Sara being the only child was feeling lonely, since both her parents were working and did not have much time for her. One day, as she was exploring the internet and the chat room, she met Rishi, who claimed to be 25 and a Manager in one of the global firm. Not realizing that the world outside is big and bad, she feel in his trap and was getting emotionally attached. He was willing to spend time listening to her problems and she found solace through him.
As she celebrated her 18th birthday, she decided to take a big decision in her life. She decided to elope with Rishi. They decided to meet at the park nearby, she had told him the color of her dress she would be wearing and Rishi informed her about his dress code too.
As she walked around in the park she was looking for a young, tall, dark and handsome person. She saw a person who was busily meddling with his phone, but was about her father’s age. She obviously ignored and anxiously waited for Rishi and she suddenly felt someone approaching her, it was the same man, she was slightly trembling out of fear, fear that he could possibly be her dad’s friend.
Hello Sara, he said with a broad smile, Sara almost fainted. He held her hand, she tried to release it from his clutches, he leaned forward to give her a kiss, she pushed him and tried to run, she bumped into a woman police officer, who held her and asked what was it? She surely knew the young girl was in some trouble.
She saw the man trying to escape, as he saw this police officer approaching him, she gave him a chase and caught and cuffed him.
Sara was in a terrible state of shock and could not speak, she looked weak and fragile. She was admitted to the hospital, while the Rishi was taken into custody. Her parents were summoned and the police officer narrated the episode, however they said, they will wait for Sara to recover and take her statement too.
Sara recovered and said she believed Rishi to be a young, well educated person, in contrast he was a middle aged person, with no proper job and this was his past time. She realized all this when she met him at the park, when he tried to misbehave with her and wanted to marry her. He was married and has three grown up children. Sara held her mother tightly and sobbed, she promised never to leave them or repeat this mistake ever in her life.
__END__
