Short Stories

It had to be one of those days when everything sucked, she growled. But then a day like this never stops on tomorrow. It keeps appearing, she continued. The rain had been falling hard on the ground. The wind made it equally impossible for the umbrella to behave. Like Sophie’s choice she had to choose if she saves herself from the wicked downpour or her umbrella from a cut-through storm. She chose the latter, snapped it shut and ran to find shelter under extended roof of a shop.

Muttering under her breath she felt a pair of eyes on her. She avoided looking. It was close to midnight, and she just wanted to get home after a lousy day. She didn’t need any more trouble.
But certainly heard a faint ‘Hi’ and continued ignoring it. She felt someone coming closer. In turn, gripped her umbrella tight– ready to smack it over, just in case.

“Hi Eli”, this time a bit louder, not buried under the hammering of large raindrops.

“It’s you! Yes!!”, cried the voice in excitement. She turned around carrying a tired look but suddenly found herself woken up.

With her brows still raised, Hi, she returned. “I never expected I’d see you again.” Words were inexplicably out before she knew it.
“umm, what…? How are you doing, Samuel?”, stressing on his name.

“Okay! I guess. Nothing much to complaint.” still trying to subdue his excitement.

“Good!… It’s been a long time.”

“Yeah, 23 years.”

“23? Wow! Never counted”

“I did!”, said he with a sheepish smile. “Have you been alright? All these years?”

“Yes! Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. You appear tensed.”

“Jeez! It’s just the rain. You know how much I hate it.” Eli takes a deep breath calming her racing heart.

“Yes yes, I remember. But that never stopped you from going out even at the odd hours” he chuckled.

“Haha! I was young. Nothing bothered me then. And I was so hell-bent on having all sorts of odd experiences.”

“Well, I said it then and will say it again – That’s how life must be lived.”

“I am not so sure about that now.” She looked exhausted.
He noticed she was heavily drenched in a simple t-shirt, not enough to keep the cold out.

“Let me give you this!” He started taking off his jacket.

“Please don’t! I don’t need it” She insisted.

“You are shivering! I have a warm sweater beneath. Don’t worry!”

“Sam!” He noticed she didn’t use his full name this time. The way she used to. But he continued looking at her sweet, convoluted face.

“If you are thinking we are going to meet again in pretense of returning your jacket, I will not advise it. Things have changed. I have changed. I have a family. We aren’t some high-school sweethearts anymore” She appeared troubled facing these facts.

“I would never…. You know I would never cross any boundary to hurt you. I sincerely wanted to give you the jacket and trust me, you can keep it” She knew he was genuine. He always had been. Even with the onset of a wrinkle on the corner of his eyes, those gave off the same light. She could read perfectly. For a minute, she thought to herself. Did we rush in ending us? Our life would have been different. So different. But she brushed off the thought and continued listening.

“I understand you have a family, a responsibility. I will never come in between something you worked so hard to build.” There he was. I didn’t share a single word of my life and he understood, she thought. His eyes carried appreciation and respect for her. Like love fermented into something higher in all these years.

While he was about to take off his jacket he stopped in the middle, “Wait! Ummm… one sec”
He turned to the other side. His back facing her. She could not see what he was doing.

‘Maybe I spoke too soon. What if someone special gifted him the jacket? Don’t know what kind of odd toad he turned out to be in these years’, her brain assessing way more than needed.

“Here you go!” He handed it to her with the sweetest smile she needed so badly. She was reluctant to take it but eventually did.
It was drizzling by now and she had this sudden urge to move away from him. She messily put on the jacket, “It was nice seeing you, Sam. Hope you stay well!”
She stormed off before hearing you too!

Why am I running away like a thief, muttering to herself. After a few blocks there was a convenience store at the gas station.
“I need a candy. I am all out of energy.” She went inside and suddenly realized she forgot to carry her purse. She left home hastily in the evening to meet a colleague who just got fired. Work life was screwed these days. She could be the next target but didn’t want to lose a good friend over the corporate circus. So, without a thought busted out of the home at once when her friend called.

She was dejected, so rundown over a small candy she couldn’t have. Her family had been falling apart. Work had been more stressful than ever. She wouldn’t be able to see her friend/work-wife either now and even a smallest sweet was out of the window. Life sucks!

She shrugged in anger, formed small fists of her hands and hid it in the pocket of her jacket. She touched something metal. It was a 2 euro coin. Shockingly, she travelled straight down the memory lane. Two decades back.

How she loved going out before. At any time of the day or night. Long walks with friends or acquaintances or university people she had just met. Too much engrossed in talks to remember carrying a wallet. She was so different than now. But Samuel remained the same. He knew Eli always had a sweet-tooth and, every now and then craved her gummy bears. And he always made sure to put some lose change in all her as well as his jacket’s pocket.

She stared down hard at the 2 euro coin in her palm struggling not to cry. She closed her fist and quietly, calmly walked back home.

• 

©kanikachugh

A timeless tale it is.

November went out to buy some flowers for his little brothers. The waterfalls had started to freeze. The untimely rain had begun to pour. Sky went dim and alleys dark.

But November knew where to march to. He was bewitched by the sound of his brothers’s joy. He walked and walked wearing his utopian smile with an innocent bucket.

Leaves, he all could see. Fallen, crushed, wilted, dying. Leaves asked November to take them with him. He shrugged. ‘My brothers only deserve beautiful flowers’, he said. He made leaves fly along the breeze as ‘Wind Monath’ (wind month) he was called.

He marched forward. Pass the graveyards, pass the deep wells. All the bad signs he thought. ‘Never should I look at the omens while in search of the flowers’, he thought. The Deep Well heard and cursed him.

‘Fool you are to ignore your end. But mind it, you’d never find an end yourself.’ November grunted again and disregarded the words. He moved ahead but then halted. The Death was in front dancing. He saw a typhoon of dried leaves crushing all the flowers and a rage of red, orangish disaster with their emotions speaking volumes. Leaves demanded of November

‘You could have accepted us for we are beautiful too. Not a flower, not a pollen but we are broken too’. A destructive outburst swirled around and caught November in its bosom.

November stayed there in the cyclone of their anger forever, never meeting his end.

It’s November. Always an inch away from the end while the last leaves settle on the ground.

Because the last leaves fall down in November.

©kanikachugh

• 

Disclaimer: Keep your ledger of facts aside and hope on a journey with me in a train of imagination.

Long long time ago there was a Star Mother called Azura. She had four children stars (S)un, (T)esni, (A)ltan and (R)oxana. Their powers in chronological order.
2 sons (Sun and Altan) and 2 daughters (Tesni and Roxana). All the siblings were responsible for shining at their own schedules. But once in a while they used to turn down their brightness and step down on the ground to rejuvenate.

One fine day, Roxana came down to earth to appreciate the marvelous beauty and hues unlike their own land where it was mostly blank, black vastness.

Even when Roxana wasn’t shining in her full form she still held the radiance which led every passerby on earth, to turn and take a good look at her. She met a great man on one of her visit since his widespread fame was now talks of the heavens too. She fell in love with the man. His name was Alexander.

Sun was the eldest sibling responsible of all of them. He was quite carefree in nature and not as much strict as the 3rd brother Altan. Their mother was growing old and Sun was taking care of the roles, schedules, positions so that the work is carried out with ease. Their life was full of comfort and powerful meteor-showers games. They all knew they had one rule to follow ‘not to ever be courted by a human being’

Roxana came back from her trip when she got to know by her other star friends that a man named Alexander was looking desparately for a woman who looked a lot like her. Roxana believed it wasn’t just her, Alexander too, had feelings for her. That’s when Roxana decided to go back to earth. She announced it to everyone and started preparing for the journey.

Sun, being the eldest tried his best to explain her how she would not be able to live there permanently because sooner or later she had to return to her flare-full, blinking form and Earth would be devastated if Roxana ever turned into her original self while her feet touching the ground.

Roxana promised to dim herself for as long as she could. Tesni, her sister, understanding Roxana’s love stricken heart, lent her a special ring that would keep the light at the lowest sparkles but that made Tesni not being able to visit the earth ever again.
Roxana left for earth looking for permanent residence there.

This news was abhorrently taken by Mother Azura and brother Altan. Sun tried his best to calm them down but things were going out of hand. Finally brother Altan came down to earth to take Roxana away but she refused. This made him angrier and he declared war on Alexander, the great.
Alexander being a legendary figure in leading excellent militaries, accepted the challenge thinking he could defeat the demi-gods too.

Roxana heard this and persuaded Alexander to let her talk to her brother one last time and if she fails then both can then proceed with the war.

Alexander agreed and Roxana left earth to meet his brother in the black vastness. Both had endless arguments and no one wanted to give up. Altan was now raging with flames around him and gave Roxana last chance before attacking. Roxana too, came in her blaring form to fight Altan. There were extreme thundering storms forming up above but the temperature down there on earth started to melt castles, and mountains.

Sun and Tesni came running to rescue their siblings but unfortunately the war between Roxana and Altan had already started. Sun being the most powerful, encircled all, casting a protection spell so that the massive heat cannot destroy the earth but he was failing to hold them longer. Tesni was backing up Roxana because she was getting weaker with every passing moment. The eldest sibling kept on screaming that their power would not only destroy earth but also both, so they needed to stop.

But Roxana and Altan were blinded in rage. They ignored all the wise words and their powers met to form a massive blob of fire ready to be erupted at any moment. Sun tried not to use powers to stop all this since his touch could explode everything in spur of a moment. He was trying to talk them out when everything went numb and he was thrown away from the fiery explosion.

Sun gathered his wits to asses the situation. He saw all his family being either pushed away or turn into tiny particles.
He didn’t know but Mother Azura had arrived minutes before the explosion. She understood it’s too late and devastation was inevitable. She used her powers to submerge herself into the black sky so she could hold her children together and to absorb their enormous powers that was capable of destroying everything in vicinity. Roxana broke into million tiny pieces and her body parts were showered from up above to the ground. Those pieces are called sunstones, in modern times and are present at several places on earth.

Tesni was thrown far away from her home, almost in different galaxy, breaking into million of stars. They say the stars are still moving in some directions.

Altan, like her mother merged into the sky. But he turned into gazillion of black stars which aren’t visible but it’s somewhere there in Mother Azura’s bosom. All of them are moving to form one big star but since they have lost their power it’s difficult to be back in their complete form on their own.

Ever since that horrendous day, Sun used to come up everyday to look for Roxana’s pieces on earth, in a hope he could collect all those and resurrect her.

And everyday he used to set down to look for his other sibling’s pieces, trying to push them together, slowly and gradually, to bring them back. Sun is hopeful that one day they all will be back and live as one family like they used to.

What if I told you that I am that ‘Evil Queen’ who, pragmatically, established the clear boundaries of evil against the good with a help of an apple? What if I told you the mirror I was infamously portrayed with, was no magical but a concrete reality that unveiled my harrowed insecurities and loathly self, who only wanted to feel better of herself but kept misquoting her worth through a lowly piece of glass.

What if I confess that it wasn’t my dark magic that conjured up all the poison in that apple but the debris of my self-respect which was smothered under the pretense of an ugly face I carried, by all those bullies who knew nothing about looking beyond the pale, helpless skin. When I was falling off over the destroyed precipice of my innocent self, no one paid heed to a good heart before calling me a wicked soul.

What if I told you the time has gone by and the Snow White(s) of today isn’t a synonym of fairest skin and purest heart? Or who is to know in the former era, who the actual evil was? The stories are told and briefcase-d the way it suits the purpose of the past and the message to be sent across into the future.

That poisoned apple was a reply to all those criticism I had to endure because of those bullies. And believe me, evil isn’t born in a single night but sculpted through tremendous hate and hostility, forcefully hammering distaste inside and axing out the appreciable parts.

The reason it was taken out from the pages of history or better-called fiction, is because it held shreds of evidence of a crossover with Dr. Frankenstein, when I begged him to revive my innocent self while I was on the verge of losing it but what unleashed was was a monster that killed everyone in its way, even the people most loved by it. That apple was an embodied version of a poisoned monster I never knew existed in me before I met the fiend one, called discrimination.