Shama was walking fast. It was already
dark and she still had a lot of work to finish. If only she had not forgotten
to get tomatoes in the morning, she would have been done with dinner by now.
She wiped the sweat off her forehead and a smile lit her face, as she thought
of her two little bundles of joy at home. Her younger one had made a tomato train in the morning and she had ended up spoiling all of them.
Shama still couldn't believe they were already 6 and 9 years old. It seemed only yesterday Saurabh and she had
gotten married. She was a Muslim and Sauarbh was a Hindu Brahmin. Both of them
were ousted by their families but they had not cared. They had settled in this new
city and before they knew it, they were a family of four. Life had been like a dream
for her till that dreadful day; the day Saurabh left them forever. She shivered
as she thought of his last day. How he had hugged them before leaving and how
his last words were “I won’t take too long”. He took long; he never came back
and since then life had been really difficult for her.
Somehow in last 4 years she had
managed to get a job inspite of her lack of any professional education. Slowly
but gradually their life was getting back on the track. They didn’t have
everything but they had enough to survive; above all they had each other.
Lost in these thoughts Shama was
waiting for the traffic light to turn red. As soon as the light turned red, she
started to cross the road. The windows of her home were visible. She hurried
looking at them. Her girls would be waiting for her she thought. Lost in these
thoughts she didn’t notice the speeding truck. Shama was flung high in the air.
Her clothes went hay wire and she could feel the strength of the moving beast
over her; she could feel the mush of her skin and bones; her bones crushed into
her heart; she could feel her heart breaking into million pieces literally, as
she thought of her daughters and then just like that she felt nothing. The dark
took over. She laid there still holding the vegetable bag in her hand. The red
of tomato was blending with the red of her.
Linking this to Wordy Wednesday at Blog-A-Rhythm
