A Childhood Imprisoned
“It’s okay… I’ll walk home”, she told her friend, on a stormy night.
“But it’s late…aaaand I don’t want you to”, he replied.
All men except him had the same mask. A thousand men with the same face; only voices left for her to recognize, for she has only one face in mind. With footsteps as fast and as loud as her heartbeat, she walked towards her home through the dark lane. The momentous darkness was sharing her loneliness like every other night. Plain yellow dress, with a fake smile, listening to her favourite music, she was trying so hard to be her own light.
A very few people passed by her that night. But every man she saw was in fact a reflection of the same face. Her mind teleports back in time. The one face she always remembers is smiling at a little girl.
Getting back to reality, she again starts walking. Her cell phone buzz breaks the silence of the street.“Beta, get one kg of sugar on your way back.”, her mother says on the phone.
The flashback repeats itself. An innocent young girl sitting on the corner seat of an auto in a light pink dress, and the man with the smiling face sitting right in front of her. Soon as the wind starts playing with the skirt, so does the man. Suddenly, the man’s smiling face is swallowed by the viciousness of his actions.
She enters the grocery store. “Who is that person I see in every man??”, she asks herself, “ Why can’t I forget him??”.
Collecting the groceries, she goes back home. Today, like every other day, she runs to splash water on her face. The house has her mother’s warmth and her family’s light. But she, still stuck in the darkness, closes her eyes, and only the damped threads of her towel hear her cries this night.
“ How was your day dear?”, mother asks.
“ It was great. In office today…” and she goes on with her fake smile.
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