Missing Fingers I - A Short Story

(Happy mothers day)

My whole world revolved around her, i used to hold her last two fingers always while we were traveling in bus or while i was sleeping. Her fingers used to be so part of my being without it i felt so aghast and would wonder how my life will be if those fingers went missing. The very thought of it would make my whole body shiver.

My day starts and ends looking at her face. She used to wake me up and would always sleep after i slept and hence i don't get an image of her sleeping however hard i try. She would make me sleep with great stories which always had a happy ending and the people in the stories are filthy rich. May be she wants me have a luxurious life style at least in my dreams.

I did not know how to count numbers or else i would have told how many houses she worked as a maid. All i remember was her day starts and ends with work nothing else. She used to take me to all the houses she worked. She used to make to sit in a corner with the food given to her and by the time i finish the food she would have finished the house hold work. She was so happy seeing me eating and it never occurred to me that i should share the food with her.

I used to watch the other kids in the houses she worked playing with those costly toys and would ask Muni amma to buy me those and she would never reject my requests. She would always promise me that this Diwali she would get a bonus and would definitely get me the big car i always asked for. Every day i would ask the same question and she would answer with the same smile on her face.

She never made me feel that i am an orphan and she is my adopted mother unless Ponni told the other day. I remember how much she wept that day when Ponni broke this news to me. She held me tight all through night and told me not to listen to others and i am born to her. I can still hear her sobbing whole night wrapping me in her arms.

I don't remember when i cried last because she was always there for me with all that i wanted. I had hardly seen her crying and grumbling about poverty. Only thing i always wondered was why is that she never talks about father. Whenever i ask her about him she would say i will let you know when time comes and you are old enough to understand. I would leave it at that thinking she is right and i am still very young.

Everything was so well for me until I woke up that Diwali morning. It was the nightmare that i always feared the most, it was the last thing I wanted in my life. The very fingers which i always felt part of my being were missing when I opened my eyes for the sounds of the crackers entering my room from the ventilator. I searched the whole house in despair just to find out she is not there anywhere.

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