A Minor’s Fortune

Aavash doesn’t like to play these days. He spent his days keeping himself locked inside the room. He used to be a good boy, admired and praised by everybody. It’s not that he’s gone badly, but he’s not the boy he used to be. Unlike his character, he remains silent these days.

He used to come first in the school finals, but finals of class three gave him fifth rank in the class. He doesn’t even feel like going to school.

His mother Kamala is well aware of the reasons behind the poor performance but is helpless. One Monday morning, his mother prepared breakfast just before schools. Like every preceding days he was not interested in eating. She promised to buy him an ice-cream and receive him afterschool before to make him eat the food. Once in school he forgets everything and comes back to home on his own. His school was few minutes’ walk from his home.

Bikram was his classmate and neighbor. They used to go to school together and even spend their free time together. Bikram used to wait for him every morning, and they used to go to the school together.

Today, Bikram was late and Aavash had to wait for him to arrive. But Aavash didn’t want company these days. He wanted to walk alone. But he couldn’t flee away from Bikram all of a sudden.

“Hi Aavash.” He arrived.

“Hello” Aavash replied almost unwillingly.

“So how’s your new mother?” Bikram asked him disrespectfully.

Aavash remained astonished and motionless. His face turned blend of red and black. He didn’t feel ashamed but was filled with extreme rage. He was totally unaware of what to do next. Everybody in the locality knew and talked about his dad’s extramarital affair. It had gone so viral that his classmates started teasing him.

“I’ve only one mother. Don’t talk this nonsense with me again.” Aavash replied without even looking at his face.

“My mother said your dad will bring you a new mother very soon.” Bikram added.

Aavash remained absolutely silent. His eyes moistened and reddened. He stretched his footsteps so that he needn’t listen to Bikram. But Bikram followed him to maintain the balance.

“Why don’t you speak up? Everybody talks about your dad these days.” Bikram wasn’t in the mood to stop.

Aaavash spoke nothing. He could hear Bikram speaking all the way to school but he didn’t pay any attention till they reach the school. Aavash felt low all the day. He didn’t speak much with anyone, not even with teachers. He didn’t have his lunch

Prakriti was his very close friend in the class. They used to spend hours together talking and playing. Inside the school compound, they were always found together. If anyone among them missed the class any day, the other used to call to their home that very evening. Prakriti asked him that day if anything was wrong but Aavash was ever silent.

After the class was over that day, everybody left for their home. Aavash and Prakriti were quite behind than the rest of the class.

“What’s wrong with you Aavash? Why are you so different these days?” She asked in sweet little voice.

There’s no words how she said this. In very sad tone, almost unwillingly, in shade bitter but honestly. Aavash felt like crying out all his tears on her shoulder. He felt like hugging her to thank her. She had been so good to him all the time. But he remained still, no single word came out of his mouth.

“Why don’t you speak?” she asked again.

He had no idea what to answer. He couldn’t speak the truth, and never wanted to tell her a lie.

“I’m not well.” He lied.

“You should have taken rest. Why did you come to school then?” she was raining questions.

“I was okay in the morning.” He tried to sound natural.

Children were hurrying to get into their parents arms. Just outside the school gate was the pool of parents waiting for their child to arrive. Few children were playing in playground while few others were eating the leftover of the lunch.

“Aavash, quick. I’ve been waiting for last ten minutes.” Shouted Bikram from the gate.

“I’m coming.” He shouted back and started running after waving good bye to Prakriti.

He ran towards the gate which took him a little longer because of the crowd at the exit. He turned back; Prakriti was still waving her hand. He waved his hand back to her. Aavash and Bikram walked all the way back home. They used to play for about an hour every day after snacks. Though Aavash didn’t want to, he had to. He couldn’t say ‘no’ to Bikram.

His mum fed him snacks. As always she asked him to complete school assignments before going out to play. His mom was speaking in the phone while he was eating. He could hear his mother sobbing over phone. This had been her routine task for past couple of years. He knew conversation was centered on his father. Not only within the family but this had been the hot topic for everyone in the neighborhood.

It’s not that his father didn’t love his son. He would do everything for the children. He had problem with his wife, he couldn’t tolerate her for a second. He was having an affair with one of his colleague in the office he worked. The relationship between them was degrading since past three years and had reached extreme recently. They got married some ten years back arranged by their families and relationship was going good for the first half of the decade. His workstation was not in the native town and could only visit them once in few months. There was a speculation that not being together was the reason behind the degrading relationship.

“Aavash, come downstairs.” His friends started shouting from outside the gate. He escaped while his mother was still busy in the phone. Bikram along with Deepak, Shanker, Kamal, Bikash and some new faces were waiting for him with a black and white football.

“When is your dad coming?” asked Deepak while they were walking towards the playground.

Almost everybody in the neighborhood knew that his father had not visited home for few months.

“Is he coming with your new mom?” said Kamal. Everyone started laughing.

Aavash felt embarrassed and spoke nothing. He stopped there, turned back and started running back home. He raced so fast that he didn’t give a single look back. He reached home, climbed up the stairs to his room and got inside the bed quietly. He could still hear his mother sobbing over the phone line.

It was Dilasha, his younger sister who used to wake him up early morning every day. She generally woke up with her mum every morning. Like every day Dilasha pulled the blanket off his body with all her energy. She went closer to his face and shouted over his ears.

Aavash left for school after breakfast.

He saw Bikram from distance and braced himself for some humiliating questions.

“So, is your father home? How is your new mom?” As expected, Bikram started firing questions.

It hurt him like series of slaps across his face. He remained still.

“Did she bring you chocolates?” Bikram asked again and laughed hard.

Aavash couldn’t walk to school any further. He ran back to his mother. He reached home faster than anything. As he reached home, he ran direct to his mother and hugged her tight on her knees. He wanted to hug his mother tight on her chest but his height would only let him hold her knees. He started crying out loud. After all he was in his mother arms.

Kamala carried him up in her arms and rained kisses over his face and asked him if anything was wrong.

“I don’t want to go to school.” He said still sobbing.

“Why dear? What’s the matter?” His mother asked as she wiped tears off his face.

“All of my friends tease me. They say that my father doesn’t love me. He’ll bring new mother. Is it true mama?” He was still sobbing while he asked.

Kamala was shut. She knew that her husband loved their children very much. She knew he had only problem with her. And this feeling was killing her. She was sure she would never be able to win love of her husband. So all she was concerned was about the children. She wanted them to do their schooling well and have good relationship with their father. Because all the expenses about their food, education and other stuffs was covered by her husband. She could by no means afford the expenses otherwise.

“I’m your mother and I love you. What else matters?” She replied as she held him tight.

She was having hard times to convince him to get back to school. She tried to take him to school by herself but he was not ready. He slept half a day and spent rest by watching his favorite cartoon show, while his mother was busy in household stuffs.

While Kamala was preparing dinner in the evening, the phone ranged. She went to the other room and received the call.

“Hello aunt, how is Aavash” the voice asked. It was Prakriti, the voice was very familiar as she used to call him almost every alternate days.

“He’s alright watching TV, wait I’ll call him” She replied and called her son keeping the call on hold.

Aavash ran towards his mum hearing the call. He started talking over the phone as his mum headed towards the kitchen. She asked him the reason behind his absence in the school, he had to speak lie again. They talked for about five minutes.

His mother was busy on the other call in her mobile by the time he finished his conversation, he could hear her sobbing again from his room. He went close to her mum and sat beside her. Kamala ran her hands over his head and rubbed his hair. He reacted by lying in her lap. The conversation went long, and he could hear her sobbing few times in between. By the time she finished her conversation Aavash was already asleep. She woke him up and took her to the kitchen to make him have his dinner. He showed no interest in dinner, ate a very little and slept soon afterwards.

Days and months passed by. There was no improvement in the situation, rather things got worse. It was mid-November when the news broke that his father did got married to the lady he had affair with. This was the topic everyone in the town were talking about. And this time it was more than just rumors, there were people in the town who witnessed.  Though it was not the unexpected news, it did broke Aavash’s mum into pieces. There was even rumors that two of them would soon fly abroad.

Kamala was well prepared for this news, she knew this was bound to happen sooner or later. She was strong enough to deal with anything that came her away. All she was worried about was the future of her little kids. She even knew that her husband would take care of the expenses for his children. But it was not all about money, it was about father every child requires. It was about the love, care, guidance and belongingness. Both Aavash and Dilasha loved their father very much and wait for his arrival every time. Even he loved his children to the limits. When he visited home, he would be around the children every time taking them out and getting them the stuffs they wanted. The relationship between father and children was still the same. He just couldn’t bear his wife.

It took no time to spread all around. She was the topic of discussion for days after the news broke. She tried to keep Aavash unaware of this news but it was inevitable. He came to know about this within few days.

It was Aavash’s fate, his destiny that he had to deal with all the nonsenses at this early age. His young and innocent mind would not understand everything that was going on. But he could apprehend that his father was married with someone else and his mother was isolated. In subsequent days they had frequent visitors in the home. Relatives, neighbors, family friends and several other people visited Kamala and tried sympathize her. Her gloominess had grown overnight so she tried to avoid visitors, but she couldn’t help it.

It was almost a week that Aavash had not been to school and Prakriti had called him very often this past week. Even she was aware of the events that Aavash was going through. Meanwhile, Kamala was frustrated each proceeding day. She was trying to forget everything that happened but the people who came to visit her would keep on remind her. She was so tired of sympathies that she used to fake a smile to them. But she couldn’t hide the reality, she was broken into pieces.

One fine Saturday night Kamala was busy preparing her dinner. Being a holiday, a lot of relatives and neighbors visited her that day and she was tired of dealing with them. She was mentally disturbed till the evening and was not even feeling to prepare the dinner. But she couldn’t let her children sleep without feeding them. She got frequent calls while preparing the dinner and received each of them and had difficult time talking casually. She took more than usual time to prepare the dinner and she was literally weeping during the conversation but trying not to get noticed by her children. Aavash did notice that she was weeping but didn’t react. Kamala, Aavash and Dilasha had dinner together but none had it properly except Dilasha. Dilasha kept on exchanging glances between her mum and brother but in absolute silence.

Dilasha and Aavash were playing with their toys while Kamala cleaned the dishes. Kamala finished her work pretty soon and joined her children and watched them play. There was mere silence. Soon afterwards they stopped playing. Kamala took them off the bed where they were playing and arranged the bed for sleeping. Dilasha used to sleep along with her mother while Aavash slept alone. But today he didn’t feel like sleeping alone. He told his mother that he wanted to sleep together. Kamala made them sleep in her either sides and laid down in the middle. She was still unable to stop her weeping completely.

“Mom, why are you crying?” asked Dilasha in small tone.

‘No, I’m not” she lied. Before she could drop her words she made weeping sound again.

Aavash hugged his mom tight as tears that fell of her eyes rolled down on his cheeks. He did not speak a word, just remained there hugging her very tight in absolute silence.

‘’Will dad ever come to visit us again?” asked Aavash with his eyes full wet.

“Yes he will, He loves both of you very much.” She said kissing his forehead but she was not sure of what she spoke.

“Mom”, he whispered.

“Mm”, she replied.

“Will you also leave us alone like our dad?” Aavash asked his mother unwillingly.

Kamala couldn’t believe what she heard. She realized what her son was going through. It made her cry out loud. She hugged her son very tight but could answer nothing. She had no words to speak out. She rained kisses on his face and hold him tight. There was utter silence. Even Aavash did not feel like reinforcing.