‘Where is all the water going?’, seven years old Aadhavi asked her
uncle Mr Mehra while staring at the wide river with ever speeding
water.
‘It is heading towards the sea’, replied Mr Mehra.
‘So much water goes to sea, the sea must have a lot of water by now..’
said Aadhavi.
Mr Mehra smiled, ‘Yes, it has a lot of water by now. I will take you
to the sea one day, the sea seems to have all the water in the world’.
Aadhavi smiled and looked at her uncle, ‘I would love to go to the sea
then. I have not seen anything bigger than this river.’
Mr Mehra opened his smartphone camera and shifted its focus to the
front camera, ‘Look here, let’s take a picture.’
Days passed, followed by months and years, Aadhavi now fifteen years
old, sat looking at the picture in her smartphone, her mother sat
beside her.
‘Well, that is a beautiful photo..’, said Aadhavi’s mother
‘Yes it is, I was seven then. He told me he would take me to see the
sea. He didn’t’, Aadhavi said in a tone deprived of anything pleasant.
‘I am sure he wanted to do many things in life. He would have surely
kept his promise if he could. We all miss him’, said Aadhavi’s mother.
A year later Aadhavi visited her grandparents house, and went near the
river bank, now able to do so on her own without adult supervision.
She looked in the direction of where the water flowed.
‘I am going to a place with beaches. It is a school trip’, Aadhavi
figured this had to be the one place where her uncle would surely be,
if there was anything such as an otherworldly presence, ‘I will be
near the sea, be there if you can.’
On a Wednesday a few years back, it was a relatively silent night, the
sound of a speeding car could be heard from afar. It came to a halt
after crashing into a tree near the sidewalk, but the tree was not the
first thing it had hit.
Four people were brought into the hospital, three were pronounced dead
and the picture of Mr Mehra and Aadhavi near the sea, never became a
reality.
It was another case of drinking and driving, the driver was sentenced
to jail, the families of the casualties were offered an amount by the
government, Mr Mehra’s family refused to take it.
Aadhavi stood at the beach, her foot submerged in the water. She could
see as far her vision could allow, but she would never truly see what
her mind and heart wanted to see there.
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “Unwanted Silence”
Anuran you are very talented. I loved your story although it made me feel very sad as well. I hope you do know that there is life after dying. Jesus died so that we will live forever with Him. He saved us from all our sins by being crucified. Don’t miss the chance of going to heaven and living with Jesus for ever.
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