The breeze moved the dry leaves which made a sound with their movement. Spreading, tossing and then almost all uniting at a point where further movement was not possible.
Jugant sat on the down end of the stairs watching this happen. He was twelve and lived with his parents in an apartment of a housing society. He sat wondering what was he going to go next.
While playing cricket, the ball disappeared somewhere among the piles of leaves. This ball belonged to Jugant and this was the third ball he had lost this week. His parents did not know that the box containing five balls had two less and now three. His mother had strictly said not to open the box. They were gifts from a relative who had come on the weekend.
Jugant felt like it might be a bit easier to find the ball among the green leaves of the bushes than the dry and brown ones during the fall. It was not only Jugant who had lost balls, it was others as well. Almost every other day one was lost. Jugant wondered where all the lost balls went and since they could never find them.
‘Do they disappear into some other world? … and if someone got there, he/she might find a big pile of balls which have collected from everywhere where a ball has disappeared into the dry leaves,’ Jugant wondered
Jugant got up and climbed the stairs at a slower pace than usual, wondering what his parents would say upon learning what had happened. Jugant’s parents were strict in regard that they were very busy with their jobs which they often did from home and would not tolerate any form of disturbance in their life even from their own son. Jugant’s paternal grandmother who recently passed away was the only one with whom he could be his age, otherwise an environment of silence was always present with his parents around. They barely even interacted with each other.
Jugant reached the door of the apartment and paused before ringing the bell. There were loud voices coming from inside.
‘Are they fighting again?’ he thought and then there was silence for a while and then he rang the bell.
Jugant’s mother opened the door, her eyes showed they contained anger and Jugant had an idea where all that anger was going to go.
“Why are you late?” asked Jugant’s mother in an angry tone
Jugant though it would be better not to mention the lost ball. He hung his head and stayed quiet.
“Next time you are late, no need to come home. You can return your watch to us since you don’t use it,” said Jugant’s mother as she gave way for Jugant to enter. Inside his father sat working on the laptop with a serious expression and he did not give any attention to Jugant’s arrival.
Jugant quietly went inside his room. He took out the box containing the last two remaining balls and hid the box under the bed and then he sat down to do his homework.
What Jugant did not realise was, things like the box of balls, while they might not be so harmful on a good day but on a bad day they can add to the present misery.
Exams were tough for Jugant, after his grandmother passed away, less attention was paid on helping with his actual studies and more was paid to scolding him to do his own studies.
The day Jugant returned home with a report card containing less than satisfactory grades, he found the box of balls on the table and his mother with expression of anger. His father was working on his phone which he kept on the table to focus on the report card that Jugant handed to him.
Jugant had to get the report card signed that very day, he had no option. His heart was beating very fast from all the words he thought were coming, sweat began to appear on his forehead and his eyes fell on the photograph of his late grandmother on the wall and tears were ready to fall out. His parent’s expression was completely unsympathetic with father’s becoming worse by the moment.
Unable to bear the tension any longer, Jugant dropped his school bag on the floor and ran towards the door, opening it and running off. His father had called out to him but he did not wait to hear. Running down the stairs, now he had a new fear, what would happen when he would go back and also whether he wanted to go back.
But, where could he go? Jugant knew the security guard might stop him at the gate. He couldn’t think of anything as he ran out of the building. In a corner he saw a big pile of dry leaves and he ran straight and jumped into it wishing to disappear like one of the balls. He kept his eyes closed for a while and then when he opened them to face reality, his eyes broadened and a smile slowly appeared on his face.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Dry leaves
Early Morning Memories 