Shrini was
a small girl who lived in a village full of cottages. Her mother had died, but
her father had supported her, and they were middle class people. She would walk
10 minutes in the evening to a lake where her mother died, to pray, as some
people did. Their belief was that the lake had reflections of the past and
worshiping them meant that we are motivating the previous ourselves from the past.
One day, she was studying for her exam. She looked up at her watch after
studying. She gasped. It was 2 hours late to pray. She had never been so serious and ran her way to the lake. Arriving there, nobody was there. Not a bird,
not a light, not a sound, just whispers of the stars. Silent echoes told her to
go away but she wouldn’t, listening to her desires. She bent down, prayed in silence.
She stood up and turned around.
But even before a step, she heard a sound like
people she knew. Her friends who died in a hike, his aunt and uncle who died in
an Earthquake and even her own mother, who’s death was unknown. She was too
young to know these things but have seen all of them. Oh, the lovely moments. She
turned back, and as she was about to blink, the water turned grey and white for
half a second. She thought she was dreaming, but she was completely conscious. Again,
it happened, and again. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but no trace could
reach anybody’s ear. She turned to run away but felt someone patting her head.
She closed her eyes, and turned around, scaredy. She slowly opened her eyes. It
was her mother, but a soul. She did not understand what was going on. She said
to her mom, “Mama, is that… You? Are you a soul?” “Baby, yes. I am sorry to say
that.” She replied. “If you ever want to talk to me, come at this time every
day. I can’t talk now. And oh, please don’t tell anyone, they might capture me.
God gave us a curse that if we are captured, we are killed.” Shrini tried to
ask why but her mother had already dived down the lake.
So every day, she would sneakily go
out of the house to meet her. This happened for few years more, until one day.
She was already a teenager. She wanted to know why she died. Curious, at the
same time, when her mother came back out of the white lake, she asked so. Her
mother replied, “Well, you see. I was just praying here, at this time. Nobody
was here. I prayed, and I heard your aunt and uncle inside the lake. So, I
dived up into the lake to look for them and I drowned. And when I became a soul, I saw them. Only people who die in this village come here.”
Sudden of
all, a man came. He looked at Shrini. Her mother pounded, thinking she will be
killed. “Kid, what are you doing here?” He said, looking like he didn’t see a
mother. “Umm... Nothing?” Shrini replied. More people came and all left. They were
suspicious about the girl. “Why didn’t they see you?” She asked.
“Wait, was God,
right? Was it that only you can see me?” She felt like she was dreaming, talking to her dead mother every day. Her mother did not share most things, but she wanted to know how it felt like a soul.
She wondered, why did God make her see her dead mother, not real? She was a good girl, and wants to hug and kiss her mother, but can’t because she is made out of plain air. She wonders, if she will ever know how it is to be a soul and everyone to know
this. But no, her mother will die, and if she was one, she would as well. She still can’t believe what she saw every day was real.
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