I loved to walk a lot… when i was a kid, i walked home from school in the evening. Even though i could’ve just used the school bus, talking to other kids of my age about the things any normal 10 year old kid would… I chose to walk the 3 kilometers so that i could explore the roads i know by heart, so that i could free my mind and think about random stuffs, and i wanted to do that alone.
I walked and walked… with a bag full of book and a head full of unrelated thoughts; “who taught those birds how to build a nest?”,”why is the sky not green?”…. As i was walking through the side of the road, i thought maybe…. i should take a shortcut! and i continued my walk through a dusty path. too narrow that a bike wont go through and both sides were poorly maintained, because it was not a road at all! people rarely use it. so what if the path is muddy! what if both sides were covered with bushes and grass! I continued my walk and saw a bush moving. I was curious to know what made it move, but was too much of a coward to actually check it. “maybe its a snake! I don’t wanna get a snakebite!” i told myself as i walked faster. but the curiosity made me sneak a peek. it was nothing but a stray cat and her kittens. I sighed and walked further. looked up into the sky. it was getting dark. But how? it was not that late! I checked my watch and the time was 4 PM. “ah… yes! thank god i took my umbrella!” it was a small one and i packed it in my schoolbag earlier that day.i took it out and the first drop of rain fell on my forehead. it was cold
“This is why i hate rain! it’s all humid and cold and every time i go out, the rain comes down like it was his last chance to do so!”
i opened the umbrella and it was not really in a great condition. I’ve been using this old one for almost 2 years and mom never buys me a new one! i took a few more steps and stopped just to look behind. The rain drops made the path i took even more muddy. I stood there for a few more minutes to see the leaves dancing to the rain and nodding to the wind, as if they were doing a waltz! the leaves were wet and the muddy water swept into my old worn out shoes. I walked back into the mud and looked under that bush again. The stray cat was sitting over the kittens and getting herself wet. she couldn’t abandon her young ones in the rain. When she saw me, she started to make sounds to scare me off. As for her, i was a potential trouble. She didn’t move an inch though. I looked at my umbrella. “It is too damaged. If i loose it now, i might get a new one today itself.”
I placed that umbrella on the bush such that it kept those cats in a drier spot. and walked. I looked down and saw that my shoes were covered with mud and water had already swept its way in. I look up and saw each drop falling down from the sky. I was wet and was really cold.
“This is why i love the rain! it’s all humid and cold and every time i go out, the rain comes down like it was his last chance to do so!”
I walked and walked…. and i got home. I was soaked and i was shivering. Mom shouted at me, “What is wrong with you? why didn’t you use your umbrella?”
i smiled and replied,”i forgot to take it from school” and i kept on smiling…. not because i kept those cats dry, but because I was gonna get a new umbrella!
“You can’t keep even an old umbrella safe! why should i buy you a new one now?”
This was not expected! I threw away my only umbrella for nothing! and now mom’s mad at me! where did i go wrong? I planned it so well… It was too late for me to go back and get the umbrella.
next day, i went to school without anything to protect me from rain. mom was expecting me to retrieve the umbrella, but only i knew that the umbrella was gone forever. I walked home that day too with false hopes, but as expected… the umbrella was gone, along with the stray cats. How could i tell mom that i threw it away for a new one! I went home with another lie, that somebody stole it.
another 10 years have passed. I’m in college now. but still…. to this day, i never told her that i purposefully threw away my umbrella for a stray cat and her kittens. And my mom never told me that she was too broke to buy me a new one.