Day 11 – Finally Inside the House Again

The sun had started setting. It was silent inside, other than her own breathing echoing inside her head. And her mother’s snoring. Reasons and sobs found her again. She slumped down next to her mother on the bed, not caring for her dirty feet. Or her blood covered legs and arms.

You may not agree with the description, but she had hugged her mother. She did not wake her up or even touch her in the action. And then she looked at her mother’s face and reached out slowly and carefully, to not spoil it if it was only a dream, and touched her mother’s face with dirty fingures. Her soft bumpy face. And then she kissed her forehead. Warm and soft bumpy forehead. The dry skin on her lips poked her own lips. Mother’s snoring stopped but she did not wake up.

Lajwanti got the fire going, drank a lot of water and kept some to boil. She started cleaning her wounds. There was faint chatter of birds as they returned to their families and trees, over which she heard her mother’s moan.

She sprang up and tip-toed her way, jumped on the bed and shook her awake.

“Ma! Mama, you will never believe what happened.”