Trouble – Day Twenty-Six of NaPoWriMo

She was 5;
He hoisted her up on the balcony,
Told her that her arms aren’t too short to reach the stars if she wanted to,
And she believed him,
And she loved him so very much.

She was 7;
She came back from school in tears,
Told him her classmates laughed at her,
So he told her that her abilities aren’t small enough to overcome theirs someday,
And she believed him,
And she loved him so very much.

She was 9;
Hours before catching a flight,
She cried;
She didn’t want to leave him,
But he promised her that no distance could separate them,
And she believed in him,
And she loved him so very much.

In the years that she grew up,
The conversations between them dwindled
Into nothing but blank pages,
She missed him,
Especially the long walks they used to take,
The blanket that smelt of him,
The races during lunch,
And his loving strokes through her hair,
She missed him,
And she loved him so very much.

She’ll turn 19 soon.
She’s supposed to have cigarettes in between her fingers,
A nameless man in between her legs,
But in fact, she is a small child,
Hiding in the body of an adult.

Something in her vowed to speak to him again,
She wanted to tell him how much she loved him,
How sorry she was
For not speaking to him all these years.

But a call from her parents arrived.
She could smell trouble through the phone,
And with that, her world shook,
Because she was now all alone.

With nothing but the memories of her grandfather,
And the way she loved his protruding grey hair,
His stories on mythology,
The way he bought her anything she wanted,
The way he told her that he always believed in her when no one else did,
So she cried;
Because
She missed him,
And she loved him so very much.

 

Written by Shreemoyee Roychoudhury for MTTN

Artwork by Sreeja Krishnamari

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