◻Marring Memories◻

You may wish to keep me invisible. Oh, humans! Even if you keep me latched in the lurking voids, I will hatch with time.
~SECRETS.

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The dancing, tender orange rays of dawn lit the grey walls with their faint light. Little veins of the beams glistened past the sleepy curtains as the woody larks sang the morning coos while perching on the young yet huge almond tree.

Amidst the pious waking of the morning star, there was an absurd illness hidden in every nook of the room. Akin to the wrecked shell of an almond seed still united with its slimy secretions, he sat on the couch.

The air of silence colonized every void in him. He had no complaints nor any cusses. He was too broken to be knitted by his living brain and thudding heart.

After all, who can flee from the chosen curbs?

His gentle laughs jerked off the stillness.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The vibrating phone turned towards him, reminding him about today's appointment. His last refuge was to sort things straight.

As his eyes read half-past seven, he grabbed his spiral note and some needed papers. He pushed them through the tanned shoulder leather bag. Gearing up the straps to hang it across his torso, he flung it while one of his hands ruffled his hand.

He took the coral ring and the wallet placed beside it. Before exiting the room, he glanced from his messed tangles hanging on his lashes to the beige linen shirt and brown bottom.

All set? He mused.

Looking at his empty wrists, he remembered what he had shirked. Ruffling through the scattered entities, he picked up his black watch. Sprinkling some aquatic perfume and grabbing his hexagon-cut log patterned reading glasses, he locked the room.

As he turned to the stairs, he could see that the opposite door was open ajar.

I gave her sleeping medication. It's not even eight hours yet!

His thoughts dined his starving brain.

"Kimaya!"

He dodged into the room only to greet the nearly folded mattresses and clean tiled floors.

Before his impulses could clog, he heard the swirling sounds of metals from below. With no delay, he sped up. But there was someone else.

"Indra maa!"

Like a rat bit by the sharp canine of a cat, she threw up the utensil sponge and turned around, gaping in shock. As the jingling utensils were silenced, she sealed her yellow-stained tooth, revealed by her plump lips.

"Ayya! Ennachu?" She asked as she washed her hands to scour the froths.

"Sorry, maa. Kima-" Before he could ask her, she interjected him.

"Street Park la."

"Park?" His brows furrowed in riddles.

Why would she have gone to the park at this early hour?

"Tushant Ayya, unga phone." Indra pointed to the green beams flashing from his phone.

He flipped the screen and attended the call.

"Hello, Avina? I will be reaching in twenty minutes. Did the professor reach there?" His hands scratched his temples.

"No, Tushant. I called to tell you that your appointment has been postponed by thirty minutes due to some personal delay. Try to be on time. He is leaving for the airport in two hours."

Perhaps his last-minute packing attitude! Or maybe his promotion party hangover.

His eyes gleamed with happiness as he heard he had more time than he had hoped. Muttering a warm thank you, he hung up the call.

"Maa, one glass orange juice kedaikuma?" He asked as he sat on the wooden chair.

She picked three oranges and squeezed them in the serrated dome-shaped plastic juicer. As she mixed some honey in the glass, she said, "Ayya, kutty maa andha paper ungakitta thara sonnanga." She dodged her head towards the paper sitting under the salt shaker.

Kimaya wrote something for me?

With an amusing look plastered on his face, he took out the folded sheet that had some inked words. Withering off his qualms, he began reading it.

'Anna, I need to speak with you. Meet me in the park as soon as you see this.'

As he read it, he gulped down the juice. Wasting no minute, he wore his black leather shoes and sprinted to the eastern side. Sweat beads pooled down his chest, revealing his vest's borders on the shirt.

What would it be? What else would be it? Or was it all?

Gambling ounces of irony clouded his anxiously thudding heart.

When he reached the high gates of the boulder-bricked park, his eyes scoured her. Far away from the corner of the ruffling ferns, he could see a girl in her azure shirt and palazzo sitting on the gravel-cut bench with a notebook and pen in her hand.

She kept tossing her head to the sides. Her hair was tied high in a messy bun, with some strands teasing her tensed brows. The turquoise earphones were plugged into her ears, and her eyes were more tightly closed than usual. Her foot kept tapping, and with every tap, a fresh stab scarred him within.

When he tried to step forward, he could see her scribble something on her note hurriedly. Damping his dry lips, he walked to her. To his odd hunches, neither his footsteps nor his waving hands were glimpsed by her.

Damn! She looks so obsessed over something. His brain rang its alarm.

As he sat near her and held her arm, she withdrew it akin to a skittish moth.

"Don't scare me as such. Can't you call me out?" She shrieked as the note fell off her lap.

Tushant bent to get it while she avoided his help and took it herself.

"Sorry, Imay. But I must be angry too!" He folded his arms in a thick force, making her peek to the sides through his shoulders.

"You didn't notice my waving. I shouted your name. But boom!" He threw his folded fist toward her eyes.

As he lowered them, he could see her swollen lids evidently as she strained them.

"Have you been crying, Imay?"

His heart sank deeper as tears escaped her lashes, pooling on her cheeks to hit the grass and pebble-laid grounds.

"I'm sorry, Anna. It was- It was always me who was wrong." Her broken phrases made him grip her arm.

She shifted her things to the space beside her. Even if lost in the minute, Tushant didn't fail to read her moves to keep the note away from his reach.

"What are you talking about? Huh? Everything is fine. Trust me, Kimaya. We are fine."

She hid her face in her cupped palm while he patted her forearm and hugged her from the sides.

"Imay, listen. You never hurt me, and I can never be angry with my lovely sister. You are my forever shine." He pinched her cheeks, which carved a small smile on her swollen lips.

Why is she this nervous? What is hurting her?

"Anna." She sniffed as she spoke. "I know it."

"Ah, I know that you know many things." He shrugged.

"Anna. I said I know 'it.'"

Her vague claim tested his calm moves.

"I know I was weird last night. I think I sang something."

"Haahaa! What? Are you writing any horror stories or something?"

Tushant laughed louder trying to deceive her. But her sharp glares hit him that she was sure. Very surer than ever.

"From your sudden arrival with those confused looks in your eyes to the sharp pain I felt before falling asleep, I know it all."

She searched for something from the black and green striped shoulder bag beside her.

"And from the prepared use of this, I could know I have been through this for a long time, perhaps."

She threw the empty cartridge into his hand. He took a proper peek at it only to repent for his carelessness. He bit his lips and chewed every word that itched to escape his gut.

"What is happening to me, Anna?"

Her grunting sobs made him latch his words. He knew not if it was anger or regret; he kept cussing everything while picking the words.

Give her hope. Just give her the damn hope!

"Kimaya, I don't know what was wrong. I felt sleepless yesterday and was about to get the drug on me. But when I saw you struggling to sleep, I knew it was needed for you. That's it." He tried to keep things within his hand.

"Anna, don't lie. Did I hallucinate?" Tushant nodded without thinking.

"Can you cure this?" She blurted while moving her strands behind her ears.

"I will, but only when I diagnose what's bothering you."

"But I don't remember what else I did see. I remember the moment I saw you. And something was barking like a dog. It seemed sorrowful, and melancholic. I called it..."

"Imay, don't stress much-"

"Wait! Ruru? Right?"

His senses clogged as his hands froze.

"But everything between them is all blurred. I'm trying to recollect-"

"Imay."

"Ugh! My stupid brain-"

"Kimaya! Stop."

"Don't obsess over it much. You need to rest. I'm going to meet my professor to discuss this. Maybe I'm new to this, but he will solve it."

Her creases straightened while her eyes held her question.

"Surely, he will help us. Let me come home, and we will find out this evening."

"Anna. It will not be worse, right? We still need more days to count a million years." She held her arms with her damp red eyes looking deep into him.

"You don't worry. We will find a way. Now you will go home and attend your vacation art classes. Alright?" She nodded, releasing her nail-digging grip.

From her relaxed walk, he could see that his words had mended her, just for now.

When he woke up to leave, something caught his eye. It was a piece of paper that lay open with evidence of multiple crushing marks.

As he took a close look, he could see that it was Kimaya's handwriting. When his eyes strode through the words, his demeanor was crippled from reality.

How did she remember this stupid song from yesterday's episode?

His phone glared green from his pocket to remind him of the scheduled meeting. From now on, he would have no time to waste in the names of trials. And he knew, every hour counts.

FOOTNOTE:

Ayya: Pronounced as 'I-yeah'. A respectable word to address younger or elderly men.

Ennachu: Pronounced as "N-agh-chew' Tamil word for what happened.

Maa: A respectable word for addressing a woman.

Unga: Tamil word for yours said with respect.

Kedaikuma: Pronounced as 'key-day-coo-ma'. Tamil word for 'Will it be given?'

Line: Ayya. Kutty maa Andha paper ungakitta thara sonnanga.
Translation: Sir. Kutty maa asked me to give you that paper.

P.S. Kutty ma is a dear epithet to call a little girl.

Let me know your thoughts!

Ever in your memory,
🪢Yaris🪢