If only her silence had more words…!

She opened her bleary eyes when the cat, all seven pounds of squirming flesh, climbed onto her belly. Squinting into the sunlight streaming in from the open window, she discovered that she was now the weary possessor of a pounding headache, and at some point, had managed to lose both a tooth and a spouse.

She blinked her eyes a few times to let her eyes and her body calibrate with the warmth of the sunlight that peered in through the crack in the door.

Getting herself out of the bed to wash herself no longer seemed efficacious. It’s the griminess that had gripped her soul, was the cause of her worry. However she quickly brushed away the eloquent thoughts of self dismay that surrounded her mind. She after all had other important chores that needed her attention! Soon her thoughts were disrupted with the ringing of her phone.

Sarah answered the phone with wet hands. She knew who it was on the other line, she said, “I love you my sunshine”, Sayed too responded with the same precious, three words.

“Mumma you are late today. It’s my story recital day at school. You have to listen to my story before I enter school”. She told Sayed that she had left from work, as she closed the door to his house. The ten minute rickshaw ride gave her enough time to introspect on her silent life. She herself wondered how dutifully she had practiced the art of being silent. It was something she was taught as a girl child.

He was thrilled to see her and ran to her with his biggest smile. His hug instantly soothed her wounds.

Ali narrowed his gaze at Sarah. Everyone knew about Ali’s mind-set when it came to the women of the household. Men usually are blessed with the art of being chauvinistic. Sarah had used the supermarkets’ washroom which was on her way, to change into her kurta. She kissed Sayed goodbye after listening to his story and assured him that he is the winner for her no matter what happens.

She quietly sad down in the backseat of Ali’s car and gave, an unexpected managerial meeting,as the reason for her delay. Ali knew she was lying, after all he had always considered her truth to be lies. Her silence was considered golden and her words, disrespectful. The hidden scars and the bruises on Sarah’s body. had stories of truth to tell. He had always expected her to behave like the women he was raised by. Scared and Confined!! He never appreciated her quality of being beauty with brains.

Anita was Sarah’s colleague at the Bizz Bpo.Anita had introduced her to the women’s club meets she attended every month. It’s at one of these meets that Josh was swept off his feet by Sarah’s mesmerizing beauty. Initially Sarah confined herself to just a glass of juice and left within an hour itself. It was during one of these brief moments at a party that Sarah had met Josh who was habitually bloviated.

Josh had more money than he ever needed for his luxurious lifestyle and for Sarah her mere salary of some thousands, was all she had every month to manage her worldly expenses.

It wasn’t difficult for Sarah to say no to Josh when he offered to pay her for the few hours she was about to invest for his sadistic pleasures. This was at least less humiliating than being naked on her wedding night in front of her in-laws just for them to believe that her entire body was scar free as her face.

Ali was jobless after his few stints in the corporate world. According to him he wasn’t meant to be a slave to someone else and meet targets as per their dealines.Ali was too happy to let Sarah work after his mother had told him that he should let his wife do all the work and he should spend all his time with their child, because according to them, she was only good enough for running all the errands.

Sarah served Ali and his mum lunch and after eating what was left behind, she asked Ali to rest for a while.She told him and her mum-in-law that she would get the groceries for the next day and even pick up Sayed from school. They were anyways too happy to oblige.

They both lay motionless however it looked like Sarah had a heartfelt smile on her face. The taxi driver was full of anguish and surprise at how he didn’t have a single scar despite loosing control of the steering wheel because of the dog who suddenly came running in front of the car.

Sarah had always reminisced her mothers’ words of being God’s favourite child. Today the almighty gave her one more reason to believe so. Ali kissed the forehead of his lifeless son and wife and covered their faces with the white cloth that covered their body.

Sarah was now in a place of eternal bliss with the only love of her life, her son!!

Sometimes despite being a silent beauty is all you can manage to be. Sometimes the weight of our own fears, societal prejudices and stereotypes is heavier that the responsibilities of the world. It is only sometimes that a woman expects someone to love, care and respect he, the way she does for others. Unfortunately, it is more than sometimes that people choose the angelic route as a despise from their struggles than to just break free.

This post is written for #BlogALeague with Ruchi, Dipika, Charu and Preetjyot.