Short Story 1

Safe House

Ronny watched the clouds touching the roof of the needlessly gigantic, abandoned building where he lived along with the abandoned inhabitant, whose eternal mate rested inside the specially built concrete chamber outside, reluctant to join earth and others, whose blood and later flesh and bones nourished the soil to be futile nowadays. He rushed into the house while the thin, pale, grey-haired, woman talked to her children abroad. Through the phone, with features transcending her requirements, they assured her safety from the threatening flood. “Amma, you don’t have to worry, flood won’t affect you as our house is on a higher plain. We will come there next month, for Anju’s wedding.” The soothing words subverted the effect they created as they said, “we may not be able to come and see you this time, as you cannot come to the wedding with this health condition and we don’t have enough time to come home.” She missed her days in the old age home. Back then she had a family, though incomplete, that could relieve her from desolation. They ended the conversation by informing that, Rajamma, the house maid may not come for a few days, as her house was affected by flood and she was relocated to a relief camp. Ronny jumped on her lap and slept on it. His weight ached her weak old legs of bones scarcely covered in sagging flesh, but she let him sleep as he was the only living soul around. The soft touch of his fur reminded her of holding her infant children in her younger days. No one moved to the house for safety, as they mistook it to be locked with no dwellers. Rajamma and a few others, who got a glimpse of the old lady, when she called Ronny to get inside, knew the fact.
Four days of nature’s wrath diluted the clutch of humans on anthropocentrism and dilapidated the statuses built in bricks and rocks. Rajamma had a long story to narrate to the old lady- the story that expresses the taste of coconut when half of it was shared by six of them and the rainwater that saved her from dehydration, the story of equality, socialism and disappearance of discriminations she later found in relief camps. She received a call from Canada hours after the mobile networks were restored, enquiring about their mother. They urged her to check on their mother, as they could not reach her for the past four days since the network was down. “Rajamma, when you have time, just go and check on Amma. Last time the call was attended, but we heard only Ronny barking, Amma said something, but was not clear at all. We couldn’t reach her till now, and she is not answering our calls now. If there is a problem with the phone ask Jose to repair it.” As usual they refused to listen to her as they had a busy schedule and the disconnected the call.
Ten hours later the son found twelve missed calls from his mother’s phone. When returned the call, he was surprised by Rajamma’s voice. Rajamma with a broken voice informed the death of his mother, “Amma is gone.” She later explained how difficult it was for her to enter the house, as the smell of rotten body filled the house. She might have probably been dead days before. Ronny was almost starved to death. Though rotten, her odour dominated the house, like the stink of flood arrested the affected houses. Her children sobbed, but what haunted them more was the never ending mysteries. What was she trying to tell her children? What was the meaning of Ronny’s bark – a cry for help or a rebuke for letting their parents die?