A Collection of Short Stories

A Mother's Loss

Rohini had promised her six-year-old son Adithya she'd take him to his favourite Dhaba after school. However, she couldn't keep her promise because she got swamped with work and chores since the maid had to go to her village and care for her sick father. Adithya threw a fit when he found out; he had been waiting all week.

"Mummy, please. I completed all my math homework as you asked." Tears rolled down his face when Rohini shook her head and told him they'd go on Sunday instead. Adithya grabbed his mother's arm and shook it, his teary eyes silently pleading. He had done it again; those puppy eyes were Rohini's weakness.

She sighed in defeat, shuffled through her purse resting beside her laptop on the dining table, pulled out a bill, and shoved a hundred rupees into his palm. "Run down to Lakshmi Cafe across the street and get yourself whatever you want. But no chocolate, Adi. You've had way too many Diwali sweets already."

Adithya wiped the tears with the back of his hands and nodded, his frown replaced by a toothy smile before he ran out the door.

Rohini continued typing away on her old laptop, running a frustrated hand through her jet black hair when the screen suddenly turned black for the fifth time today. She groaned; her charger was broken, and so was her six-year-old laptop. She hadn't saved enough money to buy a new one for herself.

Rohini shifted in her chair and faced her wall temple with idols of the Hindu deities Lord Krishna and Goddess Radha. She brought her palms together over her chest and looked at her Gods pleadingly. "O Radha-Krishna, Please heal Bhavna's father and bring her back to me." She prayed, her voice desperate and strained. "I might lose my job if she doesn't come to do hers. Being an accountant in Dadar doesn't pay a lot, but please, I need the money. I want to get out of this place."

Hoping Radha-Krishna had heard their devotee's pleas and cries of help, Rohini sighed again and turned back to her laptop with a frown before she buried her face in her hands and sighed again, but louder. A few minutes later, she raised her head, and her eyes absentmindedly wandered off to the front door, which Adithya left wide open. Rohini shook her head with a small smile playing on her lips and stood up to lock it when eyes darted to the ground.

His blue Doremon slippers were left by the door, meaning he had gone outside with bare feet. That's what he did when he was too excited about something; he always forgot to wear his shoes, and Rohini would have to run after him, pull him by his ear, and drag him back inside before scolding him not to run off like that if he didn't want to injure his feet. The streets of their town in Dadar, Mumbai, were nothing but dust, dirt, and small rocks the children in the area threw around.

Rohini was about to grab her purse and his Doremon slippers, hoping to make up for Dhaba night with another treat when she suddenly heard a loud and horrendous noise tear through her apartment, and the pressure was so much that her ears almost popped. With her heart pounding heavily against her chest, Rohini rushed out of her chawl room. She approached her frightened neighbours and asked where the commotion was coming from, a look of concern on her face.

Rohini ran into a middle-aged man whom she knew as Rakesh, and he shakingly told her, "It's Lakshmi Cafe. People were running out of there, and their clothes were soaked in blood." Rohini's heart sank to her stomach, and the next few seconds were a blur; sweat trickled down her temple, her chest felt tight and heavy as she pushed through frantic neighbours, not even bothering to mumble an apology, and raced down the street to the cafe.

Rohini ran past a man who had an injured woman's arm draped around his shoulder, a pregnant lady who cried for help as she held a young girl close to her body; she was shot in her stomach. Panic trickled down her temple in the form of sweat as her feet slammed hard on the ground until she was inside the distorted cafe with lifeless bodies lying everywhere. By the front counter, she found a little body lying on the ground in a pool of blood, and her heart shattered.

Tears slipped from her eyes, and her breath hitched in her throat as she stumbled through the cafe. When she reached her son's body, she dropped down to her knees. Rohini sobbed as she shook Adithya's shoulders frantically, screaming at him to wake up.

"I'm so sorry, Adi. I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise, but you cannot leave me. Do you understand? Now wake up! Please..." Rohini continued to beg for Adithya to open his eyes and flash her that same toothy smile, but he remained motionless. She sobbed uncontrollably until her eyes were numb, whispering "Adi" with a trembling voice before it took every fibre in her being to accept that her little boy was never going to come back.

Rohini gently took her son's hand in hers and stared at him with longing, and her vision clouded with tears again. All of a sudden, she felt his pulse. It was slow and possibly dropping, but it was enough for Rohini's eyes to widen with disbelief.

"Adi? Adi, can you hear me?" The desperation in her voice was replaced with hope when Adithya groaned. It was faint but enough for Rohini to hug his body to her chest as she smiled through her tears.

Without hesitation, Rohini scooped her little boy into her arms, ran out of the cafe, and hopped into the first rickshaw she saw. The driver's eyes widened when he glanced in the rearview mirror and made a right on the first traffic light that led to the general hospital.

Rohini held Adithya's head against her chest and kissed his hair before she shakingly whispered, "I won't let anything happen to you. Mummy is here. You're going to be okay."