Entry for a short story contest by misshijabi3
~ Acceptance ~
"Kajol's P.O.V"
Two years... It's been exactly two years since I met him that caused me to be away from my family back home but I wouldn't leave him for anything in the world.
A smile tugged at the corner of my lips while observing his innocent sleeping face. Pulling his hands away from the waist, I cover his sleeping form with a blanket.
His mumbled something under his breath before turning his frame away from me.
With a heavy heart, I walk over to the drawers and pull out a small album filled with photos of my family members.
I missed everyone at home but no one wanted to be in contact with me ever since they came to know about Jay. My family didn't make me choose between them and Jay; they just left me to fend for myself on my own.
You have to pay for the wrong choices you made then you will learn from your mistakes, maybe after you learn a thing or two from your mistakes we might consider to take you back into our lives.
My chest pains at the thought of the incident that happened two years ago but my wounds are still fresh, the scars are so deep and heavy making my struggle to live every day turn into a dim ray of hope.
The sound of the doorbell ringing shakes me up from the train of thoughts and I make my way to greet the person before he/she could wake my Jay up from his deep slumber.
A woman with coffee brown eyes stands before me, piercing right into my soul. No words were exchanged between us. I could see strands of gray hair covering up the front of her head, aging lines had begun to show up all over her body.
My bottom lip quivered upon her sight but my throat became dry. I wanted to talk to her about so many things but my voice betrayed my emotions.
"Wouldn't you invite your mother to come inside?"
I blink back the hot tears and pull the door aside, inviting her to come into my small apartment that I had rented two years ago.
"Would you like to have some chai (Tea) Ma?" her head snapped towards my direction probably shocked that I called her my mom even after what had happened between us.
"S...sure, I would love to."
She makes herself comfortable on the couch and picks up the album that had fallen on the ground flipping through its pages as if everything was normal.
I make my way to the kitchen only to find Jay standing in the middle of the hallway looking at my mother with longing and sadness.
"Jay, go back inside. I will call you once everything seems a bit settled ok?"
My mother silently watched our exchange for a few minutes but when she saw Jay making his way back into the bedroom she called out for him to come and sit next to her.
"Ma, what are you..."
"I think we need to talk about the whole situation right now rather than trying to dodge it. Two years has been long enough already so I don't want to waste another moment of my life with regret."
She looks at jay with a sad smile then asks me to sit next to her.
"When you... when you told us about him we were furious. You were just a 25-year-old girl and you seemed to be madly in love with him. We thought that keeping you apart from us would make you realize how hard it is to stay alive in this world with carefree decisions but then you never came back.
I kept waiting for you to come back but you were adamant with your decisions, why are you so stubborn? Your dad is still angry with you but your brothers have cooled off. They are ready to met Jay and start afresh."
At the mention of his name Jay let out a huge smile and hugged my mom catching her off guard with his affection.
"I am not telling you it would be easy, we would still have to face questions from your relatives and the nosy neighbors. People will gossip around but if you are ok with it, then I am ready to stand by your side provided you stop making decisions without telling me about it."
I look at Jay to see him grinning back at me with a broken tooth, our hopes of getting accepted as a family was finally coming true.
My parents thought that I had gone nuts when I picked up jay from an adoption center. After all, I was just an unmarried woman who adopted a kid without much thought to it.
I didn't want to get married and have babies just for the sake of having it, I was not ready to start a family anytime soon but family always need not be bonded by blood right?
Out of all the things that I had done in my life, becoming a mother to a lone child would have been the best decision that I had ever made. I may not get married anytime soon by having a child who is not of my own but if someone loves me for who I am and not what I am, then surely he would happily accept me and Jay into his family.
What is the greatest gift that you could give to a person other than a reason to live?
Accept the greatest gift given to you, the gift of life. It is not to be thrown away without a second glance; it is to be treasured and preserved.
