Red Sand

It was a cool Wednesday morning and the clouds were quite apart from each other making people wonder if it were truly the rainy season. It was time for work and school. The vehicles started buzzing and honking in the roads. School students were walking to their schools with a bag of books at their back and a basket with lunch box and water bottle in one hand. Ravi, a seventh standard school student was walking along the footpath to his school. On his way he may have to pass by a restaurant's backyard which had its entrance on the parallel street. After a kilometer walk was a garbage dump-yard that flaunted its foul smell which for obvious reasons kept all the fragrances at bay. After the school, Ravi was returning home hungry and tired.  When he passed the restaurant's backyard, he noticed a girl, around his age, squatting next to the dumped left-overs which overflowed the bin and eating those morsels. The very sight of it gave Ravi a thrust in his abdomen and a weird vomit-like sensation covered his senses. He ran as though a ghost was behind him. At home, he relaxed, later ate food with an uneasiness but did not speak about what he saw to anyone at home.

The next day on his way to school he was anticipating the sight of that girl who had his guts squeezed in awkwardness. But, today he came prepared with a lemon in his basket. A weapon so powerful that any extreme vomit-like sensation would slither back to its origin at the very fragrance of lemon. He saw that no one was near the garbage bin of the restaurant. A little further was a semi constructed structure that had a huge pile of sand, bricks, Wooden logs spread across almost encroaching the pavement. On the pile of mud laid the girl whom Ravi saw the day before. When he just stopped at the sight of her, even the girl woke up with her hands supporting her weight on the mud. Both of them stared into each other. Then, Ravi came closer, one of the girl's hands reached for a stoned. Ravi picked up a brick,  quickly dusted it as much as possible and placed it in front of the girl. By this time, the girl was ready to rip the boy's head apart if he advances or does anything which may provoke her. The boy took out his lunch box and opened it. The girl's eyes widened in confused astonishment. He turned the lunch box upside down on the brick and tapped it twice. The food in it came out like a coloured dome of rice on the brick. He then closed the lunch box, put it in his basket and walked to the school even without looking back to see if she was eating it or not. The girl dropped the stone from her hand and pounced on dome of rice to savour every grain of it. For, every muscle in her body had lost the battle with hunger.

It was Friday and again Ravi stopped near the semi-constructed building and looked to see if the girl was there. But he could see no one. He turned and there came an "Ahem!" in a young girl's voice which asserted the girl's presence. The boy walked forward with the lunch box opened and tapped it upside down on the same brick. At this time the girl slowly peeked out from the huge layer of stacked up bricks, behind which she was hiding out of shame. While tapping, Ravi looked up at the brick stock and saw the girls head dip behind it swiftly. The boy then turned back and walked away.

Ravi forced his mom to prepare lunch on a Saturday, which was a half a day on the pretext that he had cricket practice. That morning he was able to spot the girl on the heap of sand next to the dining brick. At the sight of him, she turned her back and bent her head down. Ravi followed his routine and walked away. the following day was a Sunday and Ravi was worried as to how he could give the unknown girl meal one-time meal for that day. But he did not wish to lie again and on Sunday it is risky too. He stood at his door watching the rain battering the window panes, and hitting the ground hard. He consoled himself not to worry about the girl too much and felt that he was over-doing his charity already.

Soon came Monday morning after a rain- washed Sunday. Ravi as usual packed up and walked to school. He stopped by the hunger-haunted place to look for the girl in her rugged dress. He could not see her from the pavement, so, he walked closer. He spotted her lying asleep behind a brick wall, with her dress still looking wet. He made some gestures, noise and even threw a small pebble at her. She would not wake up. He was worried if she was still alive. He saw her toes bend and relax a little. She was alive. He was bewildered and too anxious to think what he should do. He put his basket on the sand heap and walked to her. As he approached her, he could witness that he was groaning in unbearable pain. But the sound was too feeble, probably because of no meal on Sunday. He bent down, stretched his left hand and touched the girl's forehead. He took it back immediately. She was on high fever. He did not know what to do. He ran out and checked in a small shop for a tablet for fever. The shopkeeper said he does not have one. He did not have money either. He ran back to the place where the girl was lying and checked if she was still breathing. He thought he would go back home and tell his mother about it. He decide and came out and saw a man in his ragged clothes leaning to a pole and smoking. He slowly stepped toward the man and asked for help. The man probably did not understand the language and gave a careless look. But, he gestured Ravi to lead the way knowing that something was wrong. He got him into the inner place of the semi-constructed building and showed the girl. He told him to look after her and so he could bring his mom for help. The man saw the girl lying on the ground and pulled in a heavy smoke and breathed it out. He turned to Ravi and slightly bent his head and nodded - gesturing him to go. Ravi with anxious eyes took his basket and ran home.

He was already tired and slowed down his pace of running and then turned it into a walk. He reached home only to find that the door was locked. He knocked the door, and rang the bell several times. there was no response. He ran to his neighbour's house to check where his mom had been. The neighbouring aunt assured him that she will be back in ten minutes from the market. Ravi thought of asking his neighbour for help but was too shy and thought not to complicate things and wait for his mother. After fifteen minutes Mom was back home. As soon as he spotted him, he ran and hugged her weeping for help. She was initially taken aback to see her kid not in school and the very sight of him crying made her even more anxious of what may have happened at school. Ravi pleaded her to accompany him to help a girl a couple of kilometers away. Mom obliged and asked him all the detail of what happened on their way. He narrated her everything and she was confused and put up a frowning face as she never had dreamed of a situation as this involving her son.  On their way she was scolding him for not going to school straight and involving himself in all this weird activities. She even scared him that she would inform his dad in the evening about all this.

They reached the place and when he came to see the girl, she was lying there motionless with her hands stretched, bruised and her fingers clutching the sand. There was blood stain in her abdomen region and to him she looked dead. His mom gave a shriek and went forward to check if she was alive. She was shocked. The girl was dead. She immediately called the police from her mobile. Also the next call to her husband asking him to come to the spot for support. Ravi informed the police all the details and they asked him to describe the identity of the man whom he had sought assistance before going to bring his mom. An ambulance came up and they carried the girl's body away. He overheard the conversation of a few people who gathered there about the torture that the girl took upon to breathe her last and he felt guilty of bringing that man. In a fit of rage he broke down his parents consoled him and dragged him. At that moment he saw the brick that he used to tap his food for the girl. He pulled away from the parent, ran to the brick picked it up and threw it against the wall. The brick broke into pieces and a thousand grains of red sand.