For the love of Oxford

short story

Sai

He woke up amidst the sound of his beating heart and darkness filled room. He was sweat drenched. He moved his fingers across the table to switch on the AC. The radium watch beeped on his wrist. He smiled a handsome smile.
“Happy birthday Sai” he told himself.
Just then there was a knock on his door. He knew who it was by the knock, by the courtesy to intrude his privacy, he knew it was Danielle. How he wished it was his mother.
“Come in.” He said as he never locked his room. He rubbed his eyes and sat on his bed with bare torso. He hid his pelvic with the thick quilt. He could smell his own sweat.
He saw the light first and then the bearer of light. Danielle was a fantastic baker. She had hid her masterpiece with forest of candles occupying the delicious creamy layer of the cake. She sang softly as Sai squint his eyes and scratched his head with embarrassment.
“Happy Birthday to you” She concluded with a smile. One could see her pale teeth as she smiled. She had a round face with fair complexion and red lipstick that was too loud on her face. She had curly burgundy hair tamed into a bun. Her hips were round on tight wrapper; she always wore a check red apron to hide her bulging belly. She stood beside him and he blew the candles. Once again darkness embraced them. Sai sniggered.
“Switch on the light. You little rascal.”
Danielle was Sai’s virtual mother, she arrived into his life when his parents decided to separate their ways. He was seven years old when his father left him with his mother. Although it had been a decade, Danielle stayed.
“I brought a gift for you.” Danielle pulled out a small box from the apron pocket. Sai hugged her. she kissed his sweaty head and sat beside him.
“Open it” she said softly.
He obeyed without any further inquisition.
It was new wrist watch. He didn’t know why Danielle love giving watches as a gift but he never complained.
“Thank you” he smiled and opened his old radium watch to replace which Danielle had given him on his seventeenth birthday.
“Now” she pulled out a bag from her side which he didn’t notice earlier.
“Your mother told me it is a very special gift for you. I know my gift will fade away in front of this, it will certainly be the element of envy among your friends.” She pulled out a bigger box from the bag.
He opened to see a pair of shoes. It was heavy on his lap. He ran his finger across the polished leather. The sole of the shoe was wood. He could see the clean stitches across the border. His mother fancied shoes. Like Danielle she too loved giving the same gift. Surprising this time she had gifted him an Oxford.
“Where is she?” he asked as he playfully weighed the item on his palm.
She gave him an apologetic smile. “She is in Macau and en route. She asked me to take you in her office today”
“No thank you I can go by myself. Go rest and leave the cake here I shall finish it on my own. Please close the door while you”
She stood up to leave. Danielle knew the sour relationship between the mother and the son. Sai threw his mother gift aside. Danielle flinched at the sound of the expensive shoe hitting the cold marble ground. The room was dark again for he switched off the light.
As she walked way to close the door, Sai pulled his head from inside the quilt and said “By the way I liked your gift more.”
Danielle beamed at this.
Sai thought it is not the price of the gift that matters it is always the attention of the giver, ... always.

Akansh
Sun’s rays entered into the room where the curtains fluttered with the breeze on the wide window. On each side of the window was a giant wooden almirah. There was delicious smell of curry in the air, the banging of utensils and a soft humming songs echoing from the source of mesmerising smell. His morning was usually like this. There was a cup of tea beside him, it was 6 am. He was late.
He hurried towards the washroom that was across the hall to run into his father on the way. His father gave him a long stare above the moon spectacle that he usually gave every morning and smirked.
“Sorry papa” Akansh dropped his lashes. He didn’t know why he felt fear in front of senile Ex headmaster.
“Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” his father sat on the cane chair and flipped eleven pages of newspaper scanning for news worth reading.
How did he over slept it was an important day for him. After an half an hour bath, he hurried to find his belt missing. “Ma, where is my Blue shirt?” he asked as soon as he found his belt.
“At the left drawer of the Almirah ” now there were two almirahs and he knew which one. The left almirah was unlocked and packed with his formal clothes and accessories. The right almirah was a tiny closet locked.
“Shoes?” his mother called from the kitchen. “What about the shoe?”
He smiled at this as he flipped his tie into a knot around his neck, “Don’t worry about the shoe.”
He pulled a tiny key from his wallet to open the other closet.
The other closet was shoe rack filled with his prized possession; shoes.
It had about seven pairs. A blue sneaker, a red hiking boot he seldom wore. There were two pair of black and beige loafer, a pair of clog, maroon slip on and a black oxford which his father had gifted him a month ago.