OUT

INCEPTION

That day started like every other day. Dad and Mom were in the kitchen prepping breakfast, Akash was playing PUBG and well, Swathi was doing what she always did at this time of the day, she was sleeping. Oh, not because she woke up early and is trying to catch some eye, but because she wakes up real late these days. According to Swathi, waking early is great only when you have a 'goal' to accomplish. Otherwise it is just plain waste of the time she could have slept in. So does that mean she has no goals? It's quite the opposite. She probably has a whole list of them but she's...let's say anxious. She's got some starting trouble. She has everything on her list-from writing a book, to finishing her tbr, preparing for her upcoming entrance exams, shooting her first YouTube video...clearly there's a lot on there. She's confused where to begin.

She opens her eyes and lies in her bed thinking about what 'goal' of hers should she be starting on today, or finishing. See, the problem with Swathi was that she had a whole lotta hobbies but she was never the best at any of them, except maybe reading and watching movies. So she decided on updating her tbr, thanked God for another day and finally woke up.

Mom was singing in the kitchen with Dad saying something to her. She paused to reply and resumed singing. Suddenly there were lots of gunshots in the front of the house. That meant that Akash was probably playing PUBG. His online classes were gonna start in a couple of minutes but he's still playing. It was routine. Swathi stumbled onto the kitchen and greeted her parents. They both wished her morning. She went about with the daily stuff and while brushing her teeth, she looked up her kitchen walls. And her thoughts flew again...

Swathi and her family lived at her father's roots. The same tiled house where her dad was born and raised, with his five siblings and cousins. It was a really small house with small rooms. His parents were really poor and at that time this house was a safe haven. But that was forty years ago. The house still remains intact but it's not as safe as their neighbour's houses. Since the roof of the house was tiled and the walls were low, there was a wide gap between the roof and the wall. So wide that somebody could easily creep in. This thought struck her everytime she looked at the roof. One of the 'perks' or disadvantage of being Swathi was that she had a very vivid imagination. Her mind fills her with weird pictures of burglars crawling in, or something equal, if not worse. She shudders at the thought. She helped her parents with the chores and went over to read the newspaper.

Swathi scanned the papers for anything new. Same old, same old. The recent pandemic outbreak was still causing problems. The death toll was on the rise, but the authorities decided that it was time to let people out. This was why her dad was home the last few days. Her dad was an autorickshaw driver, one of those thousands of people who depended on a daily wage for life to go on. Her dad was well educated like her mom, but circumstances had led them to the life they lived now.

Her dad wanted to go out and check out how safe it was, but she won't let him. She was scared about him catching the virus. They said it was not fatal but they were not sure. She scourged the papers for anything specific to prevent her dad from going today but found nothing. Her dad was going out after days of lockdown and it was because of her, her stupid medicines. But those medicines were necessary to prevent her allergy attacks. She had to let him go, but she felt something telling her not to let him go, but she did anyways. She watched him start the autorickshaw and leave.

That was the last time she saw her father. All because of her stupid medicines, all because of her.....