Twenty Six

*

It was nearly dusk and there was a chill in the evening air. The mid evening breeze rustled on the standing trees on both side of the large compound and everywhere was silent. Twigs and fallen leaves were wafted this way and that by the restless currents. The air creatures of the heavens were finding their way to their remote home elegantly. They fly silently in the mid heaven and glide happily as united family of the air. It was a silent evening with no distraction of visitors and children. The windows blazed with multicolored, scintillating lights, some fanciful, others not. It was all quite, the sort of atmosphere which Mrs. Zack had prayed for. In her soul, she was silent and quite. It was moments that never come so often. The blaze of the window reminded her of the quite moments she enjoyed while she was still living in Spain with her friends in the first choice hostel of her school.

         Mrs. Zack was seated in the window on the second floor of the building wide-eyed listening and looking at the birds as they chatter and flapped their wings and observing the rules of the air. Most of her days, she spent measuring the shadow of the dying sun , observing the birds and flowers. In such a lonely place, so big to accommodate a family of five, she was with her children. It was a gated area and big compound with restricted entrance. It was a government-reserved area which she had lived all her marriage life. All her activities revolved around this small world. When she was not recreating herself, she was sleeping, making up, and entertaining visitors, making calls, watching world news or reading. Sleeping had taken most of that moment. Now she was awake, still soft in thought of the many hours she passed while sleeping and what more she could do to keep herself busy. She shook sleep off in hurried strides and watched the movement of these sons and daughters of the air with renewed interest. They had no disturbance and anxiety to battle with. It was as though the only thing that kept her happy for that evening was these feathered sons and daughters of the air. She was alone and lonely and had needed a company, not the company of birds but of her fellow human, at least an adult female human. She stood up, walked to the next window facing the outside world and looked out into the street. The housing estate was alive with the children playing in the garden, running all around and involved deeply with others in their play. It was good to be young. As darkness descended upon the earth, flowers were in blossom. Then in the heavens, stars appeared and then a half moon. Night had hurriedly come. Windows and bars shone in red places, violet and gold in others. That time of the night and the mood she was into deepened her depression. Someone important had visited, but she did not care. The gateman knew what to tell the person. Because it was dark, she saw him through the glass with the help of courtesy light located in every corner. She closed her eyes and never want to see more. It would take another twelve hours or more to meet the day awake. It was to her a decade – lonely times.

         All through the time it lasted, she sat staring into space, her eyes so fixed for long at one point to the other in the distance.