Nostalgia
(A page from memory)
Page 4
Her throat was getting dry because of thirst. ‘It’s too hot today’, she mumbled as she applied the brakes. It was around two O’clock, school’s off-time and the students were scattered everywhere around. It was so arduous for her to drive in that crowd. The street vendors and school vans were also blocking the traffic. A few students were moving towards their vehicles; others were walking home and more were standing at the vendors. ‘I shouldn’t have taken this way.’ She caught a glimpse of the crowd and thought, ‘But I use the same way before every day.’ She looked at the school and thought, ‘It’s been a long time; I used the same route.’ It was her school. Either she was in a hurry or she forgot the heat of the weather and time. She recalled her time at the school years ago.
Her childhood was spent here. She used to stand in the same place with other students. She returned from her thoughts by the horns coming from the vehicles behind her. She instantly drove her car to the side. Now her mouth felt as dry as a bone and concomitantly she saw a girl holding a juice glass. She looked here and there to search for the juice seller and found an old man sitting with a cooler. ‘Oh! He’s the same man who used to sit there when I was at school’, she wondered and drowned in some deep thoughts when she used to think almost daily about having the money to buy things from those street vendors like other children. The whole scene changed in a split of a second. Now the juice seller wasn’t looking as old as that day.
She saw herself coming out of the same gate. She exulted in happiness to see her mother waiting for her. Usually, she didn’t come to pick her up from school. She ran towards her and held her tightly, then realized that her mother was clammy and dripping.
‘It’s too hot my dear, please don’t cuddle me’, her mother said, separating from her politely.
She started looking at her mother blithely but sceptically.
‘Faugh! I’m out since 11 a.m., these government departments are useless — they make stand for hours in long queues to no purpose’, she complained, and then looked at her daughter in a very tiring way and asked if she had some water in her bottle. On her refusal, she told that she had been waiting for around half an hour to take her home.
That was the day when she wished, she was able to flow the rivers of water for her mother but she wasn’t able even to buy her a glass of juice. They both started walking and came across the same juice seller but her mother didn’t have enough money for juice or else she should have taken it, she knew. She was a very sentient child comparatively and kept thinking of her mother throughout the walk. She was so indulged in those memories that she couldn’t realize when she reached home.
She looked at her mother as she entered the home and it seemed like her mother was tired and thirsty same as that past day.
‘Would you have some food?’ her mother asked her affectionately.
‘Hurry up Mama! Come out.’ She held her mother’s hand, took her out and made her sit in the car.
‘Is everything ok?’ She grew panicked.
‘Oh! All ok!’ she smilingly replied and drove her to the school.
The crowd was vanishing gradually, school vendors were leaving and the students were disappearing one by one. She didn’t find the juice vendor there on the same corner so continued driving to find him.
‘Hey! Listen here!’ she called to him loudly as she saw him on the other road and asked if he had some juice left. In reply, she got only one glass. She happily took it from him and gave it to her mother to drink.
‘But I ain’t thirsty, you may have it’, her mother lovingly replied, clearly thinking her daughter was thirsty.
‘No! I ain’t’, she replied and forced her mother to have the juice. It wasn’t that day when she was unable to buy her mother a glass of juice. She observed her mother and imagined her in comfort.
Her mother saw her sceptically after finishing the glass and she recalled the whole memory to her. Both had tears in their eyes but they were tears of happiness.
~Durdana Arsh
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