The man was very scruffy in appearance. His muddy clothes and greasy hands clinched his identity as some field-worker. However, there was none to judge if he would be the right person to take over the child. On the other hand, one could easily figure out those lines on the forehead were not for the real good of the child. No sooner the child stole the glimpse of the shoddy man, she started smiling. The smile of the kid was like a half moon formation in dark clouds. The child finally had a silver lining admits the lonely willows.
The man extended his dirty hands and picked up the child with languish posture and hid her in one of his side cloth bag. The bag was of fine quality of jute and it appeared as if he had stolen it from somewhere. The only arbiter of the rescue were the willows and its shallow quietness which clearly indicated that the child was born with no ordinary fate. The man walked for nearly an hour and reached a vandalized hut, at the outskirts of the village. He opened up the door, strangling a hiccup. “Oh! That’s a sign of bad luck”, he uttered disappointedly and secured the child at the corner of the muddy-floor. “The child must be hungry, shall I feed it with some milk”, the man questioned himself. “But where will I get milk at this odd hour of night”, he re-questioned himself. He then gave up the thought of feeding the child, losing the battle against his whim and slept on his so called tattered mattress.
The unimpeachable child couldn’t bear the hunger any-more and her pulses were sinking giving up on every hope. So, she started sniveling, the most she could do to show that she was in trouble. This whining woke up the man and he knew the child needs some immediate care. He stood up and started rushing to some nearby hut to get some milk, when he said, “WAIT!”. If I am feeding the child, the child would feed me in the near future, that’s the give and take, but who is this child and why did anyone leave it stranded in the willow?”, man uttered to himself in a sheer boggling state. He advanced close to child to quench his curiosity and here the curiosity killed the cat. His doubt was right, it was a girl and not a boy. The man slapped himself for bringing her in without even confirming what the gender of the child is. He started wandering within that square hut, strategizing on how to get rid of this girl. When he finally decided to drop her to brothel of the nearby village which was some 4 miles far. Without giving it a second thought, he wrapped the girl in the jute bag and started on his journey. He also knew that the girl needs immediate medical attention, as she appeared pale and her sinking heart beats could be easily felt by merely touching her.
Time is on its tick and so her heart-beats. She was now giving up on the cruelties of the human world. She was giving a tough fight to her fate. “Oh! God, she is dying, it would have been better if I wouldn’t have picked her up. Now, the blame of her death of would come upon me”, he spoke in a steady tone. He started running, panting and then again running. He had to traverse the distance in the least time if he had to save the girl. The morning twilight was embracing the world and the man had embraced the girl. With the first stroke of the sunlight, he could spot the brothel. “Ah! It’s near, I have almost reached. Girl just hold your breath, you shall soon reach your home, he spoke running and watching her”.
Beautiful ladies of the nearby villages, who couldn’t escape vindication were all scattered around. It appeared as if you have stepped into an angelic world altogether. The giggles and the pearl smiles were equivalent to the chirping of the birds and fluttering of butterflies in a garden full of flowers. It was a hell disguised as heaven.
And the man on his last leap to the place, stumbled upon a rock which he couldn’t recognize. The strike was hard enough and he fell on the ground with the girl in his hand wrapped up in the jute bag. He hit his head and died immediately with the hit to ground. The girl who was already fading out was bathing in the blood of this stranger.
Suddenly a voice echoed, “Look! Who’s that man out there?”.
