It's a boy's life

Chapter One

"Pathi, Pathi" . wake up my son

Banu gently shook twelve-year-old Pathi awake.

He strained to open his eyes rubbing them with the back of fists. He rose silently from his floor bed, careful to not wake his younger sister or disturb the rise and fall of a heavy mountain wrapped in a checkered bed sheet snoring raucously in deep slumber. He stepped noiselessly over them and found his way to his mother on the far corner of their hut.

He squatted by Banu on their worn-out straw mat, she had her palms on her head.

Pathi...Banu started. Her eyes were puffy an odd shade of purple red, her lower lip split with flecks of dried blood. Her hair usually neatly tucked into a bun were in disarray. He was used to seeing his mother look this way, too often. He felt a stab to the heart.

The first rays of daybreak, and the soothing song of the morning birds filled the silence in the room.

Pathi shook his head as if to say you don't need to say anymore, and held her palms together, Banu muffled a sob. Banu held up the edge of her saree to her face sodden with tears and sweat, and dabbed at her eyes.

Last night had been a difficult one. His father, Ramesh, employed in the local automobile shop as a mechanic apprentice had come home drunk. Like always, his mother had to bear the consequence of his bad day.

Only a few hours ago, the darkness was absolute. Ramesh took the form of a Rakshahan in Brobdingnagian proportions. A giant colossus of a man swaying from side to side, reeking of cheap liquor and slurring expletives.

The golden hues from the rising sun flooded the room. It was a new day, with new possibilities. It was a secret motto his mother and Pathi lived by. Hurt and pain is reserved for dark night.

Pathi dressed for school after a meager breakfast of day-old rice seasoned with salt. He smoothed down the creases of his worn-out shirt, which was meant to be white but is now a dull grey.

"Not bad, I look half smart". He smiled at the mirror, while he slicked back his oiled hair and applied a generous amount of holy ash on his forehead.

" Pathi, will you stop by the store on the way home? Priya wanted some biscuits. Priya is seven year old sister was the baby of the family, and the center of attention. Pathi had basically raised her himself. His mother had to return to her house maid duties within three weeks of Priya's birth.