Ann and I

3. Ann

This little boy seemed to have died a few years ago and his spirit is lost. I can observe it from his tattered beige shirt and shorts. A grotesque rope dangles unto his neck. It's scary. His eyes are all red. Gloomy weepy eyes. I noticed him within the third day of arrival in this noisy, polluted little dirty town. They at the Village, burnt down my home. My granny.... Poor granny just managed to save my life, buy me a ticket, push me into a bus with an unknown old man who was a complete stranger, an address of this obnoxious aunt and sent me away from my burning home. I cried silently the whole night when I actually felt like screaming... Screaming till my lungs would burst and the whole world would be engulfed in the fire of my rage. But I have promised to granny that I would not show myself to the world which is paranoid of people, things, events which it cannot understand. I was binded by the promise. I am binded by it even now. So I had no choice but to land on the door of this abominable aunt whom I have never seen before. To the man who brought me here, I have not seen him ever but he has been extraordinarily kind very strange, discreet and grave. The witch whom he introduced me to was almost afraid of him and she accepted me demurely without a single question. And days have passed. And with each passing day this woman has gone worse. She kicks me, slaps me, abuses and makes me work like a slave. She even locks me up as she goes out to "work". I feel like a sparrow trapped. Trapped and waiting to be stifled.... And I hate it. Everyday, each night is a misery... My only companion in silence is this little lost spirit whose silence is same as mine. I can feel his loneliness.... I am living as he does.. Lost in an alien world... Living like a ghost...