Pankaj's Short Stories

Hope To Reach Home 🌿

A driver, a 12 or 13 year old boy, the boy's elder brother and a friend of the elder brother, were travelling in a vehicle. They were going to a wedding for a feast. It was night time. After a few hours they reached the wedding. After eating the feast, they all strolled around for a while in the wedding. After that they got on the vehicle and started going towards home. After travelling some distance, the vehicle stopped. Perhaps there was some problem with the vehicle. It was going to be morning after some time. It was 4:30 in the night. Everyone got down from the vehicle. The driver looked at the vehicle for some time and tried to fix it. But he could not fix the vehicle and started looking for a mechanic. After some time, it was morning. The driver came near the vehicle and said - I could not find a mechanic. They all started looking here and there. They were in a village where there was silence. There were many huts in the village. But apart from them, there was no other person in that village. There was a cot lying near a hut. They lifted the cot and the boy and his brother's friend sat on it. There was liquor and petrol in a big can in the vehicle. The boy's elder brother secretly started drinking liquor in bottles one after the other. When the driver saw this, he also drank some liquor. The boy's elder brother got drunk and started taking off his clothes and went and lay down in front of the wall of the hut wearing only his underwear. The driver also went and slept there. It was as if he was not worried about going home. Due to the summer season, the sun was very strong. Sunlight was spread all around and hot winds were blowing. The owner of the vehicle, that is, the boy's elder brother's friend was very angry. He could not control his anger and in anger, he took out the petrol present in the vehicle and set them on fire. The boy got scared seeing this and ran away from there. He kept running until he was far away from there. On the other hand, due to the fire, both of them died in agony. As soon as the owner of the vehicle sat on the cot, a poisonous snake bit him. The owner of the vehicle tried to run away from here. But his foot hit a stone. While trying to control himself, he caught hold of a hanging wire. After which, due to high voltage current, he died in a short time. That boy would stop and then run, then stop and then run. While doing this, he reached a city. His breathing was fast. He was tired and had also forgotten the way home. He sat under a tree and started looking around in fear. A lot of time passed. That boy spent the night climbing a tree. It was morning. The sounds of birds and vehicles started coming. He woke up from sleep. He was very hungry. But he had neither food nor money. He plucked leaves from the tree and ate as much as he could. When he remembered his home, tears suddenly appeared in his eyes. He came down from the tree and started running. He did not know where he was going. He was just hoping that he would reach home someday.