Smaller Things

Chapter Two: The Blue Dasher

Winter had fallen and school was as gloomy and boring as ever. There was a huge pile of homework at the end of every days and time was like an extremely languid sloth. Terming it in three words, it had become sincerely 'boring and slow'. Andy was bored to hell; and not only that; he was angry too. His mathematics grades came out and he got a B. Yes! That Andy who is the class topper got a B! Can you believe it? Can anyone EVER believe it? No, not even if they die would they believe that the Great Andy Derovo got a B and also came third in Mathematics. But he remained calm and held his paper  tightly in his hands; he would not show it to his mother no matter what. And then the bell rang and Andy did not even remember what he did after that. It was almost over an hour when he realized he was walking away from the market and towards the cemetery.  As he entered the cemetery, he heard the noise of the busy road become faint. Now he could hear the soft rustle in the leaves of the tall trees standing around the cemetery. The sun had started its journey west already and there were birds everywhere; so many freaking birds. And one must admit, it was eerie; the gravedigger's old wooden cabin stood at the end of the land, just before the tall trees, broken and almost coming apart... As Andy's eyes darted there, he felt like someone was watching him from there. Even though he knew that there was no on there anymore, still the hairs on the back of his neck stood up to their end. He gathered up as much courage as he could and then walked through the mixture of stone and wooden crosses, up to a very battered cross; one could barely make out the name on the cross.It was not his first time, that is coming all alone inside the cemetery, but there was the aftereffect of the shock he received and the shock made him jumpy. 

Andy knelled down over the earth before the memorial, stretched out his hand and touched the unreadable name; 'James O. Derovo; 27th August 1968 to 14th May 2015; We will remember you like the new warm ray of the sun that we saw from over the canyon.' James was Andy's father. It had been four years yet it hurt him to realize that Andy's father was actually no more alive; a drop of tear slipped his eye and trickled down his soft cheek to his neck and then diffused in the dry woollen fibers of his jacket.

A blue dragonfly buzzed over the stone memorial and stood awkwardly on its six legs and with its bulging eyes stared at Andy. He looked back at it. It seemed as if its eyes, too, were filled with water which might spill anytime; it turned its head like a machine and engulfed the scene it could see. And then it rested its eyes on Andy for a second time. The world reflected on the two blue spheres, all blue-y and green and shiny. Andy took a few deep breathes and sat, cross-legged, on the dampen earth.

The sky was slowly turning into a deeper shade and time was flying on its own course as usual; it was a long while when Andy realized that someone WAS standing behind him. A hazy silhouette was on the blackened cross and it was becoming clearer and clearer every second. Andy stretched his ears as much as as could and devoted all his senses in the hope of hearing somethings; maybe a twig breaking or... the broken door of the cabin creaking... To his surprise, there was no such sound. So Andy decided to leave. He stood up and dusted his clothes. He turned and an electrical shock traveled through his spine which literally made him start sweating and his whole body became numb from fear and its coldness. The door of the old cabin was wide open and there was a blue light coming from it; it was calling for him. He knew, somehow, that he had to go there no matter what. So he picked up his bag on his shoulder and started his short journey. As he reached the cabin he heard the sound of piano being played; it was his favorite,  Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66. And then as he entered, he saw a piano; a blue tiled piano was standing in the left corner of the untidy room and a man was sitting there, before it, playing the Chopin Waltz. And there was a great blue spherical bowl in which there were, like, a hundred blue dashers. As Andy looked around, he remembered his Father. 

He was a gravedigger too. It was his part time job. And he used to love it here because of the trees and the insects and mostly the dragonflies. He always told Andy that the dragonflies carried the truth to life; and when he, James died without finding the unknown truth of life, it would be him, Andy, who was supposed to find it. But Andy never found anything in the last four years and he doubts he would ever be able to do so. But he has not given up on his job. So he comes back everyday to his father's grave in hope to find what he was supposed to find.

He saw that a dragonfly was sitting on his right shoulder; it was looking up at him with its bulging blue eyes and then it was looking at the bowl and then again at Andy. He realized that it was trying to say something. So Andy walked up to the bowl and then turned to the man who still had not noticed him and was playing the end of the waltz. Andy waited for him to end and when he did so, he did not even look up at Andy and started playing "Bagatelle sans tonalite" . Andy gave a little cough, hoping that the man would look up at him, but his fingers kept moving smoothly over the black and white tiles. And then it struck Andy how mesmerizing the music was and it was, like, binding him along with all the memories he had ever had with his father; he remembered how his father too played the piano... and that's when he realised that it was the piano his father had bought, with three years of his savings. Anger burst inside Andy's head. He slammed his fist on the wall behind the piano and the man stopped playing and looked up at him. He had electric blue eyes and a polite beard; his face was kind yet scarred and the blue light made the scars etch deeper. It was Lupin, the market flower-seller. He was a con man, everyone in town knew it. Andy's inside churned with anger and he could hold no more. He kicked the bowl of dragonflies and the room was filled with the buzzing sound their fluttering wings. He was angry because he could not bear to look at a con-man playing his father's piano which he bought with three years' of savings; he was angry because he had scored such a marks which he knew would upset his sick mother. He wanted to go back to when he was happy with his mother and father; he wanted to erase his stepdad who tortured him so much, for ever from this world; he wanted to become a dragonfly and spread his delicate silver wings against the blue sky and keep on flying until the life ceased from his heart.

Lupin's ugly thin hand settled itself on Andy's shoulder and held him to his chest; Andy felt hot tears bursting from his eyes and travelling all the way down his cheeks to his throat and diffuse on his cotton vest. He felt a rumbling storm being put on a pause suddenly as he was being hugged by a stranger who was also an outcast. Andy let him soothe him. He closed his eyes and remembered the last time his father had hugged him; they were digging a grave for their dead dog Liam under his favorite beech tree; Andy was upset and was crying silently when his father kept his hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a one handed hug. Just like back then his emotions were soothed, this time too his burning inside was soothed.

He smiled opened his eyes. He was sitting in front of the old, glossy, brown piano on which sat thousands of Blue dasher dragonflies, watching him play "Moonlight Sonata" with their bulging eyes. Life is full of mysteries and of course hurdles. You are a human being and you have the right to be upset sometimes. And when you are so, nothing but a familiar "..." can bring you back to life. There would be tests to see how you react to hardships. You just need to spread your wings and fly in the blue sky just like a dragonfly.

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