inklingslitsoc
#inklings2020
Prompt 2: lock and flower
Hearing the footsteps, she hurriedly tried to conceal the keys inside the pillow covers.
"Jiya, why are you up at this hour? What are you doing? Are you trying to hide something from me?" snapped her mother.
"Nothing.. I was just learning my lessons" Jiya replied hesitantly.
With a sudden rush of impulse, she lost her grip of the keys and a clink on the ground fed full her mother's suspicion.
"Your father's motorbike's keys! What were you thinking? You could have bruised yourself, I did not expect such a reckless act on your part" her mother lambasted with fiery eyes.
Tears of anguish rolled down Jiya's cheeks. Raising her voice she said, " I'm nineteen! Stop treating me like a five year old tot. I just want to learn riding a bike. Why do you have to stop me for everything?"
"We love you Jiya. We cannot let you jump off a bridge just because you wish to. We are protecting you for your own good."
"Firstly, I am not jumping off a bridge. I only want to learn new things and secondly.." grasping her mother's arm in one hand and collecting a bunch of flowers from the other she said, "Take this flower and try to open the lock on the front door."
"Stop talking silly!" her mother replied.
"Please do it for me."
Her mother gently placed the flowers inside the lock.
"Does it open the lock?" asked Jiya.
"Why would it? It won't even keep inside. It keeps falling out of the loop."
"Exactly. This flower is your love and that lock is my life. It looks all alluring and pretty. It feels so soft and warm but it will not keep inside for long. I have to find the key to my lock! That key would not come easy. It will not feel as cosy as this flower but it will do the work. It will open my lock."
Her mother agreed that Jiya was indeed learning her lessons.
"Go get the keys, we need to fit something right to open this door's lock" her mother insisted with a smile.
Written by: Nandini Malhotra
Shaheed Rajguru College
