The falling seasons

Part 17

The sunlight was crisp and it was creeping through the golden yellow curtains of Haruni's room. She woke up when she heard a shrill that went right through her brain. There was a pain in the person's voice that was giving out the shouts and it took a moment for her to realize that it was Sunanda. Haruni felt like she had forgotten everything that had happened last night when she came down the stairs and saw Sunanda slapping herself on to her forehead collapsing to the ground. The lady who was there yesterday was back again and she slowly covered Azuma with the bedsheet up-to her neck. The wind was not as strong as before and the snowfall was absent. Haruni couldn't understand what was happening all around her. she slowly passed the dining table and went near to Sunanda and kneeled beside her.

"Aunty, what happened?" Haruni felt like crying looking at Sunanda even without knowing what had happened. When Sunanda heard Haruni's voice she quickly pulled her into her arms and held her as firm as she possibly could. Haruni's white dress crumpling in her grip.

"Haru... Lady... is..." The next words struck in Sunanda's throat but she tried her best to put them out as she burst out crying more, gasping for air.

"Is... No more..." And then Sunanda's cry that followed was rather painful to hear than the thought itself. Haruni felt numb, she didn't feel anything for a moment. She couldn't understand her words and when she finally interpreted them, she somehow felt free than sad. She slowly distanced herself from the grip of the maid's arms and said with a faint smile

"Aunty I need to look at her."

Sunanda suddenly loosened her grip and she put her head down into her knees when Haruni went inside the room. The lady in the room was packing the bag with something doctor's used for hearing people's heartbeat and that was the time Haruni thought

So aunty is a doctor, I had thought she was also one of the people related to mama's work...

Work...

The lady went out of the room throwing a glance at Haruni and serving her head. Haruni went inside and saw that the candle that lighted her mama's room was long unlit with three books kept upon one over the other neatly. There were smudges of ink on the table and the pen rolled to the edge of the table. She took her eyes off the table and placed them upon the room that encircled her. It was the smallest room of the entire house with only a little place left after the occupancy of space by the bed and the table her mother slept and worked upon. There was a window just in front of her mother's working table and that was wide open, with sunlight shedding light upon the table. And at last, she put her eyes on to her mother. She was laying on her bed with a peace-filled face. There was nothing to suggest that she had a painful death. And that eased the pain that erupted from Haruni's chest. She was unknowingly crying even when she had announced she had hated her mother, as at the end of the day, she was her mother. But she would have been water and bone with pain and tears if her mother had given her the love she deserved but now, she felt nothing, as she was way too less sad for a daughter seeing her mother dead. A thought crossed her mind and a tear dropped on her mother's face.

Mama only if you would have been with me rather than your work...

She simply wiped off the tears from her face and returned to where Sunanda was crying. Haruni simply sat at the same place until people filled her home up, the people for whom her mother had cared more than her daughter.

The act of torching her mother's body by Sunanda had brought back tears in her eyes as she had lost what remained of her mother. The warmed up ground was flooding with water that had come from the blasting rains and it had been there for hours. But what came after was nothing like she had expected. A plain bareness of emotions when she thought about her mother. After three months when she was done with her class, passing the exams with decent marks, Sunanda had one last job to do, that had been assigned to her by her lady. It was to send Haruni to a distant place where she could get an excellent education and once she was ready, getting her back to her homeland only if she wished to. Sunanda felt as if the life that was going on had turned upside down. Nothing was the same, everything had changed in a moment. She didn't want to lose Haruni after losing her lady, but she wanted to keep at least one of the two promises that she had made to her lady, so she suppressed whatever emotions she was going through as she made all the arrangements for Haruni's future life. 

With a heavy heart Sunanda loaded the last luggage into the car.

It was evening time, with the sun slowly going down but shining with a faint orange. Sunanda couldn't let her feelings be suppressed anymore.

"Haruni! have a great life... And come back, because I will be waiting for you!"

Haruni was ready with the simplest of the dresses she could find in her closet. She hugged Sunanda as she was lifted from the ground by her. Sunanda for the first time felt how frail Haruni truly was as she completely got fitted into her arms.

"Aunty... Thank you!" Haruni said as the engines were turned on and the sound of the exhaust filled the entire neighborhood. Sunanda held Haruni in the same position for few moments and she slowly placed Haruni to the ground. Haruni gestured her to bow and Sunanda followed it. Haruni kissed on Sunanda's forehead and said

"Thank you for being there when mama wasn't..."

Sunanda strangely felt pricked but she kept a smile on her face.

"You need to become a great lady if you want to pay me back!"

"I promise!" Haruni said as she giggled and Sunanda laughed. The sun was setting so Sunanda got back up on her feet.

"Okay, Haruni it's time for you to leave! To make yours and your mother's dreams come true!"

Haruni lifted her bag from the ground and got into the car. Her face had a smile that made Sunanda doubt whether she was happy or sad, somehow as the days had passed Haruni had gotten expert in making that face.

"Either way she wouldn't have cared, aunty. But I promise I will become a great lady for your sake!"

The car pulled up and Sunanda was standing stoned to the ground. She could hear the loud bye-bye of Haruni as the car completely had gone astray. The darkness enclosed her as she looked up with tears and a smile on her face.

"And finally... You accomplished what you wanted my lady!"

The old wooden house stood lonely in the night sky and it would do so for many more years to come. It had seen Life take its origin and the same life leave bodies. But it stood the same and it would do so for many more years to come!