A Breed of Counterfeits

Chapter 1: Vinay

"If you make yourself into a doormat, people will wipe their feet on you."

- Belizean Proverb

There was a cup filled with a dark liquid. It must be black tea or black coffee, for it was very dark but not thick. The cup was pearly white in contrast to the color of the unknown liquid in it. There was a spoon, a clean, bright, and gleaming steel spoon with slight dents in it, slightly blackened towards the end, and that spoon now dipped in the cup. Then the spoon started moving round and round, whirling the liquid, like whirling dervishes, and created a small eddy in the cup. The calm liquid was now disturbed and was being propelled by the spoon in circles. The slight clink of the spoon and cup was heard occasionally but in a shallow voice. The whirls of the dark liquid in the cup became deep and endless, and with every prop of the spoon, the eddy grew deeper and deeper. And a baby was crying. In the cup? Maybe. Around the cup? Maybe. The baby's crying voice was growing loud, and the spoon was speeding faster in the cup - round and round. More and more liquid was being propelled, and the dark liquid moved so fast that the white bottom of the cup was visible right in the center of the liquid. The crying of the baby grew loud, and Vinay woke up.

His 6-month-old son Kishore was crying, and that noise had pierced Vinay's mind, tearing him away from his dream, a dream he dreamt regularly. Perhaps, it was his oldest dream, his first dream he could remember. Who remembers their first dream? Well, Vinay remembered it, and he dreamt it frequently. At least twice a month, sometimes more. Never did he remember how his dream began - nobody remembers how their dreams start, but every time he distinctly remembered how it ended. Just when the bottom of the cup became visible as the spoon propelled the dark liquid, his dream was interrupted.

Vinay tried to see his wristwatch in the dark, but he couldn't. He gave up the effort and sat quietly for a moment thoughtless, intaking the fact that he was awake. Sometimes it took a few minutes for people to kick start their brain when they wake up. In Vinay's case, it took slightly longer because he was torn away mercilessly from his sleep. Little Kishore's cries were now intermittent but consistent. Vinay pushed himself out of bed and got up noiselessly, trying not to disturb his wife sleeping on the other side of the bed. The last thing he remembered before he slept was that the baby was on his wife's side of the bed, but now he was on Vinay's side.

'She must've put him near me,' he thought.

Vinay picked up little Kishore and cooed him a little. The baby's diaper was wet. Vinay walked out of the room, the baby still crying, and his cries interrupting the still and darkness of night. The noise of occasional vehicles passing on the road, the dull hum of the ceiling fan, and the baby cries were the only sounds heard in the house.

Vinay's mother was sleeping in the living room, and his father was in the other bedroom. He walked past the living room in the other bedroom and went to the washroom to change Kishore. No sooner did he press the washroom's light button, than Vinay's father's sleep was disturbed. He yawned loudly, which instigated fresh and louder cries from the baby. Vinay shushed the baby while his half-asleep father said, "Turn off the lights. I'm trying to sleep in here."

Vinay sighed, turned off the washroom lights, and went to the kitchen. He made light noises, playfully to stop the baby from crying while he changed the wet diaper. The baby, realizing the wet diaper was gone and feeling his father's touch, started to calm down and eventually stopped crying when the fresh diaper was in place, but now he wanted to play.

Vinay saw the time. It was half-past midnight. Hardly two hours had passed since he had gone to sleep while his wife Vishakha was putting little Kishore to sleep.

Vinay decided not to play with the baby. Instead, he picked Kishore up and went back to his father's room and, as quietly as possible, opened the door of the gallery and walked out in fresh air. The baby was now quiet, occasionally making little mumbling noises.