THE MAID. -----By Atanu Ranjan Tripathy

The coolness of the morning has just receded and the sun has come up in the eastern horizon. The golden rays have fallen on the high rising apartment roof and giving it a fresh hue of golden grey. A group of young children are about to start a game of hide and seek.At that opportune moment arrived the ever affable ever reliable Shanta aunty the children's favourite. Though she works as a maid in most of the houses and all the inmates know her at least by her face but she never liked to be called a maid.. Rather she prefers the word aunty what the children most often call her. Nobody in the vicinity knows from where she came or who else she has of her own. But undoubtedly she has become a household name over last few years.
Some weeks ago Shanta aunty had a fever and the entire building gathered at her small residence at the rear corner of the children's playground. Shanta aunty stays alone in that tin roof house. and nobody has ever seen accompanying her at least during the day time or in the evening. Throughout the year she remains present baring a few days at the beginning of each month. Hardly anyone asks the reason of her absence nor she confides anything about that. For some this period of absence remains a mystery yet nobody dares to ask.
So who is she? Why does she remain absent at the beginning of every month?