Mysteries of the Basket-Girl

1) A mysterious carriage

                  

                  

People say that the world is divided into colours. Sky is blue. Clouds are white and when they are furious they become black. My hairs are black. Leaves are green. But, the Gulmohar has red. I assume how do the blue, black, green look like! I see no colours.

"Its no colour that you see, dear." Brother Adam says, "There are certain things in world that has no colour. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. They are colourless." He caresses my hair. "You like it when it rains! Rain has no colour." I feel good, listening to him, that I don't, at least, divide world in colours.

Our house is made up of woods. Yes, it is wood. There is a huge room at ground floor with mats, tables and chairs arranged at one side. And kitchen at the other. A huge stairs separates the dining and the kitchen. The stairs has 43 steps. Brother Adam taught me to count the steps. And he was so glad of me when I counted them in a sunny day. Yes it was a sunny day. I can feel the sun. Brother Adam says there is only one sun.
"What is the colour of sun?"
"The sun has no colour, Angel."

There is a pleasing perpetual sound that I always hear beside our house. Brother Adam says it is a brook. He says that brook is a flow of water. The brook makes the sound. Once I tried bowing to the sound and took my hands towards the sound. Shhhhhhh. It was water. The flat wood over the brook takes me to the other side of the brook. I sit there, on the other side, dipping my legs on the brook, feeling the chill, listening to what they sing. It is a song.

Sister Julia says our house is always noisy. I don't make noise. But others do. There are Adrian, Jonny, Celesta, Anish, simon, Sneha, Zeera, Deca, Muzii. There are others as well. Everybody has a different name. Why everybody has to have a different name? So that we could distinguish one from the other, Brother Adam says. But why must we distinguish one from the other if we remain in the same house?

Brother Adam calls me Angel. Sister Julia calls me basket-girl. She says they found me in a basket. It was kept at the front door of my house at a rainy morning. I was just born then. Adrian and Sneha call me sister. They say they too have black hairs like mine. Celesta calls me hei. Simon calls me no-eye. Anish doesn't call me. They say he is too shy to talk. Shy is "staying alone making pots and not talking too much"- Simon says. "Simon is boisterous" - Zeera and Sneha say.

Brother Adam says there are birds that fly in the sky. The birds are beautiful. Often, when I sit by the brook, I hear them. A huge chirping converted to a dulcet song. The brook and the birds sing for me. Brother Adam says "Songs cannot be seen. They are felt." Feeling has no direction. No sight. Feelings are innocent like my cane. My cane does what I ask it to do. I thought Simon was a bad brother. But then, he has feelings too.

Brother Adam makes clay pots. Anish is good at embellishing the pots. Everything has to be embellished. He sells the pots at the market place. I have never been to marketplace. He says it is far - some couple of kilometers. Even the eyes cannot see it.

Simon and Celesta are usually admired for the pots they make. And Sister Julia awards them with an egg when they sell the pots in good price. Deca and Muzii frequently whispers to me "God! I don't want to see them eating alone." "It is a price of their good work, isn't it?" "Yes but we work hard as well. God, look now he is staring at me." They make me laugh. Those who can't make good pots are sent to station. There they are left alone to beg. "And die begging." - Adrian says. I am eight. I do nothing. I asked Brother Adam to teach me making pots. But then he says time comes. "What is time? Can it be seen, Brother? Do it has colour?" "It cannot be seen. It has no colour. It cannot be defined." "It can only be felt then!" "Smart, Angel." I have no idea when and how time comes.

I hope it comes like the carriage which usually comes to our house. It brings along with it a huge sound. Brother Adam says it is the wheels and the horses. The carriage also brings small children. They are orphans like us. Sister Julia says orphans are the cursed kids. She asked Brother Adam to throw me away when they found me in the little basket that rainy morning. She thought I was a bad omen. "Throw this cursed child." She says she said.
There was a letter attached with the basket addressed to Rounissierre. Nobody knew who Rounissierre was. Sister Julia says the name seemed evil to her.
"Who is Rounissierre, Sister Julia?"
"Shut up."
"What was the letter about, Sister Julia?"
"Shut up."
"Who wrote the letter, Sister Julia?"
"I said shut up."
Shut up. Sometimes shutting up is difficult. Brother Adam says time reveals everything. Time again.

I thank time that it lets the brook flow, bird fly and woods grow. I have been discovering lots of things. Songs of brook. Chirping of birds. And whistling of trees. It is the leaves that whistle, Brother Adam says. I dissolve the mystery of my birth in these songs. And wait for the time to come. And then I am glad again.

One sunny day; I am sure that was a day - Brother Adam says there are two kinds of days - one comes with sun and other without sun. But there is a moon at the other day and Celesta says moon is beautiful. It was always at the sunny day I sat by the brook dipping my legs in water. So it was the sunny day. A mysterious carriage stopped at the door of our house. It was mysterious because, Adrian says, it brought no children with it. The carriage had different sounds. The horses were different. I could hear the rein pulled and the frustrated horses' neigh. It was different. Adrian said it was a small carriage which came for Anish, Deca and Muzii. Nobody knew where did the carriage took them. I asked Brother Adam and he said nothing for a while. I asked again. He said it was the King's Orders.

Dear Valued Readers, please feel free to give feedback regarding this chapter. The Second Chapter "Leaving Home" will be published very soon. Thank you for reading. Thank you again. Thank you for being Amazing.