365 DAYS 365 TALES

P r e m o n i t i o n

"Crys! I love you. Remember that I love you. I want you to know that."

Someone's voice echoes around in the dark. I am standing in the dark and a single source of light appears ahead of me. I walk towards the source.

And the light disappears all of a sudden.

It goes pitch dark.

When the light comes back, I see myself standing in a stranded pavement of a city. The skyline of the buildings are hovering over me from behind.

The sea is spread ahead of me.

There are small and medium shacks to the left and the right.

I look down at my feet and I see that I have no shoes on. My feet are deep in the sand.

It looks like a beach I have been to. As I think of it, I hear the laugh of a child echoing behind me. I try to recall. This place looks like a place, I am well aware of. I try to concentrate, to think and to understand where am I? And suddenly,

A voice calls.

"Mom..."

A slow whisper.

My heart skips a beat listening to the voice. My child. My baby. My daughter is here. But where is she?

I turn around and look in every direction to see her.

I notice someone watching me from the far end. A male. He is hiding behind a broken boat. Crouched. I see his balding head and the moonlight shimmering over it.

And he is now in front of me. He doesn't look like a good human. In fact, he is not human at all. I look into his eyes. Those red eyes reflecting the thirst for blood.

I start running. I keep running.

It goes dark again. I don't stop running. The ground beneath me starts shaking and I fall.

I keep falling and falling.

And he catches me in his arms. My husband. My love.

"Crys! I love you. Remember that I love you. I want you to know that....."

And a bullet hits him straight in his head and he drops down along with me.

I hear an evil laugh. The same man. The same man with the balding head and those red haunting eyes was standing a few steps away with a gun in his hand.

His laughter fills the darkness.

And I scream as my husband stops breathing. I scream and I do not stop.

I wake up sweating all over and I realize it was a dream.

But a dream which might come true...

••
I stand there with my eyes open carefully watching every move of my daughter. The grace with which she was dancing. It was her rehearsal to the upcoming show. I look at her with happy tears in my eyes. I feel so proud. I am so proud to be her mother.

Bharatanatyam - a dance of south India. Something which doesn't belong to our religion of Christianity. But my daughter has excelled in it.

I never taught her to follow one religion or told her to be a true devotee to either Jesus or any other Gods.
I have taught her how to be a good human which I am sure she is.

She stands there still with her left leg crossed over the other and in the air and her hands perfectly aligned for the "Nataraja mudra". My eyes well up with tears when she comes running towards me down the stage -