Imaginations May Go Wild | ✔

My Story Book

I rung the bell in desperation.

Once. Twice.. Thrice...

"DORIS!!!" I let out a muffled cry.

Perspiration shone on my forehead in the moonlight filtering through the curtains of my room. My breath felt raspy and insufficient. I longed for air. Struggling myself out of the entangled sheets and standing on the floor took me whole ten minutes. My head spun drowsily. I dragged myself to the window and opened it in an instant. Cool breeze hit my physique hardly. I inhaled all I could take in one breath; the faint smell of wet earth around the lake, the wildness of the forest beyond, the essence of moonlight, the fragrance of white roses hanging in the air, the silence of the planet..

God knew, I got drunk on the universe in a single intake.

My head reeled with the richness of the air. I sat down on the cold floor and rested my head against the window pane. The light breeze brought in the fragrances of places that I'd never been to. Far away places.

I wondered if people felt homesick for unknown places because...I did, at the moment.

I dragged my hand to the drawer of the table by the window and took out my flute. I rolled it in my hands and looked at the little silver magical pipe with sadness. It had tiny hearts on it. I felt nostalgic for all the days when Mom had pressed this little thing to her lips and taught me how to play it. I took a deep breath and brought it to my lips. Closing my eyes, I breathed into the tiny instrument slowly and created a long lost symphony that danced in the night air. Pouring my heart into the piece that I played, I reveled into the aura of magic created by simple pleasures of life. After unknown moments of the soft melody coloring the darkness, I set the flute in my lap.

Suddenly, I felt glad that I was out of the shock of my nightmare by myself. It hadn't been possible without Doris for months but she had gone back to claim her land by the country side on urgent basis. I had proposed to help her but she had refused me by giving this reason that she wanted to visit the land of her childhood herself. I didn't object because I owed her a lot and I loved her enough to let her go for a day. I was hopeful that I'd survive a day without her but my nightmares were hell.

However, I was more than satisfied after sitting in my window and getting intoxicated by the sweetness of the night breeze. So I got up and left the window open behind me as I went back to bed because,

Somewhere in the back of mind, I wanted the world to manipulate my dreams enough for me to survive the night.

***

I trotted downstairs when I saw my Dad having breakfast in the kitchen. He was in his night suit and after many days, looked like a Dad to me. A maid was serving him now and then. I felt a rush of sadness as I saw him sitting there, doing breakfast, by himself. It was not his fault. It was mine.

After Mom left us, I was too much destroyed to pay attention to anything else. The visits to the doctors were nightmares for me. I didn't see my Dad dissolving day by day in a pain that was unknown to me. I forgot that I wasn't the only one who had lost a loved one, he had lost his soul mate too. Moreover, my tantrums at the night time got him so worried that I refused to let him in my room after some time. He was hurt and sad but I knew that it would hurt him more to see his only son crumbling into pieces every night. Eventually, he stopped entering my room. My visits to the doctors reduced. He got himself busy in his business so that I could recover in my desired privacy but I knew that he was never careless about me. He kept a check on everything related to me through Doris. He was a great man. Indeed.