Carte Blanche

(This time around I am sharing I story which I had written, long back. I had forgotten about it.)


He opened his door, did not bother to switch on the light, he preferred it dark. He saw a little boy sitting on his bed, he could not see his face…The boy asked ‘Papa where is Mama?’
In silence he went and sat next to the boy. ‘Is it raining?’ the boy asked. The man just nodded.

He was sipping his coffee, got up to splash some water on his feverish eyes. He looked up at the mirror and he knew that the little boy was lurching in the corner. He didn’t know why the boy called him ‘Papa’. Why he always had questions, why did he feel the need to answer him.

‘Papa were you listening to mama today?’
The man felt, Mama was Mama no more, Papa was Papa no more. He felt Mama stopped listening to what he stopped communicating.

He knew he would meet him at the most unexpected of the places, he didn’t know whether he liked to meet him or not, but he felt he was in his ‘likeness’…Few days he did not see him, he was quite content those days. He knew the little boy was sleeping close him and Mama and was quite restful.

He was waking down the street, waved and hopped into a cab, the boy also got in with him. Today, the man asked, ‘Not with Mama today?’
The little boy was looking outside, he did not hear his question. He felt vey awkward for having asked such a silly question, he felt foolish. The little boy was glum, he said ‘There was no room for me on Mama’s bed, she was with someone, but it was not you Papa; so I got up and came out, looking for you.’ The boy continued – ‘Where are you going?’.

[The wind was different the soil was different, the smell was different. The man was outside his house, languid. He saw the boy, it was not dark, he saw that the boy was handcuffed, and was chained…He had never noticed the boy so intently, he had never seen the boy in light before]

The man tried to sleep, next to his little boy’s Mama. He wanted to sleep there forever, he told her ‘forever’. He felt his words enveloped her.

He got up and was astonished, to find the keys to the handcuff with himself. He removed the handcuff and unchained him. He whispered in the boy’s ear, ‘Mama’s free’.

The man sat on his bed.