Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Buried

How often have you felt pain, so great, so deep as Debbie felt that day? You can't count on it, that the answer is never. But the strange part about this story is, that Debbie never felt the pain that day. Not as much as she did each day, for the rest of her life.

She was running down the street, frenzied like the storm. Tears pouring out of her eyes and streaking across her face as she tears through the wind. It had been cloudy for a while, and just then thunder struck the sky. The ladies in their attires of bright colours popped open their umbrellas like a synchronized dance movement to the slight drizzle from the sky.

Everyone was so self engrossed outside, they were just looking for shade. While Debbie just ran, she ran as fast she could. Oh and did I mention she was clutching that thing, so close to her heart. It was a brown paper bag pressed within the fingers of her left hand.

Very soon, as the world began to turn into a haze behind her, she reached where she had to go. It was the canal, that was flowing through the heart of the city, dirty, murky and full of trash. She was sprinting so fast, she somehow stopped at the barricade. Thunder struck skies above enveloped her as she pulled the paper bag away from her heart. Little could she see what was inside, it was wrapped once, twice, thrice over. Her exercise had ripped the bag a little. Her hand was smeared with blood. Quiet as a rock, she parted the folds of the soiled paper bag and there it was, the fetus, a lump of flesh and blood. Then with one quick move and one brief grunt, she tossed it into canal and looked at her hands stained with blood. No it wasn't that moment when she felt the greatest pain. God had another plan for her, he showered the most torrential rain from the skies. Within seconds, her hands were clear. She looked around, there was no one. And that's how it was usually around that stretch of the canal. But Debbie whirled herself around, searched for a face but none did she find. And at that point she felt the sharpest kind of pain. For the rest of her life on secret and no one to share. Not even by accident, not even by chance, not even force was anyone there. It was buried.