Love or Hate

I sent this story for a contest which was arranged by 'Times Of India'. I hope this one have a Moral in the end.

She sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag, covered with her blue silk scarf. Her attention wasn't on her son Rahul, who was sitting in front of her and finishing his fourth Sandwich. Though he hated Sandwich a lot but you start loving everything when you have taken something in your mouth after 23 hours.

At that time she was thinking about something else - Something which was the strongest bond of her Life or may be the weakest. The charming weather of outside was taking her memories to her past - The past in which she could only see two shadows- One of course was of her, and the other One of the person whom she loved the most at a certain phase in her Life. Today she was confused a lot as she couldn't decide who was him - The best person of this Earth or the worst.

The day when she proposed to him was clearly and thoroughly etched in her mind. It was her Birthday and being her one of the Best friends he was invited to her party. After the party was over everyone went away but he didn't. He decided to help her in washing the utensils. Although she just wanted to sleep at that time and look upon the utensils in the morning but his Hypnotic eyes couldn't let her. That night she understood how much he cared for her. When everything was over he opened a Bottle of Beer and without asking her, poured it in two glasses. She doesn't know what it was but just as she drank it she started feeling something different. It wasn't a feeling of Dizziness or anything else, she felt like Love had expanded its roots upon her. Suddenly something happened and everything came to her at once- the way he would have the every solution to her problems, the way he would call every night just to check whether she had slept on time, the way he never ordered anything of his choice on the Restaurant. She felt like she was a fool as she didn't realized till that day how much he Love her. For a moment all she could do was stare at him. And the other moment she found her lips glued to his.

She never knew that their relationship would turn out to be like this. After exactly 4 years, 7 months and 13 days they were married. She was the happiest person on this world that day. For a woman, she thought, nothing is more important than Love and the most important thing in a country like India is to get married to your loved one. She only knew how much she had suffered to make this day come true. She had to cross many hurdles to achieve her objective. First thing included to make her Parents happy, then her other Family members. And later her relatives. It was an irony that her Parents themselves had Love marriage yet they wanted her to go for an Arrange one. We shouldn't force upon the things on someone else if we can’t do them ourselves, she thought. She couldn't understand how people can fall in love with someone who is forced upon them and whose face they haven’t seen ever, before their marriage. It is just like a Forceful Love and of course Love can’t be forced upon someone, it comes from inside, from our Heart or maybe from our Soul. Their marriage was the one set in Heaven. And, the Groom was the most amazing and exciting person, for whom not only her but every girl would've offered her Life.

Their marriage life was a peaceful one. They had their honeymoon in London- her favorite place. And, except some days he was found with a gift in his hands for her wife. Though she always imagined from where he was able to arrange them, as his salary wasn't so much that he could afford Gifts for her every day. Nine months later she had given birth to their one and only baby. After having him, they had decided not to go for another child. Their life had turned beautiful after getting a cute child.

They say, the higher you get in Life, the harder you are thrown away from Sky. Life is not constant; it keeps on changing, for it’s the rule of Life. She thought that their Love will increase after having their Angel present between them. But Life had its own plans. Life had started moving its sails in another direction. And they didn't know where they were heading to- for their Betterment or Worst.

Her good days were snatched away from her when her husband lost his job. From that day only their Life had turned to reverse gear. At the time when they wanted more money as their family had increased, he lost his job and that was the biggest shock, not only for him but for her too. All their enjoyment which they used to had, have now taken a back seat. She wouldn't receive any presents or gifts anymore. Their weekend’s candlelight dinners were stopped. Though she asked her husband to try for another job and he tried too but everything went in vain. Most of the relationships are affected due to the shortage of money and she didn't take time to realize where their relationship was heading to. His behavior was affected the most due to his bad times and often she imagined the connection of Job with behavior, while knowing the answer. He started drinking, smoking and whatever a looser do who get exhausted of his life. Whenever she asked him to stop he wouldn't and would throw her away asking her not to interfere in his work. She felt neglected a lot but she knew that it was all due to his Job. They say ‘those things which you don’t give a damn in Heaven are the one you started loving in Hell’. Money was the thing which she didn't respected before but at that moment she love the money even more than her life for that time she got to know its true value. Few days later, she noticed that their fighting on silly things increased a lot. Though most of the time he was out of home but whenever he returned in his dirty clothes strapped from every corner while showing most of his body parts and the clothes smelling of Alcohol was the thing she hated most about him. She couldn't understand from where he got the money to Booze. However, their Relationship had begin to torn apart, though she tried to stop it but the String of their relationship had already moved so far away from which it can’t return to its normal position, ever. She doubted whether she would be able to love him like the way she used to do before.  

‘Mom, Are you OK?’

Yeah! I am fine’

‘You don’t look so’ Rahul said after filling up his belly to the fullest.

Once again she was taken back to the past, though not so far away from the actual time. It was just around 8 hours back.

She was sleeping when she got a call. After switching on the lamp which was kept on the side desk she picked up the phone. Her eyes couldn't see whose name the phone was displaying on its screen.

‘Hello’, she said in a sleeping voice.

‘Listen carefully what I will be saying to you in another two minutes and don’t disturb in between’, a not so familiar voice came from other side.

‘Your son is kidnapped and he is with us’

Just as she heard these words she saw beside him. She couldn't found him there. She went pale and numb; her hands started getting colder like she is witnessing snowfall. He was sleeping with her only then how can he just got vanished from here and she couldn't get to know. She felt like the earth had stopped rotating for some time.

‘Don’t worry, nothing will happen to him if you will do what we want you to do’ the unrecognized voice came again.

She felt sincerity in the voice.

‘Tell me, what I have to do’ she asked hesitatingly. To save her child she would've done anything. Who wouldn't have?

‘If you want your son to be safe and sound then you have to kill someone, as the saying goes: A man killed is a man saved’

She couldn't believe her ears. She can do anything for her son, but how can she kill someone to save her son? She went blank. There were two paths lay in front of her: The first one includes saving her son but after killing someone, the other one led her son to Death.

The other minute she found herself igniting the engine of her car. Should she go? She again asked herself. ‘Just in case you want to save your one and only child’ the words of the caller kept ringing in her mind. In haste she had only found a knife to kill that unknown person. She didn't have a gun as she never found a reason to buy it.

After struggling with her thoughts for a few more minutes she zoomed the car to her destination ignoring the Traffic lights, vehicles, police and whatever came in front of her. It felt like she was fighting against Death. Few more minutes and her son would be with her.

She quickly got down from her car and saw a single man sitting near the footpath where the Caller had indicated. He was wearing a pink jacket and a white pant which had turned grey due to the dirtiness soaked by it. He was facing in the opposite direction and was busy in something. She went close to him and found that he was inhaling something, lost in his own world. He didn't care about the way he was to be killed in no meantime. He didn't care about the Killer who was just standing behind him. He must be taking Drugs, she thought because it was the main thing which the caller had said about him. She again asked herself: Was she up for it? And, the thought of her son made the thinking of ‘not killing the unknown person’ swept away from her mind. She opened her purse and took out the Knife from it. She took the knife in her right hand; she was hesitated before taking her hand in forward direction. Her hands started shaking. She closed her eyes and finally put the whole knife in the back of the person, pulled it out and again pushed it inside him. She did it thrice, not caring about the feeling and the painful voice of the person. But just as she was finished something caught her eye, the painful voice seemed familiar to her. She went in front of the person just to see a glimpse of his face. And what she saw was enough for her to fall on her knees.

It was him, her husband. Why didn't she notice him from his clothes? She was the killer of her own husband, she couldn't believe this. Was it a Dream? It would've been fine if it was, but unfortunately it wasn't. She got shattered into pieces; she felt his pain ran inside him, she wanted to stab herself. But the thought of Rahul didn't let her. Who will take care of him if she dies? She felt the Earth slipping away from her foot. She must be the greatest sinner of this Earth. She could see her husband counting his last breath in front of her. Nothing occurred her; she acted like she had become mad. She ran back to take her car which was parked around 100 meters away. When she came back with her lightning speed she tried to shift her husband in car but it didn't matter because he was already gone. She realized this and broke down. Her legs didn’t have so much energy which would help her to stand; she just fell to the ground. She had done something which only a witch would've done. After keeping his head in her lap she cried and cried until every pain of her was relieved. Though she knew he won’t forgive her, ever.

She took his body and put it under the backseat of the car.

Her phone rang. And, she took it up.

‘I have done it’, she said while hiding her pain.

‘Don’t be so sad because you have saved the lives of many youngsters by killing him. Your husband used to sell Drugs to people. He would come here at 9 p.m. and later would go back to home at 1 a.m.’

Everything came back to her. The answers of all her questions were arrived. She got the answer of how the condition of their home improved again after he lost his job, though it took a long time. She got the answer of why he always returned home at midnight. She got the answer of why he always used to have his room locked and never allowed anyone to enter in it. She wished, he never had lost his job and wouldn't have done these silly things.

‘You have done a great thing. Due to your husband five people have already lost their lives. And, later he also got addicted to it. He wouldn't have survived for more than a month and would've made more people his followers’   

Now, she felt proud of herself for doing something great to make India a better place to live in. She didn't regret at all for killing him. For she was a champion. He was the worst person, she thought. She was reminded of the thing they once taught in school- The duty for our Country always comes first, later the people who are closed ones to us come next. She got to know something about the Human nature from the incident. She found that, Human nature is so cruel that we can go to any extent for our benefit. Like, she had gone by killing her own husband. She learnt that we shouldn't do any harm to others for our benefit. 

Author's Note

If you've found the Moral then please try to implement it in your Life.

Reviews

[Mitali Shah]

Well penned. Keep writing more such stories

[Rajat malik]

Yeah!!! sure....will keep moving