49th DROP OUT

A Story by JENY

Its about my school...

49th DROP OUT

When sky turns yellow, her sun tanned skin reflects a sickly yellow hue. It accentuates in the evenings of Fridays. Then she comes out of her shack made of hay and stretches her gaze to the possible farthest end of the endless sea. Her eyes wide with anxiety pierce the setting Friday sun.

She is the only daughter of the fisherman Sakkariya who is the bravest of all, the one who have tamed blue whale to his whims. How this fear entered into her being is a mystery. What the fear about, is actually not clear to her. It seemed so when I asked her for the first time. Is it about some mishap likely to incur her father? She never said yes.

It is on Friday that her father returns from the sea. Her father loves her and is very much anxious about her studies. He is a nice man. May be because she is very much expectant of his arrival that disrupts equanimity of her mind.

Once she told me while walking along the shore that her destiny is a line drawn on the surface of sea. Saying it she counted something with her fingers.

“What are you doing?”I asked

“Only two more days to Friday” She replied

“So?”

“It will come.”

“What?”

“That fear, phobia,” she looked down.

“Fear? Of what?”

“Fear of blue whales” she mumbled

“Nonsense” I blurted out.

One Friday I decided to visit her house. What makes her to bunk school on Fridays, I wanted to see it myself. As I reached near the house, I saw it was empty. I searched for her. I saw her crouching near a coconut tree. Her eyes were scouring the waves hysterically. It seemed that she is not aware of burning mid day sun of May. Her disheveled hair in the dry wind that cruised across the shore relentlessly gave her a witch like look..

I persuaded her to enter the shack and sit inside.

“We must consult a doctor in the city” I told her.

“For what?” creases of doubt was very visible on her forehead.

“For your fear” I said

“Is there a doctor to cure fear?” she asked

“Yes . A psychologist. Trust my words. I am your teacher. I will talk with your father tomorrow itself.”

“NO” she said startling from her torpor.

“Why? It is a must. You have a future. If you miss classes like this you will lose your chance of winning board exam. I will take you. Say not anything more.”

I dashed out of the house and scurried towards school that was 40 or 50 yards away. The sand was hot underfoot.

In the psychologist’s room she sat like a piece of furniture. Being her teacher, her sole mentor at that moment, I was allowed to sit through the session.

“Who are you afraid of?” was one of the questions that I had asked her often.

She gave the same answer to the psychologist too.

“Blue whales” she mumbled

“And you are afraid of blue whales only on Fridays?” counselor asked blandly. His eyes are exuding enough compassion and curiosity to win the trust of the girl.

“They come only on Fridays” she said

“When do they come on Fridays?”

“They come with my father in the darkness” Her words spilled out as if from an enigma. She seemed to be reliving her moments with blue whales.

“What do they do to you?” asked the psychologist.

“In the darkness they strip me of my cloths and … and they do all nasty things”..the girl finished the sentence in a loud wail. She covered her face in her hands. She wept bitterly. Psychologist sat gazing the lady for a long time. To permit her to have her own time to give vent to her pent up emotions.

Blue whales were friends of her father who after their work in the sea came to the shack on Fridays. They paid her father for the night. On that night I sat on the terrace of my house, facing the sea, counting the black waves, thinking of blue whales.

While trying to find a solution for the matter I could find out that the girl was not a biological daughter of the father of the story. She was adopted by him.

The girl couldn’t write the exam. She quit her studies. She joined the group of 48 students of drop outs in the school on the beach where I worked.