Letters of the lost souls – 1

Dear Noah,

Times have been tough off lately. I have started seeing those dreams again. You remember, right. The ones where I am walking alone in a dark corridor. There is a light at the end. I am walking towards it. The more I inch closer, the far it moves from me. And after a while, my legs ache and then I fall down. But then there is blood all around. I could smell it. It was yours. And I wake up shivering. It will be almost dawn. But then, I get that familiar smell again. The smell of your blood gushes through my nostrils and hits my head. I scream and then wake up again. You are understanding right. It was a dream within a dream. A layered night mare. I am scared a lot, Noah. When are you coming home?

Love, Alvira

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Alvira

Alvie re-read the letter again. Noah was specific about the spelling mistakes and grammar. She adjusted her reading glasses and went on to fold the letter neatly into four. Sliding open the left side drawer, she pulled out an off white envelope and pushed the letter inside it. She took the fevi stick and brushed it on the cover and pressed it hard to make sure it stuck tightly. On the outer side, she wrote in italic cursive hand writing the address to Noah’s farm house and then kept it back on top of the desk. She looked at the letter with a sheer satisfaction. Everything was perfect, the way Noah loved. After all, Noah fell in love with her calligraphy skills before her and somehow she took pride in that. Of lately, with him being away from her, she wondered if he loved the beauty of the neatly arranged letters in the paper than the messy minded woman she was.

Brushing aside her thoughts neatly to a corner of her occupied mind, she stood up, taking a mental note to post the letter on the way to market today.

Maria was busy deboning the chicken when Alvie trodded into the kitchen.

“Hey, slow there Alvira. The floor is still wet. ” Mariah said and at the very same moment, Alvie slipped but was somehow able to hold her balance. Dada was adamant about the cleanliness of the house. The first job for Maria every morning was to sweep the 3 bhk house, mop the floor till it shines in Lizol infused water and double check to see that there was no dust left. The rule of the house was laid pretty straight when Dada married her and brought her to the house. Alvie was 17 then. Somehow, she was successful in evading the house chores. Though little Shira was not. Shira was Alvie’s elder sister who underwent the typical Dada house training the moment she turned 15. Alvie was spared just because Dada adored the artist that Alvie was growing to be. The painter and the calligraphy enthusiast, Alvie was respected by Dada whenever she was immersed in her work. Shiru was jealous of the treatment till the day she was married off to “States” to an engineer. She rarely visited afterwards. Maria came in 3 months later.

“What’s for lunch, Maria?” Alvie asked.

“Rice and Roasted Chicken, mashed potatoes and mushroom curry.”

“Why do we eat this continental lunch, Maria?”, Alvie asked even though she knew the answer before hand.

Maria sighed and looked up at her. A bead of sweat slowly trickled down from the left side of her forehead. That was when Alvie noticed how tired Maria actually looked. She had figuratively grown old and worn out over the years she spent at this house. Dada never encouraged a house help after Noah left to pursue his passion of Wild life photography. Last time, she heard, he was somewhere in the Amazon and as having fun time trying to get a picture of the black panther. It is been years since he left and she wondered when will he be coming back. He had always written about the work pressures, the stress and patience that he need to get one snap of the wonderful wildlife creatures.

“Alvie, there?”, Maria’s question brought her back from her thought train.

“So, you were saying?”, she asked again.

Maria frowned as she responded. “You know, Dad prefers this every first of the month. I honestly don’t know what else.” She had finished deboning the chicken and stood up and started walking towards the wash basin to give the chicken one final bath before marinating it.

“Maria”, Alvie called her again.

“What now, Alvie?”

Alvie handed over the letter she had written to her. As was the monthly routine, Maria silently took the letter from her and nodded at her. Both of them held onto each other’s gaze for quite some time. One eye carried the pity accompanied with a diluted amount of compassion and anger while the latter had the same pity but added equally was a tinge of pain and lot of hope. The telephone ring from the hall diverted their attention from each other and Alvira ran to answer it. Maria waited in the room because she knew exactly who was calling and why she was doing it.

“Maria, nobody is talking. Why don’t you check this out?”, She heard Alvira’s voice from the other room and heard her keeping the phone on the desk and her foot steps receding from the room.

Once Maria was sure that the room held a pin drop silence, she walked to the hall and picked up the phone.

Back from the far corner, Alvie looked at Maria with tears in her eyes as she shut the door quietly.

to be continued…