BROKEN TOYS

She walked, shattered and unconscious of where she was going. She kept thinking about what could have gone wrong, why nothing ever goes as planned. She was not at fault, yet the guilt card was played on her. For some strange reason, she always attracted persecution. Ruminating, she kept walking, looking for someone to understand what she was thinking. She didn’t have the energy and the patience to explain and justify what she was going through.

She was distracted by the door that stood right in front of her. She didn’t realize she entered the service quarters. She was far too disturbed by her thoughts to bother about finding her route back home. She sat there and got lost in her thoughts once again.

After what felt like eternity, she saw someone coming her way through the gate. “Hi! Are you looking for somebody?” The strange girl looked into her eyes and tried to read her thoughts. “No. I was a little tired so I came to sit here for some time.” “But I thought you had been sitting here since morning.” “Has it been that long? I think I should leave then.” “It’s okay. You can come in with me. Eat something and then leave.” “Do you stay here? I thought it had been locked down for ages.” “This property is owned by my Father. I just come here to collect letters. Come on in.”

They both chatted for some more. She poured her heart out to the stranger, but not once did her pain go down. “You know you need to relax and stop thinking about everything so much.” They both got up and started taking a stroll around that place. It was huge towards the backside of the house. It looked like a whole different world with green lushes and open blue sky. “I have never seen a place like this here. Is this the only way to come here?” “Yeah! This place is only for the service quarters. Whenever I am bored I come here and lie down on the grass. Let me show you something interesting.”

She took her to a broken well kind of thing. “OMG! It’s so deep. I can’t even say if there is water inside this.” “This well has been there from a long time. My grandfather used to get me here and bathe. But now it doesn’t hold water. Hey! Do you want to go inside? There is a stair that leads right till the bottom of the well.” “Are you mad? Who plays that kind of a game?” “There is no harm. In earlier days they used to throw coins in the wells and wish for something. Who knows we might find some antique stuff to add to our collection. The service quarters have been there since the age of Britishers. And who knows, this well might be even older than that.” “I don’t like the sound of it, but okay. Let’s take a look. But I will go deeper down only as long as I can see the light above.”

The lower down she went, the darker it got. She kept going down till the last ray of light when finally her feet touched the ground. “With that light, I can’t see anything here. I need a torch light.” She switched on her mobile flash light. The well had anything but antique. It was full of dead meat that probably lost its way when it was alive. “Hey! I am not getting a good feeling about this thing. Let’s go back.” She came back out of the well and flashed the torch light for her friend. There was no sign of her. “Bitch! She must have chickened out in the beginning.”

She started walking back to where she was going. The best thing about this entire exercise was, she forgot about the thoughts that kept haunting her. The pain somehow reduced. It was as if she couldn’t feel her heart running any more. As peaceful as it was to walk under the street light, she didn’t notice she didn’t have a shadow.