Footprints

 At first, there is nothing.  Just darkness that seems to surround her. She feels a shiver down her spine as she sees the haze clear. She searches for something and finds herself squinting. She is looking at a young girl, probably a few years younger than her, dressed in a white coat with her hair in a loose low bun running around. She seems to kneel down, stay put for a few moments, then move to somewhere else, repeating everything. She finds herself walking toward the maiden engrossed in whatever she was doing. She gasps when she sees that the girl is herself and at the scene unfolding before her. The girl is now kneeling in front of a man laying on his back, opening a white box with a red cross on it, and tending to his wounds. She lifts her head and attempts to understand where she is but the darkness surrounding them both refuses to show her anything. The girl suddenly looks up and rushes to another area; it's a woman this time - she treats her as well and this keeps happ...

14.2.2012, 8:45am      From a very young age, he'd learned that princesses never married kitchen boys, and he firmly believed that there was no such thing as love. 'Why?' you may ask; because his mother, the purest form of love he had ever known, loved his father, but that love wasn't enough for him. His father truly loved the other woman, but it wasn't enough for her. Both of them loved him, but it just wasn't enough for them to stay together. The only love he knew was the way his mother sang him to sleep, the way he used to bite her cheeks in return, the way they danced in the rain, and the way he lit a candle in memory of her, every February 14th.  Now, as he hugged his grandmother before leaving for school, as far as he could see, the stores on the street were decked in red. From ribbons to curtains, from banners to tiny heart-shaped stickers stuck on huge glass windows, and from gift hampers to chocolate wrappers. 'What is with the whole Valentine's...

 I see your thank you message at 7:21pm, and my mind goes back to the minute we decided to take such a day for ourselves in the first place - and how both of us just knew that we wanted to be by ourselves. We just knew that we could be in our own little world for the hours we choose to spend together. I have zero expectations when I get up in the mornings for days like this, but somehow that sudden hug in the confines of your room made me feel otherwise. It actually felt like I was going to enjoy the day to it's fullest; just because I was with you. So in our cab when you said that you're fine because you're with me, I just couldn't help but smile and sit an inch taller.   My 'clinginess' was an issue with some of my friends in the past and I didn't want to repeat the same thing with you; but then we walked - hand in hand mostly and I realized how much I missed that touch, how much I missed being myself around someone who feels the exact same way. And then...

  The clanging of a bell woke me up with a start. Sitting up hurriedly, it took a second for me to register that it wasn’t the prayer bell that usually rang at 5:45am; it was the campus bell that rang at 5:00am. Breathing in, I picked up my phone off the floor and pushed the power button – it didn’t light up. I blinked twice and tried again to no avail. Trying not to think of it too much, I plugged in the charger into the C-port and waited, yawning. A few seconds later, the image of a battery with green bars slowly rising to its top popped up on the screen. Shaking my head, I realized that I hadn’t charged my phone the previous day; and if it wasn’t for the bell that had made me get up half an hour early, I would’ve overslept and gotten late. I murmured a ‘thank you’ and grabbed my toothbrush.   Two hours later, I was at my desk in my room, clad in my Wednesday-best, jotting down the tasks I had to finish before 5:00pm that day. The unexpected pats on the back and greetin...

  Sometime in the 1920s    “You’re early today,” said the mother when her ten-year-old daughter walked in. Her daughter is usually cheerful even after a day of hard work, when she sees her mother. Today, however, something was unusual. The mother peered at her child. “What’s the matter?” she asked.  “I saw Christ today Mother,” she answered.  “How did you know it was Him?” she raised an eyebrow.  “I felt him Mother,” she shook her head. Raising her eyes onto her mother, she spoke again, “it was as if our Lord wanted to speak to me when I gave that old man on the street, half of my meal.”  “Agnes!” groaned the mother, “I must applaud your bravery my child, but what have you eaten all day then?”  “A light went into the man and he smiled, Mother.” The girl sat at the feet of her mother. “That man’s smile erased my hunger. It was our Lord smiling through that man; I’m sure of it.” Her mother paused, unsure of how to go on. This wasn't the ...

  “Ma!” I was getting tired of arguing with her. “I don’t want to get involved with this now.” A joke at the family tailor’s boutique earlier that day had turned my afternoon sour. The Aunty had suggested that it was ‘about time’ that I left my parents’ house. Although Ma had responded calmly at the time, she was quiet the entire drive back home and I had braced myself for the storm to come. Sometimes, it even seemed that just like me, my parents were conflicted – about letting me realize my career dreams and worrying about when to make ‘that’ decision. Age ofcourse is just a number, but it doesn’t stop or slow down for anyone. So, when Ma had asked me about my thoughts on that comment made at the boutique, I had told her ‘not to worry’. Unfortunately for me, those three words flipped her switch.  “Why? Do you have someone?” she asked.  I looked at her, hurt. “Really? You think I’m already out of that mess?”  “I just don’t want anything good to slip by, while we ...

   I had heard them the night before on the roof and they were loud, unmistakable cries. I thought I’d pay the munchkins a visit – you know, to be a responsible citizen; also, mostly because I can’t just keep away from kittens. I climbed the metal stairs onto the cemented terrace and all I could think was about how quiet it was. Almost too quiet… call it spidey-sense if you want to, but my gut was telling me NOT to go further . Only, I wasn’t going to let my gut talk me into going back down. Taking guarded steps, I peered around the landing on top of the mini-terrace – nothing. No sudden blasts of color, no sudden movements and definitely no fur-balls.  “Hiss!” I froze. The sound was coming from behind me and I could tell by its intensity that I had hit the jackpot – sort of. I turned to see the origin of the deadly voice and I was five feet apart from the Mama Cat herself. Black coat glistening, lime green eyes burning, crouching in an attacking posture – she was the ep...