Haunting.

We played together for hours

Me and my sister

And it started raining

We went running inside our house

Thrashing the wet mud on the way

She said, ‘Wait for me’

I grabbed her arm and we rushed inside

The ecstasy of that moment was mystifying

I still don’t know why but we started laughing

First I laughed and then she imitated me

She tried to laugh in my voice

Those times were so blissful

We didn’t need any reason to laugh

We just laughed

I said, ‘Stop laughing, father is coming’

She kept laughing

And I kept laughing

We rolled on the floor as we laughed

I rolled over to my father’s side

He was talking to someone on the phone

‘Go away’, he said

I and my sister were still laughing

Suddenly the bliss was gone

As my father slapped me hard on my face

And that was some hard blow I got

My sister stopped laughing and I started crying

It has been 50 years since then

But I still remember it

Every day when I go to sleep

I play that scene in my mind

And I wonder, ‘Why did we laugh so hard that day?’

And I still remember that there was no reason

But the question that haunts me is,

‘Why did my father slapped me?’