Today is the day...
Tomorrow, which will fade away...
25th April, 2015
Scolding from their father, has been the same since ages. Both Ajit and Shivani knew that night time was scolding time. "Pack your BAGS!", "Eat your dinner!", "Why are you still AWAKE?!" and such else.
And to every heavy scold there always was mother's soothing voice saying, “Calm down, you! They will do what they need to!"
To which father would always end up shouting.
And that night, was no different. Father had his scold’s rain on them. Although mother didn’t said a word. And thus finding herself alone with no support, Shivani finally thought of rebelling. That thought was followed by a cry, “Why don’t you just let us eat?!”
It is hard to explain what that father must have felt, whether he was angry or moved by pain. But he had not expected that reply. He dropped his head back to his laptop and didn’t said a word.
After that the night went on as the children finished their dinner, mother washed the plates singing in her ethereal voice but father kept his silence. Ajit wanted to sleep with his parents that day for a strange sadness he wasn’t quite sure of. So he laid the bed with four pillows, taking Shivani into his count.
“You shouldn’t had said it…” he said in an agonized manner to Shivani, “We will sleep together today… Tell him sorry…”
Shivani with a slight guilt eating her will of not giving up to her father could give only the assurance that she would think of it next day.
The conversation ended, Ajit and Shivani went, closed their eyes laying in their comforts. An hour later father came and then laid mother to her peaceful bliss. Then dreams followed. All four, lost in their own worlds, dreaming, loving, winning, and dying in a dimension made for eternity. Whiles the dimensions were fine, but that night, all had a common dream of some rapid swings. It was the the time before their return to Earth that the bliss felt changing to fire, frost and thunder. Shivani felt her body being dragged. She almost choked and tried to scream just to find her voice not exhaling. She knew then that to survive she needed to burn her lungs out. And then began her efforts as she found a dark being evolving from nowhere dragging her down. She put all her energy to her lungs and finally managed to pump her energy through her voice.
As the voice moved out, her eyes opened simultaneously. But as soon as the reality swept in, she was terrified beyond that dream, for she found the whole room, in fact, the whole building shaking with tremendous force. She was about to jump out of her bed when she suddenly realized that what appeared a dark ground to her was the floor broken and fallen down. The bed was in a position tilted and slowly drifting towards the large broken darkness in the floor. Shivani knew what she exactly needed to do, which was, to scream to wake everyone up. But before she could do that she found her parents already awoken and staring at the shaking room and the broken gaps here and there.
A narrow ridge was on its way of formation on the floor, starting from the wall, as it separated the room into two different halves, both of which were then, not in the same level. It moved from the left side wall to the right, cutting through the switch board. As soon as it hit the board, it burst into flames and lighted the room for a fraction of seconds. Within this few a fraction Shivani, however managed to get a clear view of their room. The walls, she saw, were on the verge of collapsing as they were filled with many such narrow cracks. The floor had cracked opened in front of their bed. The two sides created in the floor were on different heights, the side with their bed being on the lower. The difference in height was constantly increasing and the floor on their side had already started to tilt. Looking at the speed of the drift, Shivani understood that the bed would soon be devoured by the gap.
She was terrified beyond her limits, as her mind almost stopped working and her brain surrendered to the fear, the fear of death. And with that she closed her eyes. Suddenly she felt her upper arm being tightly grabbed and pulled with such a strength that before she could open her eyes she was on the other side of the bed on her mother's lap. Opening her eyes she realized the situation. The room which was dancing due to the shock waves had started to crumble. And what looked to her as a monstrous pull, was nothing but her mother trying to drag her away. On her place on the bed laid a giant piece of cement and bricks' compound.
Shivani's father carefully moved out of the bed, wondering every now and then how the situation changed within just two minutes. He quickly pulled Ajit out of the bed and held him in his arms. Ajit wasn't aware of the situation as he was just awoken. But father knew that the time was not for any explanation but to move out. Shivani held to her mother, grabbing her hands tight as she slowly drifted out of her position.
The family lived in a four storey apartment and were living on the 3rd floor. They could already hear screams of their apartment neighbors.
Father took Ajit and slowly helped him move up the crack of the heightened floor. Holding to the edges Ajit somehow managed to reach the other side. Then came father's turn. With strangely gained agility he jumped and quickly grabbed the crack's edge which was lying in quite a height. Shivani was then smoothly pushed by her mother as her father pulled her up. Next was mother's turn, but before she could do anything at all, the floor on her side started tilting down. With a sudden increase in the intensity of the shocks, she lost her balance, fell and immediately drifted towards the edge.
"MAYAA!!!!", cried father.
Shivani screamed. Ajit who was about to cry, suddenly slipped and went on drifting towards the door. The floor was tilted in fact in such a way that half of the room was on the verge of falling on the ground from the 3rd floor. Ajit who rolled and flipped just on the attempt to grab and balance, went on falling until he reached the very edge of the wall of the living room.
Something struck him hard on his head, as he finally stopped. Everything was dark. His house had never looked so disturbing, to him anytime before. Ajit with his hand moving here and there searched to see where he was. He felt a stick-like structure, which he soon understood was the leg of the table kept in their living room. It used to have a vase of flowers on it, which Ajit could feel broken on the ground. On his back he felt the wall.
Suddenly the room tilted more towards the ground. Shivani's father feeling the danger, soon regained his senses. Holding Shivani tightly he tried to move towards the living room. But then again with another shock wave he slipped and directly fell inside the table, laying horizontally to them.
Father's head almost smashing the table top hit the wall inside the table. Shivani fell on him. He was on his last breathe which by that time he could feel properly. He couldn't move his body from that position, head still touched with the wall. But hands, hands were searching, for Ajit. He knew Ajit was lost and it was useless as they all were going to die. But still all he wanted from him was a last hug. With one hand he pulled Shivani towards himself and kissed her on her forehead. With a sudden strangeness the other hand fell on a cotton material. Father's eyes wide opened with the expectation of hearing Ajit's voice.
"Aaa... Aji... Aji..." he stumbled on his words.
"Father" tears trickled down Ajit's cheek. He tried to hug him through the gap somehow but before he could do that he felt the building falling. Before it could impact the ground father pulled both Ajit and Shivani to his chest hand held them tight.
Then within that 3 to 4 seconds before the impact and total collapse Shivani saw their home bidding farewell to them as it broke into two halves. As the gaps increased light from out side entered and she saw her toys, her books and her lovely room being scattered and broken. Last she saw the roof of their home and then as she turned her head towards her father's chest she suddenly felt the hammering impact, which almost made her bounce from her father's chest into the air and falling back again.
Father slowly put his hands over each of his children's head and slowly drifted into darkness as he closed his eyes. Shivani felt a lot of heavy loads being poured onto them as they kept on lying there, but throughout that entire event, she felt her father's hand constant on her head. She felt his warm and held him tightly.
It took several hours for Shivani to make a fine hole through the debris of the building fallen on her. Then she finally pushed her hand out signalling in the open air for help.
Help came but few more hours later. Barely able to breathe Shivani had fainted out. When she opened her eyes she found herself lying in a white hospital room. Many other people were there too. Some crying, some still unconscious. Shivani tried to move her head side to side to find her father and brother, but they were not there.
The doctor came in a long time later but before he could attain anyone Shivani cried out, "My father? Where is he?"
The doctor looked and her and said "It was an earthquake... You are very lucky you survived... Very few did..."
"What do you mean? Where is my father?! TAKE ME TO MY FATHER?!"
"The other two people who came with you... are dead... I am... sorry..."
"... How?"
"One died out of suffocation... the other... skull fracture and excessive bleeding... I am sorry..."
Shivani turned her head away from the doctor and closed her eyes as tears rolled down, again moving into her dreams. Her father smiled there as she cried in her guilt. And then it was all the same again, the night, the scolds, mother's calm voice and her brother. She was happy there within their very ordinary night which now looked extraordinary in her reality.