Agony: A Short Story

 

Wafl is not in a good mood today, Last night his parents had a great quarrel. Though he is merely 10 he already knows the conse-quenec of the quarrel because, he has encountered this kind of situation from the time he went to school.

Mother will not be up till ten o’clock, A doleful atmosphere will prevall in the house for the whole day and may last for a week. They will neither talk to each other nor dine together. Mum will shift near bed to Waffs room. This will continue till Dad comes forward to mend the breach. It is always an opportunity for him to buy what he likes from the canteen. Wafi finds the food more delicious than the home-made tiffin. He is often sandwiched between the terrible desire to taste the food and the unneiving sense to obey mum’s strict rule not to touch it.

But now the school is closed. He will have to see the grave, expres-sionless face of mum all the time. Whenever he looks at that face, all his happy playful spirit dies in a second. He is a good boy and so good that he cannot make friends with those boys who are a bit reckless and prone to step in where angels fear to tread.

Wafigets more and more sad not at all a good cook and Wafi will be the next miserable victim of Dad’s unstable state of mind.
After ceasing to think, he slowiy comes to his room from the verandah and peeps in to find mum sall lying and pretending to be asleep. He is sure about is. Because, many a time before, she instructed him what to eat or do, even scolded him for not finlshing breakfast while still lying in bed. So Wafi walts patiently for the order sitting on the table.

Wafi passes a good time in school in this situation. It is a great damper to ease his mind. He does not have to take tiffin from home. It is an excellent dad who is the first to come forward for reconciliation and it is always he who starts the quarrel with all his might. He shouts at the top of his voice, threatens mum with kicking her out of home. Mum also pours out all the venom gathered in the heart little by little over a period of time in order to blunt an opponent who appears at that moment as the most hated one.

Whenever the quarrel begins. Wafi prays with all his heart to God to stop the quarrel. His tiny heart pounds immensely against his ribs. His little feature shakes from head to foot with the though that what if dad strikes mum and what if she dies. Then, he will not have a good dinner because dad is thinking all about this.

He again comes to the verandah with a thriller book and cautiously starts reading for, this kind of book is not allowed in the house. He keeps his ears alert at the sound of any footsteps or calling as his eyes raee through the lines. Quite unsettled within, while all his senses are occpied by the agony, he attempts to re-compose himself.