Fire

Fire

"Why did they have to cremate her here?" he thought, all the while scrambling through his drawers, searching for a bed sheet. He wondered where the fuck his mother kept the bed sheets in this god forsaken house. He blames the bed sheet and the lack of a curtain on his window. Hell, he blames his window for giving an access to his eyes to her room. It was the only reason why he saw her changing her clothes one day. His eyes got stuck on her body giving rise to a desire within. Desire turned to lust. Lust turned to inhumanity.

                He made sure no one would return home soon. He had his house all to himself for the moment. When he strolled into the veranda, he saw the tips of her skirt. It was dancing in the air. When she played with her friends, each jump she made kept the skirt flying, revealing her ankles and her silver anklet. He couldn't believe she was just 6 years old. She was a beauty, the love and light of her family. The whole village was proud of her. It was last year he noticed her, when she collected the prize for winning the first prize in dance competition, at the village youth festival. Her dazzling smile jolted every insult his family threw at him. For not being a good son, for not being responsible, for being a drug addict, for being a bane.

"No one should be this happy!" he thought. Jealousy crept through him and he clenched his fist in anger. He felt nauseous seeing her innocent smile. "You don't deserve to exist." he mumbled seeing her embrace her trophy.

         He sucked in one last puff of ganja, dropped stub to the floor, stomped on it with his rubber chappals and put it out. She was only few feet away from him. He clapped to grab her attention. She turned around and gave the same innocent smile. He felt his wrath bubbling. A mixture of lust and rage was getting concocted within him. He knew it had the power to destroy her existence. He kept the feelings to himself and raised a bar of chocolate. He saw her eyes widen in surprise and joy. He knew this shit would work. Innocence is the easiest thing to exploit. He gestured to keep it quiet by raising a finger to his mouth and signaled her to move away from her friends. She looked at him puzzled. "Do I need to be more convincing?" he thought. He smiled again and called her with his hand. Smile returned to her face and she ran into his room through the backdoor of his house. Her eyes contained all the excitement she had about that bar of chocolate. She was even thinking about the way to boast about it, in front of her friends that were playing outside. She didn't have a hint of doubt. All he had to do was to close the door.

                The smoke from her cremation site rose up high and touched the coconut tree that leaned above it. Even at night he saw fire crackling at the site emitting wisps of smoke. He lighted a roll and sucked in a puff. At first he thought he didn't light it up properly. No, that wasn't the case. He saw the tip burning. "What the hell is going on?" he breathed for fresh air. Nothing!  He felt as if all the air in the room got sucked out. He couldn't hold it anymore. He gasped for air and ran to the door. The door wouldn't open. He ran to the window and all he saw was smoke outside. He couldn't even breathe in the smoke. He felt a heat inside. As if someone lit his stomach on fire. He writhed in pain and fell down to the floor.

             "May be I should change the sheets" thought the mother, as she opened the door next morning. She saw that his bed was empty. When she glanced to the floor all she saw was a heap of ash emitting wisps of smoke as a tiny fire still crackled while burning few charred objects.