Note: This post has been written for a contest 'Game of Blogs' being held by Blogadda. Several teams, each comprising of ten random bloggers are chosen to compete. Each team has to weave a story using characters provided by Blogadda. Each member has to continue the story from where the previous person left it.
So far, six chapters have been written by our team.
Here is my post-
Chapter 7: Meeting after nine years
As she stood behind the mesh-fence of the school, Jennifer reflected on her past. Leaving her new born infant at the doors of the adoption agency had been the toughest decision she had made in her life. But it was fate. As an 18-year old unwed girl disowned by her family, she had been left with no choice. Though the act of abandoning her baby was a rational one, the emotional part of her being gave her hell. Not a single moment of her life had been spent without thinking of her child.
The little one had dominated Jennifer’s mind at every point
of her life in the past nine years. And everytime she thought of her child, she
was also reminded of the one who was the reason for the child’s existence.
Cyrus..he was her first love. She could never forget him, ever.
Though she was now happily married now with a loving
husband, Jennifer knew she would always remember Cyrus. Though he had abandoned her after that one
night of physical intimacy, Cyrus would always reside in a corner in the
deepest recess of her heart. Jennifer could not bring herself to hate him, in spite
of what had happened.
Cyrus’s cowardly act had transformed Jennifer from the
inside out. Over the years, she had
metamorphosed from a rebellious and outspoken teenager to a soft-spoken and
gracious woman. Her short and unruly locks were tamed to flow long and
beautiful, always neatly plaited. Shorts, tees and accessories that had filled
her wardrobe were replaced by elegant sarees and salwars. People found it hard to believe that she was
a journalist, as Jennifer broke all stereotypes about her job.
Even today, she remembered everything like it had happened
yesterday, a bitter thanks to her photographic memory.
She remembered the look on his face, on the morning after
they had made love. Beads of sweat lined his forehead and his hands were
trembling. She remembered holding them softly with her own hands and showing
him the tattoo in the shape of ‘C’. Cyrus
had not been soothed by her calm talk. He had stood up, picked his stuff and
left her house abruptly. She remembered running after him to her doorstep and
calling out his name- “Cyrus! Cyrus!! Cy…Wait..!!!” Ignoring her repeated
calls, he had walked quickly out of sight. That was the last time she had seen
him…
In the next few months, things had progressed fast. Cyrus’s
absence created a void in Jennifer’s life. While she was gradually trying to
cope with his abandonment, she hadn’t noticed that she had missed her periods
two months in a row.
Three months after Cyrus had left, Jennifer woke up in the
early hours of the morning and felt the bile rise in her throat. The vomiting was incessant and the sounds of
her retching had woken up her parents.
After a few days when the vomiting continued in a similar vein, her
mother had become suspicious. A visit to the doctor had revealed her pregnancy.
“How could you do this to us? It is an insult to the family
name! What will everyone say when they
hear about this??” Jennifer’s mother had screamed accusations with tears in her
eyes. Jennifer’s father had stood silently, not saying a word. The harsh words
and the silence had no effect on her and Jennifer had stared blankly into
space. She was still reeling from shock.
As she had touched her stomach, Jennifer felt a new emotion
well up within her...a fierce protectiveness, followed by determination. “I will bring you into this world no matter
what. You shall live!” she whispered to the foetus inside her. She had hoped
that after some convincing, her family would support her decision, but they had
thrown her out of the house.
“It was not my mistake to be born in an orthodox Christian
family and neither was it their mistake to kick me out of the house. They were
right, they have to think about my younger sister. She would soon return from
boarding school.” she had said repeatedly to console herself as she walked
towards a friend’s house.
With the help of her friends, Jennifer had moved through her
pregnancy comfortably. She often thought about how she would bring up her kid.
With her education discontinued and no job to support herself, it would be
difficult to raise an infant. She could not trouble her friends for too long
either. So she had turned her heart into stone and left the baby at the
adoption agency.
After that, Jennifer had struggled to find a job to support
herself. Her passion for photography helped and she slowly found a footing in
the field. After five years of struggle, she landed the job as photo journalist
for a leading newspaper. She had
received many an admiring glance from men, but she had ignored everyone,
leaving her heart locked away. Then, one day, she had met Kumar, while on an
assignment. He had changed the course of her life forever. He came as the answer to her suffering, a
balm to her frayed heart and brought back the smile on her face…
The loud ringing of the bell startled Jennifer and brought
her out of her reverie. The lunch break had begun. Her eyes scanned
the group of children rushing out from class 5 A. There she was..Roohi! A fair and chubby girl with two ponytails,
the child looked adorable.
*(change of point of view)
Roohi sat with her friends under the shade of the tree and
opened her lunchbox. She was oblivious to the two people who were walking towards her from
opposite sides. One was a dusky woman,
who looked elegant in an ethnic salwar, while the other was a fair,
bespectacled man with a prominent beard on his chin. Unaware of the two persons walking towards
her, Roohi stood up. Pinching her friend, she shouted, “Catch me if you can!”
and began running. She had hardly moved three steps when she slipped on a rock
and fell hard on the muddy ground.
“Roohi..!!!” screamed two voices in unison as they ran
towards the child. Both of them stopped within inches of the child and touched her
shoulder. That was when they noticed each other. Roohi looked up with tears in
her eyes, waiting for someone to soothe her. But the two strangers stood
staring at each other, shock writ large on their faces...
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Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.
4 comments:
Reading the stories together. Nice,specially the last para :)
Thank you Megha :)
very well written.
Thanks a lot Brinda. I' m glad that you liked it...
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