Sujatha Rao

Children Stories Drama Children

4.3  

Sujatha Rao

Children Stories Drama Children

Behind the Bars

Behind the Bars

3 mins
315


He woke up suddenly to the loud noise. As he looked around trying to figure out what happened, he felt disoriented. He looked to his right and then to his left. To his great horror, he realized he was all alone. But he remembered he had fallen asleep holding her hand in his.

That’s when he saw them. The bars. He was once again behind those impersonal white bars. The very sight of them put him off. He hated being alone and more so behind those lifeless, clinical bars. All he asked for was the warmth of a human body next to his.


He heard the noise again. In the stillness of the night, it sounded like some baby was crying. The baby’s cry and the darkness around him scared him. At first he could not make anything out in his vicinity. The closet against the wall nearby looked very sinister in the night – especially with the shadows the ornate handles cast. All he wanted to do was to curl up into a ball and wait for someone to pick him up and save him from the impending doom. But no one was around and no one was likely to come.


His lips started quivering and his eyes started welling up. He wanted to scream but paralyzed that he was with fear, no sound came out of his lips. He sucked in air and let it go out in one long scream. All of a sudden, the sound of his own voice seemed very soothing to his ears. Boldened by his new found voice, he continued to howl at a high pitch. After all, the cry for help or crying out for love was the most primal of and the purest of raw communications that the nature had taught all the living beings.


He paused in between and craned his ears to find out if his cry was indeed heard. That’s when he heard the reassuring sound of footsteps outside. Now that he knew help was at hand, his cry turned into an angry roar. His face had turned red with the effort he took to scream.

“Now, there, there my poor baby! I am here now. The darned cat with her loud mewing woke you up once again, did she not?” the soft words of his mother sounded like music. But as he was still very angry for having been left alone, his cry reached its crescendo. He was in fact craving the comfort of his mother’s soft skin, her scent close to him and the feeling of of her arms around him.


And finally her arms lifted him up and pressed him against her chest. As she cradled him softly whispering into his ears, “It’s okay. You are with me now, baby. Are you hungry my poor baby? Is that why you are crying?”


He didn’t understand what she was saying and it didn’t really matter. He needed to hear that voice and he knew all the fears of the world would simply melt away once he was in her arms. Suddenly he realized how hungry he was and started tugging at the top of his mother’s night dress.

His mom smiled at his impatience and sat down to feed him. Soon his stomach was full and his eyes felt heavy. Slowly, he drifted back into a deep slumber to the tune of mother’s soft hum in his ears. 


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