Minu!

It was a bright sunny day. I was on my way to my friend's house, whose copy I had borrowed to complete my tution notes.

My steps were genuinely bouncy and I was feeling merry.

Suddenly I saw a little girl playing with a large ball, that seemed to be larger than her head. 

She was playing with her hands and feet alike. 

Sometimes she kicked and sometimes she threw it with all her might and run after it with unsteady feet, with perhaps the most innocent smile the world has ever witnessed.

She was small, pale, with dark black curls forming a corona.

Every time the ball would bounce, she would break into peals of laughter and then run after the ball following it wherever it went.

She threw the ball again and it rolled down to where I was standing. It stopped near my feet. 

 I lifted it and she ran towards me. I couldn't stop myself from smiling and crouched low to meet her height.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Minu", she spoke with a lilt of her childish accent.

I ruffled her hair and gave the ball to her.

Just as she was about to run back, to where she was playing, I noticed the milk delivery truck speeding towards the main road. 

In a few moments, it would hit Minu.

And then I bolted down the street, more out of instinct than anything else.

Minu was still running towards it. She was getting closer and closer to the truck and so was the truck.

With her small steps of her small feet, I could her reach her easily. But perhaps not in time. 

I did not give space to the second thought.

"Minu!" I shouted on top of my lungs.

She stopped and turned towards me slowly, still smiling.

Good. Atleast she was not getting any closer. There was just enough time for me to reach her. Only if I got to the right point at the right time.

When she was in a hand's length, I pulled her hard and we both stumbled to left side falling on my back as I gripped her tight against me.

For a few uncountable seconds, the only sound I heard was my heart beating so loudly that I could hear the beat in my ears. Then the loud shrieks and the wailing cry of Minu's mother filled the background.

I just realized that the truck has missed Minu by a hand's length too.

But then the truck bashed against a pole and the truck stopped with a brutal crashing and violent hissing noise.

I was still dazed. But found enough strength to call someone. Not that I needed to.

Everyone was already running towards us. Some were running towards the truck. Clearly, the brakes were non-functional.

Anyway, I managed to give Minu back to her mother whose face was wrinkled with worry and sloppy with an unceasing flow of tears.