The Invisible

2010

As she lay flat on her back, the overhead LED lights make Elina cringe and shut her eyes. Better that they remain closed, she thinks. She doesn’t want to see anything. In fact, she wants to become invisible. Or just sink into the ground and vanish.

She wants to be anywhere else, rather than be where she is. 

On that hard metallic bed. 

In that Clinic.

Feeling so helpless and alone! 

Not wanting to go ahead with what she went there for, but still having to go through with it. 

The lady Doctor in white coat walks in. She asks Elina with a polite smile “how are you?”

“I am okay.” Elina manages to say though she is feeling not one bit okay.

She winces as the Doctor’s gloved hands probe her insides. 

The doctor continues “Are you sure you want to go ahead with it?”

Elina’s voice is screaming insider her head “No, I am not.” But she tries to drown the voice and nods in agreement. Soon tears start running down her cheeks against her own will.

The Doctor touches her hand and asks empathically “Do you want me to give you some more time?”

Elina shakes her head violently and whispers “No, no, please go ahead. I want to be done with it.”

The Doctor, who is sure to have dealt with such a situation a number of times in the past, presses Elina’s hand reassuringly and says “Don’t worry. It will get over in a jiffy.”

Before the anesthesia’s effect kicks in, Elina’s mind comes up with one sad thought. What a tragedy it is that the victim – her unplanned baby doesn’t even have a say in what she was about to do to its life. 

As she is about to pass out, Elina, whispers inaudibly - “I am so very sorry my love. How I wish you could live on ...”

2017 

The dark-haired boy is seated in the back seat between his two younger brothers. His skin is so pale that it has a waxy appearance. He has to settle for the middle seat as the other two blond haired brothers of his jostle for the window seats. 

He always lets them have those seats. ‘After all they are younger to me’, he tells himself. He wants to make his mother feel proud of him, though he himself is still a boy. 

His younger brothers Jack and John are never still. They yell and scream. They always fight with each other and Mother always ends up scolding them. But she hasn’t said one bad word for him and he wants to keep it that way.

But those two can be so spontaneous and fun too. At

Advertisement

times, they suddenly burst out singing. He tries to join them sometimes. But most of the time, he just listens. 

Sometimes, their mischievous behavior gets on to his nerves. He doesn’t like them troubling their mother so much, especially when she is so patient and kind to them.

He likes it that they spare him from their silly fights. He bends forward as the brats start pulling at each other’s hair from behind him.

Suddenly Jack shouts “Mom, John is pulling my hair.”

“But he did it first.” John shouts.

From her driver’s seat Mom shakes her head and yells “Stop it, you two” as though she is upset with them. But the twitch of a smile round the corners of her mouth gives her away. Soon she laughs, letting the boys see that she is enjoying their silly stuff and the twins squeal in delight.

That’s when the song “my heart will go on” starts playing on the radio. He knows his mother loves that song. She raises the volume high and starts to sing along. He finds her voice so melodious and graceful. But, he senses a tinge of sadness in it, as though she is calling out and trying to reach out to someone with those words “You are safe in my heart and my heart will go on and on.”

Then she turns back and the boy would have sworn she looked directly at him in the middle seat with her eyes brimming with tears. It makes him feel very sad to see his mother like that.

Then she turns back and the moment is lost. She hums along the next song while he surmises his surroundings. Outside the car, on the road the passersby walk with the sprightly gait of a spring day. The skyscrapers shine in the morning sun against the backdrop of unbroken blue of a clear sky. As the morning sunlight streams through the frame of the car window, he starts to feel the vibrant glow of a new day.

Finally, the car reaches the school. He can see the hustle and bustle at the school gate as the parents drop off their wards. The three boys jump out of the car and run towards the school building through the gate. His ears are suddenly filled with multiple conversations going off all at once. 

Before they go inside, they turn back and wave at their mother.

“Bye Jack. Bye John” Elina screams into the air as she waves her hands frantically from the lowered car window before she pulls out of the place.

“Why doesn’t anyone ever see me?” the dark haired boy wonders for the n’th time with tears rolling down his cheeks as he stares back at his mother with his right waving hand frozen in the air.