Aparna Shukla

This is an excerpt from my diary. Closest I could get to make you guys feel what I felt.

Tilo was jolted out of her sleep. She was sweating mildly and was still on her bed. She had the same dream again where she falls off a cliff and is shaken up on her bed. Mom says it’s a very common dream and one shouldn’t be scared of it.  

Obviously mom doesn’t care about her, she’s her least favorite child. Arvindo and Rupa di are the one’s she loves most. They are in one team, Rupa di, ma and even the stupid arvindo. She wishes Baba would be home more often to take her side. Baba loves her and that’s why he’s come home only for her birthday with the most beautiful cake she has ever seen; it’s a two storey vanilla with strawberry slices all around it.

The thought of the cake makes her jump out the bed and run towards the kitchen to have a look at it.  She thumps down noisily from the stairs, maa’s reading her morning newspaper. She  bolts into the kitchen so fast that she bangs on cupboard. She looks at maa once but she still is busy reading. Tillo opens the door to the most beautiful cake ever made. She looks at the white icing and the missing strawberry and three big ugly finger marks!

They have had it this time, both of them arvindo and rupa di. She runs out into the garden and yells angrily at arvindo, she tells him how stupid a boy he is but arvindo doesn’t care and keeps looking elsewhere. How can they spoil the cake, her birthday cake! She’s in tears as she turns to rupa di. She shouts at her bursting into tears but that has no effect on di, she’s smiling, not even looking at her.

She calls on for maa. She rushes back to Maa, she’s reading her newspaper,she cries how cruel both her siblings are and  how badly they have spoilt the cake  but  Maa doesn’t care, she doesn’t move, she’s still reading. Tillo angrily tries to push ma to look at her but she still wont move, she’s frozen! Tillo looks out of the window and neither of her siblings are moving. She runs upstairs to wake baba up. There’s no one in the room, baba has left, his luggage is gone. He would now never return. How will she cut the cake now? She thinks, maybe baba died, . She is climbing down to the kitchen when It strikes her how lonely is right now. She starts sobbing out of fear and fat drops of tears roll down her eyes. What would happen now? How will she live alone? As she climbs down the third step her body loses control and she slips. She can feel her body move up in the air ready to hit the stair case and she’s jolted out of her sleep. She was sweating mildly and was still on her bed. She had the same dream again  but  Mom says it’s a very common dream and one shouldn’t be scared of it.