House of sorrows
Aparna started taking deep breathe. She began to sense that she must do things as per her instruction. She was just school girl but still she had to sell those products. She needed to earn some money for her house. She knew that her parents were not rich one. But they were not so poor too. Still after her Dad stopped doing job. Her Mom was trying to keep this job. She decided that she must help her. She began to sell those products after school. It was her first day. When a customer entered, she gave her a smile. She began to describe products. But that customer screamed on her. " Will you keep quiet? I want to select things with my choice don't push costly products on me?" " But Madam I was showing cheaper one." She gave her smile which was telling her in that customer's eyes she was nothing but dirt. " Really? Do you think that I don't understand?" " Sorry Madam I will not give suggestion. Then that lady kept looking in shop. Aparna kept her eyes on her. She didn't want her to shop lift something. Then owner came in shop. Owner " Why don't you show products to that lady?" " But she didn't want my suggestion." Owner " But she was wasting too much time without need. Let me show how to handle it. Watch me and learn. I am paying you salary. You need to learn few tricks." Aparna nodded. She sensed one thing that this job was not as easy as she thought. She went slowly after owner. Owner went to that customer " What do you want Madam?" He said it in such style of authority that this lady felt scared. But still she tried to argue " I want to check out products." " What kind of products you want to check out for purchasing?" That lady began to look nervous. " Nothing. I was just window shopping. I will come tomorrow to purchase." That lady started to go away. Owner screamed from behind " Visit us next time to purchase." He insisted purchase in such way that other customer who entered in shop started laughing on that lady. That lady started cursing shop owner under her breathe and ran away. Owner smiled and turned towards Aparna " So little girl did you understood way to deal with such customer?" She nodded but she was scared. " You must not let your fear stop you. If you want this job learn handling them this way. Understood?" She nodded. Owner"Why are you watching my face? Go back to work. I am not paying you to watch me selling my products. Go and place new arriving products properly in shelf." " Sure sir." She said it and ran away to do her job. She began to set every product in proper way. She wanted everything to look perfect. She began to watch her Boss every moment. Her Boss was so wise. She sensed one thing that she needed to learn it from him. When next customer came, she began to handle with intelligence. She came to show products when she denied offer. She kept arranging products nearby. That customer checked out products for few moment. Then when that customer sensed that she was going to keep following her. Finally that customer went away. Owner smiled. Owner " Now you sensed that how did you suppose to deal customer. But why are you just sitting when customers are not there? You should bring some book from school too. You can study in remaining time. I am not using you as child labor. I just want to little help and train you. Your study must not effect by this." She nodded. Then Owner asked her " I never keep children on work but your situation is so different. I heard that your father no longer have job. What happened?" " He suddenly began to feel bored of every thing." "Bored? I don't understand it. How can person suddenly began to feel bore of work and stop working. Did your Mom objected?" " She tried. But he didn't listen to her. When she pushed too much, he started throwing things around house. We all felt so scared. We stopped questioning him." " But why did you start coming instead of your Mom on this job?" " Well because my Mom is searching for different job. Money was not enough." Owner " But you must not let your studies get effected." "No..No sir I am studying properly." " I am going to ask you every thing about your mark." She smiled. She always managed to get good marks in school. She liked working in shop too. Her house was too crowded. She had two younger sister and one brother. They always kept screaming. Her Mom never managed to handle house. She didn't understand why her Mom plan such big family. If she had just one younger sister, she could have managed it all. But with such big family her house was nuisance and above it all her father kept irritating some thing when his mood was off. This job was god's gift too her so she stayed in shop until time of closing it. Then Owner personally dropped her back in her house. She said good bye to him. She felt so affection towards him. She felt if only her father was like that owner but it was not possible.
When Aprana entered, her mother Rasika immediately came to her. Rasika " So did you like there?" " Yes Mom. It was nice." Her younger sister Trupti came running towards her. Trupti " I want to go with you too." Aprana " No. You are too small. Owner was not even happy about my working for him. He wanted Mom to come back. He didn't like when kids work." Rasika looked nervous. Rasika " I personally don't like it but you know our situation." " Mom relax. I can understand." Then her brother came running. Brother " I want chocolate." " I don't have one." Then he started crying loudly. Rasika " Stop this. I will buy it." " Mom stop it. We don't have enough money to waste on chocolate. Stop pampering them." " But I just thought we might.." Aprana " No Mom. We can't just remember it on every time. We can't manage enough money to waste on pleasures." Then she went inside. Aprana noticed. Her Dad was still sleeping. He was not interested in any thing. Aprana decided that she might try to talk with him. But as she started to move towards him. Rasika stopped her. Rasika " Your Dad is not in his sense." " What?" " I said he is acting strange. Look around." She saw many things were scattered. " He suddenly got angry and started throwing things around. I have to stay in home to control him." " Mom what is wrong with him?" " I don't know. But this is so strange. Do you feel it might be black magic?" Aprana was confused. Aprana started thinking about those stories of black magic which she heard. She suddenly began to feel that it was possible. " Mom do you have doubt about some one?" " Well there was a woman who use to stay near us. She always used to come in our house. She always kept talking about different things. Do you remember that Rashmi Auntie?" " Yes of course. How can I forget her? She always use to bring chocolate for us." Suddenly her Mom looked at her with anger. " She was not that much charming." Now Aparna was confused. " Mom she used to come to you. She used to help you." " Yes with view to get her benefit. She even used to help me in cooking. We all used to eat that food which she manged to look. I felt her enchantment for some days. I even started to trust her more that your grandmother." " Really Mom? But why? I mean you always trusted grandma more than any one." " Once I even fought with her when your grandma told me that she was entering in our house with evil purpose." " But Mom you never told me that." " Because you are too young. I don't want to tell you all those evil things and corrupt your young mind." Aprana was so shocked. She remembered every well. She used to some home with Rashmi many times. Rashmi used to give her ice creams. She used to enjoy them. Rashmi was so nice. They used to enjoy so much time. Once she even took her to movie. But during that movie she kept talking about her father. She asked many thing about him and mother. She told her all. She suddenly began to sense that she told her every secret. She started to remember every incidence. When they were in theater, Rashmi told her to sit then she bought tasty snacks for her. It all looked great. She was so happy. After eating that snacks she started telling everything. She began to think that it was easily possible that Rashmi could have put something in her food. It might be reason due to which she started talking. She told her every thing. She began to shiver. Rasika sensed it. " What happened?" " Mom I have trusted her so much. I felt she was just like you since you both have similar beginning of name." Rasika began to look angry. " What happened? Just tell me what happened?" Aparna told all to Rasika step by step. Rasika " She used my daughter as bait. I don't want to hear her name again from your mouth." Aparna nodded. She felt so scared. She went in her Dad's room. She sensed something was strange in it. She sensed that it was that sadness in his eyes. It was strange. It had strange feeling of hunting in those eyes. She sensed that he was not normal. He turned his eyes towards her. She felt so scared due to those red eyes. She just ran away as far as possible from them. She began to believe her Mom. Rasika managed to convince her that her Dad was victim of black magic. She began to feel so tense. She just sat in corner of house. She began to concentrate on her studies again.
Aparna went next day again to shop with Rasika. Owner " Rasika you must not send just your daughter. She is too small." " I know sir but whenever my husband get sick I have to stay with him." "What's wrong with him?" " He is very sick sir. I have to do all. I can't suggest my daughter to handle him. It looked so wrong." Owner started to feel confused. In his heart owner didn't find it was logical to keep such small girl to take care of father. He knew that he needed help. He was against child labour. But this was different case. He took her mother as employee but now daughter was coming as replacement. Owner " Fine. Sometimes I will adjust but not always." Rasika and Aparna both started working. Soon Owner told Aparna to stop. Owner " I am paying for just one person. I don't want two people working on one salary. " Rasika started laughing. Rasika " I am just training her." Owner didn't like this idea. He wanted to stop Aparna from working. But then Rasika said " Sir try to understand I have to pay her fees too. It will come from this salary only. You can easily see her report card every time. If she get less marks, you can fire me and keep another employee but this time please adjust. You are helping us." Owner nodded and sat behind cash counter. From that day Aparna started coming with Rasika every day. Owner kept checking on her grades which were getting better every day. One day Owner finally asked " I can't believe it. How did you improve your grade by working here?" " I feel so relax when I away from home. I feel so scared when Dad is in home. He is strange person." Owner looked confused. " Your Dad is too strict." Aparna just nodded. She didn't want to go in details. She knew that if she went in details no one would believe her. At beginning Rasika used to come then slowly Rasika just vanished out of picture. Aparna started working every day. She was nice little girl. Owner never felt that he was doing any thing wrong by keeping her there. Since she looked so happy, she also managed to study for many hours. But owner felt that she needed to play for sometime too. One day Owner came to her " You are working so hard. Don't you want to play sometimes." Aparna looked nervous. Aparna " Actually my Dad is so strange that he kept fighting with all. Other kids didn't come in my home that much." " But you can go in their home." "Sir those kids are nothing but bullies. I don't like to play with them." Now this was strange excuse. Owner was so confused. He didn't want to fire Aparna as she was best employee and he knew that if he fired her, she needed to work somewhere else where situation might be worst than this. He was giving her time to study. He decided that he might be helping that child. From that day he started giving her nice lunch. He started to treat her like his niece. Aparna started coming every day. Aparna was so happy. Then one day when she went home, she saw all neighbors were gathered in her house. She started running towards her house. She looked confused. She asked her neighbor " What happened?" " Your Dad beat your Mom. He was acting in so horrible way. Every one from society heard her screams so we came to help her. " " Where is my Mom?" " I don't know. Every one told me to stand outside." Then she saw Rasika. Rasika's face was fully swollen. She was looking so horrible. She could still hear screams of her Father. One of her neighbor screamed " If you don't stop this now, we will tied you." But he didn't stop. She saw her Dad came out running to hit her Mom again. Finally neighbors took hold of him and tied him to chair. He kept screaming like animal. He was horrible. Aparna " Some one did black magic on my Dad" All neighbors looked at her with shock. One lady " Aparna black magic and ghosts are fiction." " But look at him." He was truly acting like some wild animal. Another neighbor " He is just angry man who needed to taught how to control his anger and I think he is drunk too." Aparna was shocked. " But who gave him alcohol to drink? We don't have that much money." " We don't know. But we feel that we need to call Police." Aparna was really confused. But then Rasika started screaming. " Don't call Police. I will tell him." She tried to convince her Dad to keep quiet. But he was not ready. He stood up with chair and started to try to hit her Mom again. He kept screaming and cursing. He started telling all " She took away my Rashmi." It was so horrible. Aparna started shivering. She felt so scared that she just ran inside her house and went in bathroom. She didn't come out for long time. She decided that she might just stay there until her Dad stopped screaming Rashmi's name. She was scared of that name now. She didn't want to hear it again.
Aparna suddenly came to her senses when she heard voice of her younger sister. She was calling name and crying. It was worst for her. She needed to act responsible for her sister. Her Mom was sick. She slowly came out. Her sister hugged her. She began to cry. She wanted to console her. But she was feeling so sad that she wanted to cry too. She knew that she had to control herself. Then her neighbor came running inside. " Police had came. They are taking away your father and mother." Another neighbor " Such horrible thing never happened in our society. These people are behaving like slum people." Suddenly one maid got angry. Maid " This is wrong attitude. Why you always have to blame slum for everything? Even upper class people have such fights. There was that actor who lived next door in that posh flat." " Yes..yes he also hit his wife. It was in news." " Now a days this mud of domestic violence managed to move everywhere." Aparna was feeling so suffocated by this. She started to feel so frustrated. She didn't want to hear this nonsense. But she knew that now society was going to throw them out. She began to sense that it was not even their mistake who wanted to stay with this kind of family. Then Police came. They took hold of her father. He kept talking about Rashmi. It was so horrible. Then her Mom came out. Police told her to sit in ambulance. All kids were told to stay in flat. Secretary of Society " This is horrible. We can't let this man stay here." Police " Don't worry. He will land in jail or mental asylum." " Mental asylum?" " Yes this fellow is mad." " I don't understand." Aparna came out running. " This is black magic. That woman did it." Police started laughing. Police " Who told you that? Black magic is just fiction. They tell it to convince kids. " " My Mom said it." Police looked angry. " This woman didn't took her husband to psychiatrist on time and taught this garbage to kids." Secretary " Forget them sir. Just tell me. Do you feel this man is risky?" " No not at all. Unless you are his wife." Then Police started laughing. Then Police controlled himself. Police " I feel he wanted to get rid of his wife and marry some other woman but that woman betrayed him. I feel she must ran away with someone else. And I will not blame her for it. " " You are right who wanted to marry man with so many kids." Police started laughing again. Police " I don't feel she even want him without kids. Any way that is not our problem. So I took him with me. His wife will come back. No need to remove her from society that man is not going to come out so soon." Secretary nodded happily. Then Aparna took her sisters and brother inside flat. She was shivering with sorrow and fear. Her Mom was not right. It was so scary. She never thought about this. She always thought her Mom knew the best. But today for first time she sensed that her Mom was wrong regarding black magic. Her sibling were crying in her arms. They all felt hopes from her. She was now important pole of family. She sensed for first time. She might needed to earn for her family too. Her Mom was not going to come back home from hospital so soon. She just shivered with fear. But then she remembered that she had job but now she needed to cook too. She turned to her other sister. She was small but she might able to do some basic things like helping other kids to get dress up. She had to fire maid not because she didn't need maid but because she didn't have money for her. It was not easy for her. She felt so sad. She wanted to enjoy her life too. But it seemed to become impossible for her. She had to work so hard on every day. But she had to do it. From that day she started planning every thing. She began to plan every thing. She managed to understand whom she could give which work. But one thing was clear no one was thrilled to do work. She was so glad when her Mom called and told her that she would come next day. Aparna was so happy. She sensed one thing. Her Mom would at least manage to few things. Aparna called in her school. Principal started questioning her in strange way. She finally had to tell all. Principal sounded shocked. Principal " I need to talk your Mom." She was so scared. She sensed one thing that she might needed to hide truth. She managed every thing on that day. Next day when her Mom came, she told her all. Her Mom started screaming on her. It was horrible. She started crying. She didn't understand what she supposed to do. She just ran out of house. She didn't sense when she hit by car. She didn't sense when she lost all her instincts of survival.
Owner was coming out of shop when he saw that big crowd. He went near it. He wanted to move ahead but he felt that he must checked out who was victim of accident. They all were saying that a girl ran before car. It was not mistake of driver. Police were asking about her. When Owner came, Police told him to take a look. They wanted to identify her. Owner came near her. It was body of Aparna. Owner was so shocked. He just couldn't stop himself from screaming and crying. Police"Do you know her?" Owner took little time to control himself. Finally Owner told Police all. Owner " She never cared for her daughter. I kept telling her. That she is little girl but she was just busy in handling sickness of her husband." " Will you give me her number?" " Sure." Then he gave her number to officer. Police officer took number. Owner started moving ahead. He decided one thing that he didn't want this woman to work for him. Then after some time Rasika came running outside. She started crying on body of her daughter. She kept blaming it all on some Rashmi. But Owner knew in his heart that she was responsible for all this. He could clearly see other kids. He wanted to tell Police that he must teach her some lesson. But he knew that he couldn't take responsibility of those kids. He had limited income. He looked at them with sorrows. Then Police started asking questions to Rasika. Police soon asked about grand parents of those kids. It turned out that they were informed of nothing. When they reached to Police station, Police called them. Both grand parents came. They were shocked. Rasika's parents started blaming her husband's parents who kept insisting that their son never had any problem. " Our son was fine but then this woman started insisting that he had to earn more." " Really? It happened because your son wanted boy. They kept increasing family." " So is it crime?" Police screamed " Yes it is. Your son must not insist on having boy child." " Now stop pretending every one want son." Police officer became so angry. " I have two daughters and I am happy with them. I just wish only if I could throw you in jail. But then those kids are going to need you." Rasika " It was black magic." Then she told everything to him. Police officer called Rashmi. In few moments Rashmi came there with her husband. She was looking so stressed. Rasika started screaming on her " You took away my husband from me." " No I never did that. I am happily married now. Her husband wanted to marry me but then I talked with Aparna I sensed that he was not good man as he claimed. He kept telling me his wife was mad and evil. But when I talked with Aparna I sensed her Dad was totally wrong man. He kept threatening his family. I just wanted to tell you one thing officer. Rasika should not live with her husband but when I tried to tell her this. She began to feel that I am trying to steal her husband." Rasika was so angry. She began to feel to abuse her. She started to attack Rashmi. Then Rashmi ran out of there with her husband. Police " This lady needed to go to psychiatric treatment. So tell me who will take care of these kids." Then it decided that kids should be divided. But kids were not that much willing. Rasika's mother-in-law " I want my grand son." He was so small. Every one decided that they might take him. After all taking care of girls was also going to be hard. Then Police ordered constables to take Rasika to hospital. Girls went with their grandparents. They kept crying whole time. Finally their grand ma said " Don't worry. Mom will come back soon." " No. We don't want Mom. She will bring back Dad with her. We want Aparana." Then suddenly even grandmother started crying. Grandfather " How hard I tried to tell Rasika. She have to take our help but she didn't listen now our dearest grand daughter is died. No one can bring her back." They all cried. They knew that it would not remove their sorrows but at least reduce them little bit.
The End
Aparna started taking deep breathe. She began to sense that she must do things as per her instruction. She was just school girl but still she had to sell those products. She needed to earn some money for her house. She knew that her parents were not rich one. But they were not so poor too. Still after her Dad stopped doing job. Her Mom was trying to keep this job. She decided that she must help her. She began to sell those products after school. It was her first day. When a customer entered, she gave her a smile. She began to describe products. But that customer screamed on her. " Will you keep quiet? I want to select things with my choice don't push costly products on me?" " But Madam I was showing cheaper one." She gave her smile which was telling her in that customer's eyes she was nothing but dirt. " Really? Do you think that I don't understand?" " Sorry Madam I will not give suggestion. Then that lady kept looking in shop. Aparna kept her eyes on her. She didn't want her to shop lift something. Then owner came in shop. Owner " Why don't you show products to that lady?" " But she didn't want my suggestion." Owner " But she was wasting too much time without need. Let me show how to handle it. Watch me and learn. I am paying you salary. You need to learn few tricks." Aparna nodded. She sensed one thing that this job was not as easy as she thought. She went slowly after owner. Owner went to that customer " What do you want Madam?" He said it in such style of authority that this lady felt scared. But still she tried to argue " I want to check out products." " What kind of products you want to check out for purchasing?" That lady began to look nervous. " Nothing. I was just window shopping. I will come tomorrow to purchase." That lady started to go away. Owner screamed from behind " Visit us next time to purchase." He insisted purchase in such way that other customer who entered in shop started laughing on that lady. That lady started cursing shop owner under her breathe and ran away. Owner smiled and turned towards Aparna " So little girl did you understood way to deal with such customer?" She nodded but she was scared. " You must not let your fear stop you. If you want this job learn handling them this way. Understood?" She nodded. Owner"Why are you watching my face? Go back to work. I am not paying you to watch me selling my products. Go and place new arriving products properly in shelf." " Sure sir." She said it and ran away to do her job. She began to set every product in proper way. She wanted everything to look perfect. She began to watch her Boss every moment. Her Boss was so wise. She sensed one thing that she needed to learn it from him. When next customer came, she began to handle with intelligence. She came to show products when she denied offer. She kept arranging products nearby. That customer checked out products for few moment. Then when that customer sensed that she was going to keep following her. Finally that customer went away. Owner smiled. Owner " Now you sensed that how did you suppose to deal customer. But why are you just sitting when customers are not there? You should bring some book from school too. You can study in remaining time. I am not using you as child labor. I just want to little help and train you. Your study must not effect by this." She nodded. Then Owner asked her " I never keep children on work but your situation is so different. I heard that your father no longer have job. What happened?" " He suddenly began to feel bored of every thing." "Bored? I don't understand it. How can person suddenly began to feel bore of work and stop working. Did your Mom objected?" " She tried. But he didn't listen to her. When she pushed too much, he started throwing things around house. We all felt so scared. We stopped questioning him." " But why did you start coming instead of your Mom on this job?" " Well because my Mom is searching for different job. Money was not enough." Owner " But you must not let your studies get effected." "No..No sir I am studying properly." " I am going to ask you every thing about your mark." She smiled. She always managed to get good marks in school. She liked working in shop too. Her house was too crowded. She had two younger sister and one brother. They always kept screaming. Her Mom never managed to handle house. She didn't understand why her Mom plan such big family. If she had just one younger sister, she could have managed it all. But with such big family her house was nuisance and above it all her father kept irritating some thing when his mood was off. This job was god's gift too her so she stayed in shop until time of closing it. Then Owner personally dropped her back in her house. She said good bye to him. She felt so affection towards him. She felt if only her father was like that owner but it was not possible.
When Aprana entered, her mother Rasika immediately came to her. Rasika " So did you like there?" " Yes Mom. It was nice." Her younger sister Trupti came running towards her. Trupti " I want to go with you too." Aprana " No. You are too small. Owner was not even happy about my working for him. He wanted Mom to come back. He didn't like when kids work." Rasika looked nervous. Rasika " I personally don't like it but you know our situation." " Mom relax. I can understand." Then her brother came running. Brother " I want chocolate." " I don't have one." Then he started crying loudly. Rasika " Stop this. I will buy it." " Mom stop it. We don't have enough money to waste on chocolate. Stop pampering them." " But I just thought we might.." Aprana " No Mom. We can't just remember it on every time. We can't manage enough money to waste on pleasures." Then she went inside. Aprana noticed. Her Dad was still sleeping. He was not interested in any thing. Aprana decided that she might try to talk with him. But as she started to move towards him. Rasika stopped her. Rasika " Your Dad is not in his sense." " What?" " I said he is acting strange. Look around." She saw many things were scattered. " He suddenly got angry and started throwing things around. I have to stay in home to control him." " Mom what is wrong with him?" " I don't know. But this is so strange. Do you feel it might be black magic?" Aprana was confused. Aprana started thinking about those stories of black magic which she heard. She suddenly began to feel that it was possible. " Mom do you have doubt about some one?" " Well there was a woman who use to stay near us. She always used to come in our house. She always kept talking about different things. Do you remember that Rashmi Auntie?" " Yes of course. How can I forget her? She always use to bring chocolate for us." Suddenly her Mom looked at her with anger. " She was not that much charming." Now Aparna was confused. " Mom she used to come to you. She used to help you." " Yes with view to get her benefit. She even used to help me in cooking. We all used to eat that food which she manged to look. I felt her enchantment for some days. I even started to trust her more that your grandmother." " Really Mom? But why? I mean you always trusted grandma more than any one." " Once I even fought with her when your grandma told me that she was entering in our house with evil purpose." " But Mom you never told me that." " Because you are too young. I don't want to tell you all those evil things and corrupt your young mind." Aprana was so shocked. She remembered every well. She used to some home with Rashmi many times. Rashmi used to give her ice creams. She used to enjoy them. Rashmi was so nice. They used to enjoy so much time. Once she even took her to movie. But during that movie she kept talking about her father. She asked many thing about him and mother. She told her all. She suddenly began to sense that she told her every secret. She started to remember every incidence. When they were in theater, Rashmi told her to sit then she bought tasty snacks for her. It all looked great. She was so happy. After eating that snacks she started telling everything. She began to think that it was easily possible that Rashmi could have put something in her food. It might be reason due to which she started talking. She told her every thing. She began to shiver. Rasika sensed it. " What happened?" " Mom I have trusted her so much. I felt she was just like you since you both have similar beginning of name." Rasika began to look angry. " What happened? Just tell me what happened?" Aparna told all to Rasika step by step. Rasika " She used my daughter as bait. I don't want to hear her name again from your mouth." Aparna nodded. She felt so scared. She went in her Dad's room. She sensed something was strange in it. She sensed that it was that sadness in his eyes. It was strange. It had strange feeling of hunting in those eyes. She sensed that he was not normal. He turned his eyes towards her. She felt so scared due to those red eyes. She just ran away as far as possible from them. She began to believe her Mom. Rasika managed to convince her that her Dad was victim of black magic. She began to feel so tense. She just sat in corner of house. She began to concentrate on her studies again.
Aparna went next day again to shop with Rasika. Owner " Rasika you must not send just your daughter. She is too small." " I know sir but whenever my husband get sick I have to stay with him." "What's wrong with him?" " He is very sick sir. I have to do all. I can't suggest my daughter to handle him. It looked so wrong." Owner started to feel confused. In his heart owner didn't find it was logical to keep such small girl to take care of father. He knew that he needed help. He was against child labour. But this was different case. He took her mother as employee but now daughter was coming as replacement. Owner " Fine. Sometimes I will adjust but not always." Rasika and Aparna both started working. Soon Owner told Aparna to stop. Owner " I am paying for just one person. I don't want two people working on one salary. " Rasika started laughing. Rasika " I am just training her." Owner didn't like this idea. He wanted to stop Aparna from working. But then Rasika said " Sir try to understand I have to pay her fees too. It will come from this salary only. You can easily see her report card every time. If she get less marks, you can fire me and keep another employee but this time please adjust. You are helping us." Owner nodded and sat behind cash counter. From that day Aparna started coming with Rasika every day. Owner kept checking on her grades which were getting better every day. One day Owner finally asked " I can't believe it. How did you improve your grade by working here?" " I feel so relax when I away from home. I feel so scared when Dad is in home. He is strange person." Owner looked confused. " Your Dad is too strict." Aparna just nodded. She didn't want to go in details. She knew that if she went in details no one would believe her. At beginning Rasika used to come then slowly Rasika just vanished out of picture. Aparna started working every day. She was nice little girl. Owner never felt that he was doing any thing wrong by keeping her there. Since she looked so happy, she also managed to study for many hours. But owner felt that she needed to play for sometime too. One day Owner came to her " You are working so hard. Don't you want to play sometimes." Aparna looked nervous. Aparna " Actually my Dad is so strange that he kept fighting with all. Other kids didn't come in my home that much." " But you can go in their home." "Sir those kids are nothing but bullies. I don't like to play with them." Now this was strange excuse. Owner was so confused. He didn't want to fire Aparna as she was best employee and he knew that if he fired her, she needed to work somewhere else where situation might be worst than this. He was giving her time to study. He decided that he might be helping that child. From that day he started giving her nice lunch. He started to treat her like his niece. Aparna started coming every day. Aparna was so happy. Then one day when she went home, she saw all neighbors were gathered in her house. She started running towards her house. She looked confused. She asked her neighbor " What happened?" " Your Dad beat your Mom. He was acting in so horrible way. Every one from society heard her screams so we came to help her. " " Where is my Mom?" " I don't know. Every one told me to stand outside." Then she saw Rasika. Rasika's face was fully swollen. She was looking so horrible. She could still hear screams of her Father. One of her neighbor screamed " If you don't stop this now, we will tied you." But he didn't stop. She saw her Dad came out running to hit her Mom again. Finally neighbors took hold of him and tied him to chair. He kept screaming like animal. He was horrible. Aparna " Some one did black magic on my Dad" All neighbors looked at her with shock. One lady " Aparna black magic and ghosts are fiction." " But look at him." He was truly acting like some wild animal. Another neighbor " He is just angry man who needed to taught how to control his anger and I think he is drunk too." Aparna was shocked. " But who gave him alcohol to drink? We don't have that much money." " We don't know. But we feel that we need to call Police." Aparna was really confused. But then Rasika started screaming. " Don't call Police. I will tell him." She tried to convince her Dad to keep quiet. But he was not ready. He stood up with chair and started to try to hit her Mom again. He kept screaming and cursing. He started telling all " She took away my Rashmi." It was so horrible. Aparna started shivering. She felt so scared that she just ran inside her house and went in bathroom. She didn't come out for long time. She decided that she might just stay there until her Dad stopped screaming Rashmi's name. She was scared of that name now. She didn't want to hear it again.
Aparna suddenly came to her senses when she heard voice of her younger sister. She was calling name and crying. It was worst for her. She needed to act responsible for her sister. Her Mom was sick. She slowly came out. Her sister hugged her. She began to cry. She wanted to console her. But she was feeling so sad that she wanted to cry too. She knew that she had to control herself. Then her neighbor came running inside. " Police had came. They are taking away your father and mother." Another neighbor " Such horrible thing never happened in our society. These people are behaving like slum people." Suddenly one maid got angry. Maid " This is wrong attitude. Why you always have to blame slum for everything? Even upper class people have such fights. There was that actor who lived next door in that posh flat." " Yes..yes he also hit his wife. It was in news." " Now a days this mud of domestic violence managed to move everywhere." Aparna was feeling so suffocated by this. She started to feel so frustrated. She didn't want to hear this nonsense. But she knew that now society was going to throw them out. She began to sense that it was not even their mistake who wanted to stay with this kind of family. Then Police came. They took hold of her father. He kept talking about Rashmi. It was so horrible. Then her Mom came out. Police told her to sit in ambulance. All kids were told to stay in flat. Secretary of Society " This is horrible. We can't let this man stay here." Police " Don't worry. He will land in jail or mental asylum." " Mental asylum?" " Yes this fellow is mad." " I don't understand." Aparna came out running. " This is black magic. That woman did it." Police started laughing. Police " Who told you that? Black magic is just fiction. They tell it to convince kids. " " My Mom said it." Police looked angry. " This woman didn't took her husband to psychiatrist on time and taught this garbage to kids." Secretary " Forget them sir. Just tell me. Do you feel this man is risky?" " No not at all. Unless you are his wife." Then Police started laughing. Then Police controlled himself. Police " I feel he wanted to get rid of his wife and marry some other woman but that woman betrayed him. I feel she must ran away with someone else. And I will not blame her for it. " " You are right who wanted to marry man with so many kids." Police started laughing again. Police " I don't feel she even want him without kids. Any way that is not our problem. So I took him with me. His wife will come back. No need to remove her from society that man is not going to come out so soon." Secretary nodded happily. Then Aparna took her sisters and brother inside flat. She was shivering with sorrow and fear. Her Mom was not right. It was so scary. She never thought about this. She always thought her Mom knew the best. But today for first time she sensed that her Mom was wrong regarding black magic. Her sibling were crying in her arms. They all felt hopes from her. She was now important pole of family. She sensed for first time. She might needed to earn for her family too. Her Mom was not going to come back home from hospital so soon. She just shivered with fear. But then she remembered that she had job but now she needed to cook too. She turned to her other sister. She was small but she might able to do some basic things like helping other kids to get dress up. She had to fire maid not because she didn't need maid but because she didn't have money for her. It was not easy for her. She felt so sad. She wanted to enjoy her life too. But it seemed to become impossible for her. She had to work so hard on every day. But she had to do it. From that day she started planning every thing. She began to plan every thing. She managed to understand whom she could give which work. But one thing was clear no one was thrilled to do work. She was so glad when her Mom called and told her that she would come next day. Aparna was so happy. She sensed one thing. Her Mom would at least manage to few things. Aparna called in her school. Principal started questioning her in strange way. She finally had to tell all. Principal sounded shocked. Principal " I need to talk your Mom." She was so scared. She sensed one thing that she might needed to hide truth. She managed every thing on that day. Next day when her Mom came, she told her all. Her Mom started screaming on her. It was horrible. She started crying. She didn't understand what she supposed to do. She just ran out of house. She didn't sense when she hit by car. She didn't sense when she lost all her instincts of survival.
Owner was coming out of shop when he saw that big crowd. He went near it. He wanted to move ahead but he felt that he must checked out who was victim of accident. They all were saying that a girl ran before car. It was not mistake of driver. Police were asking about her. When Owner came, Police told him to take a look. They wanted to identify her. Owner came near her. It was body of Aparna. Owner was so shocked. He just couldn't stop himself from screaming and crying. Police"Do you know her?" Owner took little time to control himself. Finally Owner told Police all. Owner " She never cared for her daughter. I kept telling her. That she is little girl but she was just busy in handling sickness of her husband." " Will you give me her number?" " Sure." Then he gave her number to officer. Police officer took number. Owner started moving ahead. He decided one thing that he didn't want this woman to work for him. Then after some time Rasika came running outside. She started crying on body of her daughter. She kept blaming it all on some Rashmi. But Owner knew in his heart that she was responsible for all this. He could clearly see other kids. He wanted to tell Police that he must teach her some lesson. But he knew that he couldn't take responsibility of those kids. He had limited income. He looked at them with sorrows. Then Police started asking questions to Rasika. Police soon asked about grand parents of those kids. It turned out that they were informed of nothing. When they reached to Police station, Police called them. Both grand parents came. They were shocked. Rasika's parents started blaming her husband's parents who kept insisting that their son never had any problem. " Our son was fine but then this woman started insisting that he had to earn more." " Really? It happened because your son wanted boy. They kept increasing family." " So is it crime?" Police screamed " Yes it is. Your son must not insist on having boy child." " Now stop pretending every one want son." Police officer became so angry. " I have two daughters and I am happy with them. I just wish only if I could throw you in jail. But then those kids are going to need you." Rasika " It was black magic." Then she told everything to him. Police officer called Rashmi. In few moments Rashmi came there with her husband. She was looking so stressed. Rasika started screaming on her " You took away my husband from me." " No I never did that. I am happily married now. Her husband wanted to marry me but then I talked with Aparna I sensed that he was not good man as he claimed. He kept telling me his wife was mad and evil. But when I talked with Aparna I sensed her Dad was totally wrong man. He kept threatening his family. I just wanted to tell you one thing officer. Rasika should not live with her husband but when I tried to tell her this. She began to feel that I am trying to steal her husband." Rasika was so angry. She began to feel to abuse her. She started to attack Rashmi. Then Rashmi ran out of there with her husband. Police " This lady needed to go to psychiatric treatment. So tell me who will take care of these kids." Then it decided that kids should be divided. But kids were not that much willing. Rasika's mother-in-law " I want my grand son." He was so small. Every one decided that they might take him. After all taking care of girls was also going to be hard. Then Police ordered constables to take Rasika to hospital. Girls went with their grandparents. They kept crying whole time. Finally their grand ma said " Don't worry. Mom will come back soon." " No. We don't want Mom. She will bring back Dad with her. We want Aparana." Then suddenly even grandmother started crying. Grandfather " How hard I tried to tell Rasika. She have to take our help but she didn't listen now our dearest grand daughter is died. No one can bring her back." They all cried. They knew that it would not remove their sorrows but at least reduce them little bit.
The End
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