Drizzly nights irritated Subhadra. Drizzly nights reminded her of Maanav. Her Maanav.

Subhadra Hegde pulled out a blue shirt from the cupboard. His shirt. She tucked herself in it. And stood before the mirror in the oversized shirt reaching upto her knees. She rolled her hands down her image on the mirror and chuckled.

Next she felt every crease of the shirt and smelled the cuffs and hands. Her expressions changed from a calm to a dreadful.

She hissed,

" Whose smells adorn the shirts of  Maanav?

Not mine! Not mine! "

Eight years, and yet the smells of unknown perfumes on her husband's shirts burnt her soul.....

Subhadra threw open the shirt and took a scissor. Within seconds the cloth was converted into tiny shreds of apparel with no existence of its own.

Subhadra laughed out loud..
" Maanav's shirt disappeared like Maanav. "

Her laughter grew immensely and she thrashed herself on the bed. And soon the laughter turned into a wail.

" Maanav left me for whom? Maanav left world for whom? "

Subhadra sobbed. And choked. And....laughed.

**

The doorbell rang on the drizzly night.

A boy in his twenties stood with a desperate face. Subhadra knew the boy.

" Doctor didi, it's really really difficult to see my grandma in so much pain. Cancer will kill ultimately. Why give so much pain? "

His grandma was suffering from carcinoma gall bladder. They stayed in the tower next to Subhadra within the same housing complex. She was not her patient but Subhadra knew of her.

She looked away.

" Cancer is bound to hurt this way. It's her fate, we cannot change. "

The boy whimperd,
" Fate? But why? Why? My grandma used to be the best woman in her colony. She worked for the needy, she sheltered dogs, she fed beggars. After marriage she was the one who bound a broken family. She did all good things in life and now she's facing this fate? Is this god's justice? "

Subhadra kept looking away.
" I know Srinivas, I can feel every word you're talking. Bad people usually don't face bad. They commit bad, thrive and die naturally.
Unless we punish them...god doesn't.
Good people die unnaturally. And we stay back thinking what crime they committed whose punishment they just received.... "

" Didi, I know you understand. Grandma has done so much for us, can't we do a little thing to lessen her pain? "

Subhadra now walked away and stood before the window watching the hateful showers.

" Have mercy on my grandma. Please kill her on mercy. "

Subhadra turned her head. Her eyes glowed.

" Get lost. "

Srinivas immediately fell on her feet and she jumped back.

" Didi.... Didi.. You are my only hope. I cannot see her suffer this way! "

Subhadra shouted,
" Why the hell, why the hell are you all so keen to portray me as a murderer? Where from did you get the strength to believe I'll kill a patient? Go away before I myself kick on your face. "

Srinivas got up. He realized it was of no use. He silently went to the door.

" Wait. " , Subhadra called.

She took out two sedative looking pills from a drawer and handed them to him.

" These will not lessen her pain, but will put her to sleep. "

Srinivas took those, looked sadly once again, and left.

Subhadra closed every window. Because she hated rain.

Rains reminded her of Maanav. Her Maanav..

***

Subhadra Hegde stood at the balcony with a fuming coffee mug.

The sky had cleared last night itself. Much to her relief.

She kept staring at the clear skies for a long time.

And then started watching the process that was going on below the tower next to hers.

An AC cadaver car stood below the tower. A huge number of humans gathered.

Subhadra moved to get a better view.

Srinivas and his three brothers carried a stretcher from the insides.

A lady lay on the stretcher, eyes closed, nose sealed with cotton, and covered entirely by a white cloth.

The brothers put her carefully inside the cadaver car. And closed the door.

Subhadra got inside and closed the door of the balcony behind. 

She had to prepare breakfast. And leave for the gym. She had a night shift at the hospital today. Hence she would return from gym and sleep.

Sleep throughout the day, till night arrived.

Peaceful undisturbed lonely sleep.

Like death.

" Death --- the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening. " __ Walter Scott

To be continued...

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