THE DEATH OF NITHYA
It was the first thought that came to her as she woke up. He
was gone. And, soon, this bedroom, the house in whose eastern corner it sat,
and the tiny garden outside with its gnarled old red hibiscus and the half-grown
mango tree they had planted together, all those would be gone as well. It was
the strangest feeling ever. Nithya
suddenly jumped up from the bed, behold it was a dream. The dream she had
reflected much in the life of her lover, john and she thought it much a bad
omen. All her dreams never stop being a
reality after a short while, and such made her sweat profusely, even though it
was so cold for anyone to be let near a fire, for warmth.
‘Could it be that the movie I watched last night is behind
all these?’ she was in a dilemma now and knew not what to do next. She rang his mobile phone more than six times
but nothing happened. No one picked the
call and it seemed heaven had fallen on her.
John has never ignored her called for once, no matter what he may be
doing. Even though inevitable made him
not to take the call, his younger brother was always there to let Nithya know
that his brother was busy; but nothing like such happened.
She burst out in tears and was almost shouting on top of her
voice. It was not long before her mother came in.
‘My daughter, what’s wrong with you?’
She quickly dried her tears and replied; ‘Am okay,
mother. There’s nothing wrong with me’
‘Listen to
me, whatever be the case, you must tell me.
I am you mother, and if you must hide anything, it shouldn’t be hidden
from me. Now, go ahead and tell me the
problem’
‘I said am fine’, was Nithya’s reply.
She never wanted to disclose her horrible dream to her
mother, neither would she let her know the recent feelings she was having
concerning John her lover. Her mother warned her to keep off from young boys
until it is time for her to get married. She did not open up to her mother.
Because, it was about what her mother hated.
‘It could be that John is dead, or he was kidnapped orrr…,
in fact, I can’t tell’,
She kept soliloquizing.
The young girl was afraid because all the lost things she saw in her
dream made her understand that he was dead or certain persons came to take him
away. Those fruits that reflected in her
dream were not just mere fruits, but things that are significant to life, gift,
humanity and progress. That was the
reason she could not bear the dream.
Yet, she must not tell anyone.
She loved John so much that she could not even take her
meals, but only busy thinking about him.
She locked herself in her room all day and her mother thought she was
out. For the second time, she called
him, but would not receive anything positive.
All she heard from the mobile feedback was the soft annoying voice of
the lady speaking from the customer care saying:
‘The mobile number you dialed is currently not available,
please try again later, thank you’.
This voice aroused her the more and she felt as though she
would have the lady from the mobile speak to her facially, so that she would
strangle her to death.
The next day, she left her house for John’s without the consent
of her mother and never had the intention to return if she did not find
him. Her picture while walking to her
lover’s house portrayed a lunatic, in that anything happening at the moment
seemed to be a movie to her. She asked
almost everyone she met about john. The
moment she got to his house, it was obvious that the young man equally put his
family in a state of fright because his disappearance coincided with her
dream.
John had gotten into her mind that she could not bear or
resist the little trouble that befell to her. She began to lose weight. She never wanted talk to anyone again. She threatened to kill herself; but each
moment she tried to do so, someone would come to save her. Her condition became critical that should let
her see the doctor, but she refused to do so.
Her mother was more than afraid that she would lose her daughter to
death. Suddenly, Nithya began to go
naught.
The family doctor confirmed that nothing was wrong with her
medically, because she responded positively towards every diagnoses made upon her,
to figure out whether she was going mad.
Her mother, after seeing her with the doctor decided to check her mobile
phone. On doing that, she discovered
that her daughter had been making out with John, who was probably the cause of
everything happening to her daughter.
Even though she thought that the young man was responsible, she was not
definite, as nothing was purely evidential towards her assumption. It could be that John was her college mate.
The next
morning, Nithya woke up and was feeling better.
The injection the doctor gave her made her sleep for a while. She barely
recalled what happened, as she asked her mother what she was doing in the
hospital bed. She slightly forgot that her John was not back from his disappearance.
Towards
afternoon, she received a text message asking her if should would prefer apple
or mango. It was her mother asking. She quickly recalled how the young mango
tree, the hibiscus plant and the rest disappeared. Suddenly she remembered John and began to
feel bad again. She tried his mobile number once more, yet nothing
happened. She revealed to her mother
about her lover and his disappearance.
She did this unknowingly because, she never wanted to do so. But the emotional feeling she was suffering made
her open up. Though, she asked for
forgiveness from her, which was granted to her.
But her mother was heartbroken. She was never aware that her daughter
had a boyfriend. She often told her
friends how good her daughter was, and also how different she was from other
girls. Her mother was always ready to
swear that her daughter had no boyfriend.
Two days later, Nithya had another dream where she saw all
those things that were gone returned to her again, but by the time she made her
way towards getting those things, she was unable to feel anything. It was as though, her fingers would pass
though the inner structure of those things, yet she could not grab them with
her hands, neither does she feel the texture of those things. When she woke up, she became more afraid. She concluded this time that those things she
was trying to feel was her lover whom her hands could not reach, even though he
was close. And he was dead. This was her
thought. She began to mourn him.
Nithya began to see strange things, both in dreams and in
the physical. Although she hid
everything from her parents and never wanted anyone to know about her
dreams. She was dying this time. Anyone
that would see her will conclude that she would not last the next two days. Because, she automatically changed physically
and character-wise. She refused to go to
college. Everything about her began to
fade away. Her mother tried all she
could, but nothing could be done.
‘So you did this to me, John? I thought we will be together for each other
as you promised. But now, you are
nowhere to be found. If you had told me
you were going to die, I would prepared and died with you. But you ignored me. My mother warned me, but I disobeyed
her. I never knew she was doing well to
me. I thought she was depriving me the
enjoyment of youthful nature. Oh! What
have I done to myself? It would have been better if I have never fallen in love
the first place, until I get married to my own husband. I thought it wouldn’t
be like this. I thought even though he
leaves me, I could manage. But all my
thoughts is just an irony. Having a
lover at a tender age is not really good.
Oh God! Please help me!’
Nithya recalled all that her mother told her concerning how
painful it is for a young girl to be in love when it is not time. She thought of committing suicide and nothing
else. She was just living like a shadow
of death. Because, she was more of a dead person. All hope were lost, she had
no strength in her again, she thought of death alone, and what reflected to her
mind was a kitchen knife. Suddenly, she
was transported in a trance, where something carried her on his palm to the
kitchen. Though, she was walking by
herself, but could not feel her actions any longer. Getting to the kitchen, the element that
transported her there handed a kitchen knife to her. She closed her eyes and
saw John walking towards her again. But she couldn’t interpret what she saw, as
she had totally lost her mind. The last
thing that happened to her was seeing herself cut her throat in the said
trance. When she woke from the trance, behold, she saw herself in the spirit
world.
After 30 minutes, John came in having a red hibiscus flower
in his hand along assorted fruits, of which mango was involved and different
garden plants to surprise Nithya, and to show her how much he loved her. Though, his disappearance was to surprise
everyone because he won a contract worth of 5,000 dollars. But getting to the house of his lover, what
he saw killed his soul. Nithya was dead. He cried out his heart from his body and
walked home hopelessly. John’s life from that day remained a do or die affair.
