Beautiful Stranger

“Another day has passed and nothing. I won’t be able to carry on like that for long,” he thought.

He was making figures with his boots of the water droplets scattered due to the rain a moment ago. 

He was sitting at the bus stand because that was the only crowded place he could find as the evening darkened. “Is this how it is going to be from now on? Now that I am all alone here, should I be always in fear?” he thought to himself. 

Come to think of it, this wasn’t the first time anyway, but it was the first time the dreadful reality has stood resolute in front of him. It screamed to him, “You and your kind belong in the sewer. How dare you crawl out of there?” But what was his ‘kind’? What does that even mean? 

Some people strangely eyed him. Those gazes distracted him, bringing back those violent stares of some time ago that has taken upon themselves to reveal to him he belonged nowhere. Some mutterings tickled his ears, “Why such a person is sitting here?”. “Doesn’t he know he shouldn’t be here like this?”. “How typical. What else can you expect from them, huh.”

In his agony, he had forgotten he was bleeding. His arms, legs, and forehead, all were wounded. He suddenly became aware he was sitting exposed to inflictions. He felt ashamed with no fault of his own. He vacated the seat sliding into the corner.

He was cooping in a corner with his hands wrapped around his neck, chin hiding behind the knees and eyes mindlessly gazing at the wet floor. He had forgotten that his right arm was bleeding. Breeze brushed past his arm sending a cold shiver. He let out a gasp, gently covering the exposed area. His eyes were still stretched searching down at the abyss and only one thought it bestowed, “I am all alone and this is how it is going to be”. 

He was the youngest of three brothers, a beloved child he was. He was cherished and was everything to his parents like all the children are. He managed to get a scholarship for his higher studies. 

But when it happened for the first time, he was afraid and angry at his parents. Why didn’t they warn him something like this could happen? And if they knew, how can they send him away in the first place? But then it happened for the second time, then this fifth time,  

From that crack in the rooftop segregated water was sliding on his left shoulder drop by drop. Winter and rain, a dejected combination it seemed. 

It was getting crowded and he was feeling much more estranged. 

An elderly woman walks in.

She made her way in, chiding at the crowd and calling the chattering broods names, “Gathered here to gossip, huh? That is all you do all day at home and outside.” “Hey, young man! Can’t you see older people standing? Or are your bones giving away already? Get up this instant.” She made an older who was holding herself with a stick sit in the vacated place. “People have no respect for anyone these days.”

She took her place standing in the corner opposite him. She was gazing strangely at everyone who was staring at him. A woman of a big mouth, she kept taunting all those standing there on something or the other. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Look at the way you are staring. Don’t you know it’s not polite? Ah! These youngsters lack manners.” “Hey do not mutter under your breath. I am standing right here.”

“Can’t you see a man sitting at your foot? If he isn’t saying anything, what does that mean? Step back a little.” She spoke, clearly at each syllable.

He was numb to the outside voice for a while, but her voice was so loud he was forced to let go of his thoughts in that moment. He nervously looked at her, only his eyes peeked from behind his knees. Her gaze changed as she looked at him. It was gentle. It made him feel relaxed and comforted. She withdrew quickly and stood there like a pillar. It started raining again and more people flooded the bus stand. It became crowded. He felt anxious again. He shrank to himself and recalled something, “You be grateful we are leaving you alive. A scum like you does not deserve to be alive. You despicable creature.”

Scum? A creature who doesn’t deserve to be alive? Why? Why is he all that and who has decided all that? Why doesn’t he deserve to be alive? He hasn’t wronged anyone. He hasn’t cheated or scammed anyone. He was taught never to wish wrong on anyone even if they wrong you. He has abided. Then why did he have to go through all that?  

People were now literally standing on each other toes and an occasional “ah”, “ouch,” and “oho” could be heard. He was growing anxious. Tension in the surrounding could be sensed but people were irritated due to the unseasonal rain blocking their path and the crowd that wouldn’t stop pouring in. He, on the other hand, felt threatened that they might turn on him. “Aree stand at a distance. There is space over there. Can’t you see we are all ready coiled up over here,” the woman shouted again. He looked up at her. She was giving him a strange sense of comfort which he hasn’t felt in months. He wanted to run back home, but what good would that do? He has to find a job somewhere and who knows if it it’s the same scenario over there as well? Then would be much more grievous, his family would know what he had been growing through. He hasn’t told them yet. He knows it shatters them. He has been going through it all alone, all this time. The sky was turning from byzantine bluish violet to a grim black and the thunder kept howling. 

They called him “unworthy of living”, “a stigma on the face of the earth”, “a gutter creature”, but why? Why does he has to be called out all these things? What has he done? He never harmed anyone or used any vile language. He was a simple boy and never caused any trouble. At home, he was treated as a gem who was to be nurtured with care at all costs and here stones were thrown at him. Why? There was no answer to it. They just blurted out what was fed to their brains. They even probably didn’t know what they were saying and why they were saying it. They probably were ignorant of all those inflictions themselves. Like most people, they were acting out of herd mentality which has been manipulated real good over the years rather than their reasonings. 

The bus finally arrived and another crept right behind it. Half of the herd rushed to the one and the other half to the other. The woman waited till it was breathable in that spot. She took her shawl out wrapped it around him and said in a motherly manner, “You should be careful; in these changing seasons. You might catch a cold. It’s already too late son, go home.”

After all these months someone has helped him and talked to him like he was a human being. His eyes were flooding and he watched her as she walked away. He couldn’t even find the words to say thank you. She understood something which no one ever could.