Old mat,old clothes,old bed sheet and old sarees - these are put together is the bed both for me and my mother.Mother makes money by stringing together the jasmine and other flowers of daily use by ladies and for worshiping Gods and Goddesses ,almost a full time job except what we cook in the corner of the room.
Food normally is rice gruel , tapioca boiled , if fish found to be cheap once in a while in a month.
A small house,tiled .One room where everything is kept .Our working ,cooking all get finished in the room One veranda outside where we both sit for sometime to cool ourselves.No electricity.We both know what poverty means and we fight against all odds to live a life.
Flowers kept in a basket partly tied in string of cotton by our own hands and the rest is kept for doing it early morning.Ladies who sell will come and get it who are employed by the flower shop owners from whom we get our wages every week.
My mother and I were sleeping together on that old mat and whenever I feel for her I put my hand on her stomach and sleep.It is raining today and lightening also .Sound of thunder made me wake up around 12 O' clock and my hands as usual seeking my mother by my side but could feel only the saree and other clothes .
As I have been instructed by mother never to raise the voice and always maintain calmness, I kept quiet for sometime.
I felt some whispering noise feebly and I thought may be, the neighbor's house TV being watched and that house is away from us around more than 1000 feet , typical houses outside the town limit with little garden and a bamboo and shrubs separating the next house from us.
Again lightning with thunders , I am a bit afraid. I have come out to see whether my mother has come out for using the toilet which away outside the house near the compound.
I could hear whispering sound and thought mother talking herself for not getting sleep.
When lightning struck I found mother laying on the mat and another one voice in the same whispering with giggles and moaning which I could not recognize.
I slowly opened the door of my room and kept ajar for sometime........
Next lightning came and in the flash of light I could see four legs on the mat twining.I am just 11 years old girl.
Before the next lightning came I closed the door without locking and came back to the bed clutching the old clothes.
I tried to sleep..........
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