The picture.......

It was one of the coldest nights of the winter season. It was also the darkest.
Lying on the structure which she used as a bed, the girl was sobbing. She had been suppressing her tears all day long fearing that if she gave way infront of them, she would be beaten badly for being so weak.
She was but a weak creature...but she hated to admit it.
She had spent all day appearing as normal as she could but now the well of tears which had been building inside her all day was uncontrollable. She felt so helpless.....

Last few days had been the happiest of her life. She would wake up every morning and get it out from under the bed covers. Wiping away the non existant dirt she would kiss the lovely face and tenderly put it back. It was her hidden treasure....
The adorable expression of that beloved face kept her happy throughout the day. She beared all the hardships knowing she could tell about them secretly to the lovely picture. She ignored the kicks of her step brothers, the taunts of her step sisters and the stares and slaps of her step mother knowing she would forget them all after caressing the picture just once.
She remembred when her father had secretly given her that picture saying, "Jasmin, my dear! keep this with you and don't let others know you have seen it".
That picture was the only memory she ever had of the most important person of her life. She had asked her father with all the love in her eyes, "Dad, why can't you love me infront of them?"
Her dad, kissing her forehead, had just said this, "To maintain peace, my love."
He was a stranger to her when they were around.

Oh!! she cried hard thinking she will never be that happy again. It was gone now. The picture of her beloved was gone...
The only link between both of them....

Her tears dropped even faster when she recollected what misery she had felt when she first realised it was no more there.
The scene repeated itself once again infront of her swollen eyes.

She had come back from school shivering from the bone chilling cold. She was very happy because of her good performance in today's test. She was dying to tell her beloved picture about all of it. She wanted to thank it for being the cause of improvement in her life. When she went to her room, she was shocked not to find it as usuall under the bed covers. She crazily threw away the bed covers, feeling for the picture by her hands as if it was a pin she was unable to see. She had searched her room many times but all in vain. She felt terrible....
She kept searching the whole house whenever possible carefully avoiding their eyes.

And then, she saw it.
Inside the plastic bag in her stepmother's hand. It was crumpled and torn but she could recognize it anywhere in any form. She saw her stepmother give the bag away to the garbage collector and with that went all her hopes of ever holding it in her hands again. Her grandmother had turned after banging the door shut and had an evil smile of triumph on her face. She was standing dumbfounded robbed of all her treasure.
Her stepmother told her to stop staring at her as if she was a strange sight.
For the first time in the 13 years of her life, Jasmin stared hard at her and told her step mother on her face, " I hate you. I really do."
She turned away and busied herself in the daily chores. She expected and recieved a harsh treatment but was numb to all pain then.....

Lying on her poor broken bed, she was crying for the loss of her hidden treasure. The only picture of the person she didn't knew personally but loved the most, missed the most, was no more under her bed covers, close to her heart.








Jasmin cried for the loss of the lovely face of her beloved mother who had died giving birth to her. She sobbed because she was alive and her mother dead. She cried for her mother's death. She had died a fresh death for her.
And this time, she could feel the pain..................