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by Fathima Shuhood

I sat under an elm tree with my papers in one hand and the pen in the other. My gaze travelled through the meadow, where the sheep stare vaguely. I heard a Robin singing its love song to its mate showing off its golden red breast proudly. Its eyes were turned to heaven. I wondered whether it saw any angles there. I saw the shepherd rest under the hay stack with his pipe in his mouth playing a mournful melody. The cattle were watching him with sad eyes.

I heard the murmuring of the river flowing beside the meadow; hum of the bees round the bloomed flowers was a soothing sight. The occasional caw of the crow disturbed my thoughts. I wondered whether I could get all this into one lively picture, but how could I?

As soon as I walked into the meadow I noticed a little girl in the far corner of it, sitting on a stone with her legs dipped into the water. She sat still and motionless, and I thought: what was she doing there? Has she come here like me for the same purpose to make her uncertain feelings settled?

I heard my mind say "go and speak to her". I slowly got up, soon forgot my own misery and quietly walked across the meadow up to where the little girl was sitting. Never seen such a plain girl in my life! Never seen a child so calm and quiet.

She never bothered to look at me. I could not resist my enthusiasm. I sat down beside her, on a rock, Yet she sat still. I felt embarrassed for I felt as if it been to a party uninvited.

Suddenly I felt a stab of pain in me for I saw something familiar about the child. I smiled with her but she never seemed to notice my presence. My throat was dry. I tried hard to find words to start a conversation. But after a few minutes she turned her face towards me.

I saw her thin face with the most brilliant pair of eyes I had ever seen. She had long hair in two plaits. She was wearing a pale blue dress. Her thin legs were in the water. I felt the unspoken thoughts. The pain in her eyes reflected her mind. I asked her from where she came, she answered," from the big house over there. The house that I have noticed before.

Never saw anyone from there other than an elderly gentleman and a young pretty girl. I have seen them going out of the house in the morning. The young girl seemed to go to school and the gentleman to work, along with the plain little dark girl.

"Who lives in there with you?" was my next question. "Me and my sister and my father' came her answer. I felt as if the little girl was never taken much care or was noticed. She was left alone with her wondering thoughts. "Where is your mother?" I asked. "She died long ago, I never saw her." she replied.

I understood the odd expression in her eyes. I imagined a motherless girl sleeping at night all alone without a mother's loving kiss or cuddle.

I could see the way she is left alone in the big house. Her father or sister never took much trouble over the little plain girl. She was surrounded by her painful thoughts and books. I never saw a smile in her face. It made her look more plain.

At last she said," I wish if I had my mother. A mother's love is like a tide in the sea, never fails to come back," with these word she gathered her books and slowly walked across the meadow into the lonely big house never looking back. My eyelids were heavy with tears; again I felt something familiar about the child. Was it my own image I wondered?

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