Siddaram wasn’t sure what happened. He felt the world spin for a moment, and everything went blank. The next thing he remembered, he fell hard onto the ground, only it was on the wrong side of the wall. Fire was burning everything around him, and smog covered the air, burning his eyes and nostrils. His skin felt the scathing heat he had help start.

“You,” the woman in front of him said. He knew who she was. He had tried to flee from her just a moment ago. He remained quiet, just stared back at her with his big eyes.

Monica, on the other end, looked at him furiously. Her anger burned as hot as the inferno they were in. All his actions combined didn’t bother as much as his silence did. He gave no justification for his actions, nor did he spout racist remarks. He just stared back with seething hate.

“Can’t speak? Forgot how to?” There was no response. “Doesn’t matter. No way you are getting out of this one.”

“Why do you help them?” he asked.

Monica was taken aback but a smile appeared on her face. “Ah! So now you choose to speak… I helped them because you and your little gang have been torturing the poor folk.”

“They aren’t innocent. You know what they do?”

“Out compete you in business?”

“They are like leeches. They have no right to come into our lands and steal our food!” he was almost shouting at this point.

“It has been long since this was just your land. Times have changed, there is no you and them, only us.”

“You expect me to live with thieves?”

“Well now! It is that hard for thief and a murderer to do that?” she asked.

He did not answer. Monica squatted down and looked him in the eyes and said, “the world is a terrible place. You think you can save it by cleansing it off a few people? It is only a matter of time before somebody think you and your people are the problem. It never ends.”

A fireman approached the two of them and asked, “what are you still doing here?”

“Aren’t you going to put out the fire?” she asked.

“No use. We have to let it burn itself off. Leave. I will get him out of here,” he instructed.

“Don’t worry, I will gladly do it myself,” she replied.

***

Monica and Malini walked through the soot covered lanes of what once used to be home to over a hundred people. Now all that remained was walls made of clay and mud, charred black and ash covering every square inch of the land. Most of the place laid barren, only a couple of people who once called this place home were rummaging through the remains for anything they could take with them. So was the case with Malini.

They stopped before her clinic which was now just four walls with no roof. The fire burnt through the door and looking inside, they could see just ash. Nevertheless, Malini walked in and took a closer look at the damage. There was nothing left. Anything made of wood or plastic was burnt to carbon and the metal frames of chairs and tables were melted and bent into obscure shapes. “There is nothing left to salvage here,” Malini said.

Monica stood at the door, leaning onto the frame with her hands crossed. “Anything you were looking for in particular?” she asked.

“Not really. Came to this place empty handed. Anything I had was given to me by these people.” She quietly contemplated for a moment before turning around and walking out saying, “let’s go. Lots of ash, better not stay here any longer.”

They slowly made their way back to the exit.

“Where are you from?” Monica asked as she walked beside her.

“Some place I cannot go back to.”

“Why is that?”

“Me and the village head did not see eye to eye. Parents chose to abandon me for my three little sisters. I don’t blame them.” There wasn’t a hint of sadness or pain neither in her voice or expression.

“Must have been rough for you to be thrown out like that,” Monica asked, trying to evoke a reaction.

“It was at first. But got used to it,” she replied casually.

“You don’t show your feelings often, do you?” Monica asked.

Malini smiled softly and replied, “I do miss them. I do wonder if they miss me. Neither of us ever tried to do anything about it though.”

“Why didn’t you try to contact them?”

Malini remained quiet for a few seconds before saying, “because I didn’t want to.”

“Still angry with them?”

“I guess so. Doesn’t matter now… but I wanted to ask you something,” Malini said.

“Go on.”

“You let Sidda go saying you didn’t want to punish him for a silly thing. Not many people take what he did so lightly. At first, I thought you were just young and were just sympathetic. But you come off as someone you seen a lot more than you show. So, I began to wonder, what silly thing did you do?”

Monica stopped dead in her tracks while Malini took a second to react. She looked back to see Monica look at her with a blank expression. But her eyes showed a hint of sadness.

She folded up her arms and said looking down at the ground, “I did do something… bad.”

Malini waited for her to continue but when she realized that Monica wouldn’t say anything, she said, ”if you don’t want to say…”

“I killed someone. With intent,” Monica interrupted.

Malini once again wore no expression but the quiver in her lip signalled to Monica that she was in shock. Malini began to nod as she said, “well it must have been hard.”

Monica shook her head and replied, “it wasn’t and that is what scared me.”

“Who and why did you do it?”

“I don’t know who he was. It was all chaos when it happened. After it happened, I was too afraid to find out who he was.”

“What happened after that?”

“Spent a year in jail. I was released just a year later on parole. I was told to go back living like nothing had happened.” Memories flooded Monica. She exhaled softly, containing the wall of tears that were ready to burst.

“But it could never be the same, could it?” Malini said with a soft smile.

“No. It couldn’t,” Monica replied smiling.

“There are two kinds of people in this world. Ones who learn their lesson and ones who don’t. You and he… are not the same.”

“I know. I just thought he would try and move on after his botched attempt.”

“Some people just don’t learn their lesson,” Malini said.

***

Guna walked along the narrow alleyway that led up to his son, Siddaram’s shop. He was accompanied by two others whose sons also owned the shop. They were quiet and sombre. Their sons had achieved what they set out to do. Managing to drive out the insects that had infested their home but at the cost of losing years of their lives in prison.

Nothing remained of the place, just ash. When he saw what his son had done, he could only feel sadness and anger. His son wouldn’t open his mouth with police, so they beat the names of his co-conspirators out of his mouth. A total of eight people were accused of arson. They were lucky that none died and now had to spend seven years in prison. The people of the community of the other hand, managed to come out of this with an upper hand. They got their own land, far from the city, while Guna and the rest of the fathers had to live with the fact that their sons were in prison.

“Siddaram!” someone said aloud. Guna stopped and looked around to see who called out the name. Sitting on top of the parapet of a house that stood next to the road was a woman who was all too familiar. “Your son, isn’t he?” she asked.

“You! You are the reason why my son is in prison!” he accused.

“Yes. It is not because he and his buddies set fire to twenty houses. It is because I caught him,” she said.

“You bitch!” Guna reached for a stone on the ground before throwing it straight at her face. But the woman caught the flying stone with her bare hand. “Get down here and I will teach you a lesson.”

Monica flung the stone back at him. It smashed into the pavement just before his feet, causing him to jump out of the way. “The only reason I am up here is for your safety. You want me to come down there and teach you a lesson?” she asked.

He remained silent. Looking at her with hateful eyes, just like his son.

“Siddaram, son of Gunachary. Was his father’s golden child. Gave him everything he wanted, and anything went wrong in his life, his father was always there to solve it. When he failed to pass thrice, he told his father he won’t study anymore. Instead, he will setup a business. His father hadn’t learnt to say no, so he didn’t. He and how friend’s setup shop but knew nothing about how to run a business. How could they? Failed to even complete school. Did they decide to just take the losses and move on? Nope! They told themselves the cause of their problems was someone else. Because it is always someone else,” she looked him in the eye and said, “isn’t it?”

“What do you know about our problems?” he asked. His voice was loud and booming with anger.

“You are right. I don’t. But I can certainly tell you this. Nobody is more responsible for your problem than yourself. You feed your son more than what he needed, never corrected his mistakes. Who knows? Maybe he would have been a doctor or a lawyer, solving your problems and not causing them. All he needed was someone to tell him he was wrong. And now? Who will he really listen to?”

Guna didn’t utter a word. His eyes had softened but she could see them looking at her angrily. She sighed dully before jumping off the building, landing before them with a dull thud. Getting back up she said, “I don’t know why I waste my breath on you or your son. Not like you are even ready to listen.”

She shook her head before walking past them towards the bright light at the end of the alleyway. They looked back at the shop that was bathing in darkness, like it had been for a while. There was nothing left in it for them, but they couldn’t help themselves from entering the premise that stole the lives of their sons.

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