It was a usual
evening of 1950’s. People were heading back home on cycles, few in cars and
rest on foot. An old man was riding home on his bicycle. His muffler was
flowing over his long black overcoat. He had a bag mounted on the carrier of
cycle. Those passed by him, as well as those who stood by made sure that they
greeted him respectfully, to which they got the appropriate response from the
old man.
The old man reached his home. His house was
quite small and blockish as compared to the neighboring houses. He got off his
cycle and approached his house on feet along with his bicycle. Resting the
cycle on the wall, he demounts his bag and walks towards the door. Keeping the
bag down, he searches for the key to the big heavy door lock in the pocket of
his overcoat.
As
he was about to open the door, a little girl runs up to him holding a bunch of
flowers. The man looks at the girl and
smiles. The girl gives him the flowers. Man bends down to the girl and pats her
head. The girl kisses on mans cheek. Old man smiles and gets back to the door.
He opened the door and was about to move in, when the girl pulled the end of
his overcoat. The man looked back to the girl with a question mark on his
face. The girl points at the man’s bag,
which he was about to forget. The man laughs at himself and taps his head. He
picks up the bag and starts moving in. the girl also follows him. The man sees
that and stops her. The girl tries to get in the house but the old man stops
her and quickly gets inside the house, shutting the door on the girls face. The
girl stood there stunned by the unexpected behavior.
It was a pitch dark inside the single
roomed house. The man switched on the lights. There was a single bed in the
house. The walls had seeping at various places. A broken picture frame hung on the wall, with
an old family photograph of the man. There were many sheets of paper scattered
all over the room. The sheets had wired sketches on it. There was also a mirror
in a corner, facing the bed. It was covered with a big piece of cloth. The man
walks to the broken picture frame and touches it softly. Then he walks to the
bed and sits on it facing the mirror. He looks down to the floor, and starts
thinking about something. Then he suddenly gets up and pulls the cloth from the
mirror. He gazes at the mirror with a mix feeling of fear and amazement. The
man walks backward while looking in the mirror. He sits on the bed, picks up a
paper sheet and pencil from the floor. He then starts sketching by looking in
the mirror. After completing that sketch he compares it with the image in the
mirror. He gets dissatisfied and angry. He throws the sheet with other sheets
on the floor. He then walks up to the mirror. The image in the mirror was not
the man’s reflection. It was an ugly, distorted and constantly changing image.
The man gets more puzzled and his fear rises. He raises his hand to touch the
mirror, but stops and retracts. He gets back to the bed and makes another
sketch. He again gets dissatisfied with what he had made, gets more frustrated.
He jumps at the mirror and acts as if he is scratching the mirror without
touching it. His teeth grinding against each other. He then picks up the cloth
and covers the mirror.
Next morning the man gets out of his house
with his bag. He was a completely different person outside. He puts on the
lock. As he was about to lock the door, someone greeted him from behind. The
man turns and greets him back. He forgets the key in the lock and rides off on
his cycle.
In evening when the man comes back, he
finds the door of his house open. He rushes in the house. The lights were on
and the little girl was dancing merrily. She had wrapped the cloth which
covered the mirror around her. She stops dancing on the man’s arrival, greets
him with a big smile. The man looks at the mirror and quickly moves in front of
it, so as to cover it from the girl. The girl gets surprised. She tries to peep
from the side, to see what the man was hiding from her. The old man doesn’t let
her see the mirror. The girl then goes to the man’s bed and picks up the paper
sheets. She asks the man about the sketches. The old man shouts at the girl.
The girl is taken aback and almost starts crying.
Seeing this, the man drops down his head in
disappointment and steps aside from the mirror. The girl walks to the mirror.
The man tells her that he sees a wired reflection of himself in the mirror. The
girl looks at the mirror and then to the man. She drags a stool near the mirror,
climbs on it. She kisses the man on his cheeks. Then she kisses the mirror. The
man gets shocked. He looks at the mirror. He sees that the wired deformed image
is turning into his own true image. He glances at the mirror, and then he
touches it and feels it. Then he looks at the girl and smiles. The girl smiles back.
The old man bends down and kisses the little girl on her forehead and then hugs
her.
Every one has flaws/ demons hidden from the world, they might not look that terrifying
once the person is accepted and loved despite of them..
