"..."My name is Monica",she says her big eyes shining
"and my mommy won't buy me gum". I look down at
Monica, Monica of the big brown eyes and shiny dark
curls.
It takes me a minute to register to get what
she is implying. When it sinks in, I push my half
packed of Winterfresh across the counter. Monica is
undoubtedly well trained in the niceties of human
interaction. She takes only one.
I watch her as the
blue strip disappears into her mouth. Little brother
wails from the stroller. He looks at Monica, then he
looks at me. I give him one too. Monica swoops down
and snatches it. Ever the protective little big sis,
she unwraps it for him. Little Brother beams as he
chews it with his toothless gum.
Monica's face is close to Little Brother's. They look strikingly
similar, with the same big brown eyes. I remember
Benjy. Benjy of the teddy bear. The one he won but
which he insists is not his. Benjy with his fishing
pole. Benjy and his flounder which he insists is a
baby shark.
Sue comes with her lunch. The usual as becomes Sue.
I can't help thinking that childre are like Mac
Donald's. They are the same wherever you go..."
[From 'Pumpkin Pie' by Pumpkin]
"...Nineteen to four. His mouth went dry and he felt
his heart skip a beat. Silently he prayed to all the
gods he could remember for a thunderstorm, from the
terrorists to drop another bomb, for God to part the
clouds and give a sermon from the heavens above to the
frightened multitude below.
He tried to remember the prayers he learned as a child but couldn't recall any
after the first line or two. Then he fell to cursing
the gods. This was something he was good at, he
knew. Like the time he caught God red-handed at a
mean trick. But neither curse nor praised helped to
ease his mind.
Relax, he told himself. Think of
something pleasant. He closed his eyes and let his
mind take him back to his childhood--the only time he
had been truly, utterly, abandonedly happy. He thougt
of his best friend, Jerry the Squirrel and how at one
time they had signed a pact to run away from the
tyrannies of home and school and to that effect had
signed their name in blood.
Fifteen years is a long time. Where was Jerry now? Snap out of it, Ted, He
reprimanded. You are supposed to think of pleasant
things. He forced himself to think of his first date,
a blind date a friend of a friend had fixed for him at
fifteen. She turned out to be a freckled faced, gawky
girl with braces and not the rosy lipped, dimpled
chinned, curly haired girl he had envisioned.
But he was proud nonetheless. he had a date. he was a man.
Later, for the lack of a better audience, he had told
Moe, the immigrant ice-cream vendor about his blind
date. Moe had looked up at him and had said "This is
a land of plenty. Why do you need a blind girl for?"
His reverie ended here. The cuckoo clock struck four.
And the cuckoo came out of its nest and cuckooed with
all his might. He made a mental note to strangle the
cuckoo at the earliest.."
[From 'The Gremlins are Coming']
* The Authour is a Manipuri whose works are going to be
published soon. Its a collection of short stories
titled "Pumpkin Pie and other stories".
Here are the excerpts from two of the stories form her book.
Watch out this space for more information ...
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