A game of Monopoly

I guess you have seen the game that we have been playing on my blog. We have all contributed a sentence each to write a story. The first sentence for this story was “Finally it had stopped raining and sun shined in Mumbai sky after days of gloominess.”

Tomorrow I’ll compile the sentences and publish the story that has come up after everyone's contribution. But before that, here is the original story that followed the sentence.

Finally it had stopped raining and sun shined in Mumbai sky after days of gloominess. I want to skip work and take Sara out for shopping.  It is her birthday next day and she had been patient enough for me to finish my case before I can take her out to buy her present.

 

But this case was very important. The next hearing was on Monday and there was so much more to do before that.

I wish at times that there was someone else who could share my workload. Who could at least be the half parent to Sara. I wish I listened to my mother and remarried but even after 8 years the thought of remarrying makes me feel that I am cheating on Jyoti.

I called up my secretary and tell him to collect some data and asked Sara to get ready. We stepped out and I tried to push my thoughts away. Sara’s beautiful face beamed with smile as we entered the newly open toy store. She is surprisingly well mannered for a child without parental guidance. Her calmness reminds me of her mother.

Jyoti had the same calmness even when doctors informed us that she only had few days left. On the day which she somehow knew to be her last day she handed me a package of the letters and gifts that we had given to each other over years of relationship. Sara was too young to understand but she hugged her and gave her gifts and letters that fulfil her absence in Sara’s growing up years.

 As for us, my daughter was turning 10. Everyone advised that I put her into a boarding school. They said she was too shy and quiet. I could not bear the thought of my life without her presence.

Sara called out from somewhere and bought me back to present. She had chosen “Monopoly” a game that she knew will interest me more than her. I love to play games and solve puzzles with her and I guess she loves that too. Maybe that’s why she insisted on a game rather than a doll like other girls her age.

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It is Sara’s wedding day. She has grown to look exactly like her mother. When she turned to me in the same dress that her mother wore I stopped in my tracks. She reminded me of my marriage when Jyoti and I had escaped to Goa and married each other without anyone’s presence.

Seeing Sara go away with her husband was more teary than happy. My princess was going away from me for the first time. She would settle thousands mile away in London. I didn’t know when I would see her next.

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It is my fifty seventh birth day and I feel it for the first time.

There was a sudden pain in head and next thing I remember is getting up in the hospital. I saw my secretary in conversation with the doctor and drifted into unconsciousness once again. When I next woke up I saw Sara. I thought I was dreaming. Just weeks ago she said that she won’t be home before Christmas holidays. Then I realized I was still in the hospital.

I had a brain haemorrhage. It was a minor one but they said I needed intensive care in order to survive. Sara decided to move back to the city and took an apartment not far from mine. My grandson Peter said that she always told him that he looks like me. Sara’s husband no longer lived with her and I insisted that she lived in my house. After all it was hers too. But she continued to avoid the discussion and continued living in her apartment. However, she and Peter spent most of her days with me.

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Once again, it had been raining in Mumbai for days. It is Sara’s birthday in two days but now I don’t have the energy or the money to take her out.

In the evening, Sara came home and helped me get ready. She helped me into her car seat and drove to the nearby mall. She pushed my wheel chair and showed me around the place. She smiled as we entered the toy store. It was the same smile of her childhood. Her son ran ahead to select the toys for himself. Sara turned the chair and kneeled in front and handed me a box of “Monopoly”.