John stood on the Bridge gazing down at the gushing
Amazon river below him. He raised his head to see bolts of lightning crackling
in the distance through heavy dark clouds. It rained heavily and everyone
rushed around carrying Umbrellas. The damp evening resembled John’s somber
mood.
John looked back for a moment. No one seemed to pay
any attention to him. He just smiled melancholily and turned to face the river
again. He was insignificant.
He stepped closer to the Parapet wall. He raised his right
hand and stared at it in anger. His grip would have been firm if only he had
not been drunk that day. Tears rolled down his wet cheeks. He buried his sad
face in his hands. What had he done to suffer such misery?
A multitude of thoughts rushed through John’s mind. A
thought asked him to end his suffering. His hands tightened their grip on the
bridge’s steel railing. Should I leap? Who would care? Who would mourn for me?
What about Sheela? Does she still love me? Can she ever forgive me? Can I
forgive myself?
John’s mind swirled with endless thoughts. Every
thought was a question. Every thought increased his misery. If only his mother
was still alive. He would lay down his head in her lap and close his eyes. How much
relieving that would have been? And, yet it was impossible.
John remembered the fateful day. How much he despised
himself? His little daughter Sunny asked him to buy her a balloon. Little did
he know that it would be the cause of his child’s death.
John bought his daughter a beautiful red balloon. The
child held the balloon in one hand and was walking on the bridge with her Papa
when a sudden gust of wind blew the balloon out of her hand. Before John
realized it, Sunny broke free from her dad’s hand and rushed after the balloon.
Sunny jumped to grab the balloon which had now flown onto the road. John rushed
after her. But, it was too late. The child was hit by a speeding car.
The little child was flung up in the air for several
feet in front of her shocked father. Everything happened in just a matter of
few seconds. John’s life had ended in those few seconds. He rushed Sunny to the
Children’s Hospital and took her to the Emergency Ward. Alas, it was too late.
She was declared brought dead.
John was inconsolable. Gathering all his strength he called
his wife Sheela. Sheela was in a meeting when her husband broke this
earth-shattering news to her. She rushed to the Children’s hospital. Teary-eyed
and with trembling hands she entered the Emergency Ward to see her baby lying
on the bed motionless.
John sat sobbing holding his baby’s hands. “My baby,
my love, get up!” he heard his wife scream in horror and grief. John got up to
comfort his wife. But, she was overcome with too much grief and pain. She
pushed him and yelled at him. She held John responsible for Sunny’s death. John
stood with a bowed head unable to meet eyes with his wife. Somewhere, deep
within himself, he knew that she was right. He was responsible.
After the funeral, Sheela moved out of the house and
left John alone to sink in his grief. She was sure that her drunkard and
good-for-nothing husband had been responsible for their child’s death.
It was exactly a week since that fateful day. John
stood on the Bridge on the verge of ending his miserable life. Could she
forgive me? He took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the steel railing.
He slowly climbed on the railing and looked at the gushing Amazon below. It was
all going to get over very soon. The pathetic ruse which he called a life was
soon about to end.
He closed his eyes and said a small Prayer and begged
the Lord to forgive his Sins. Before any weak thought could pull him back John
jumped into the river. He did not know how to swim. He fell with a loud splash
and sunk into the deep river. His lungs filled with water and choked him. After
a brief struggle, his eyes closed.
“Papa, wake up” a soft voice called out to him. John
opened his eyes slowly to see his beautiful daughter standing in front of him.
“My Child, My Beautiful Angel, Am I Dead?” he asked his daughter. Sunny stood
puzzled. “What is a sinner like me doing in Heaven?” he questioned her again.
The child just laughed.
“Dad you drank too much Whisky last night, now please
get up, I am getting late for my school” the little girl begged her father.
Slowly, reality sunk into him. He got up and kissed
his daughter’s forehead. Tears of joy filled him with gratitude and he thanked
the Lord for his mercy. He took all his liquor bottles and threw them in the garbage.
He vowed to never drink again.
The End
