MS. FORTUNATE
What's the most common question everyone asks in their life? I think these ones hit the top list. Who am I?.
How's my day going to end today. Not precisely with that context, but pretty much related to that question if they question all of the questions, they are just happy to be alive in this chaotic world.
Middle of this chaos, a girl who's in more disarray than any others,
She comes by a share auto every day. Which is crammed with more than its capacity pumping up a grey hue to the sky to dilute its bluish complexion. That driver could get a noble prize for filling the air with fresh CO2 if there's a category they consider adding to their list.
She stops at a small laundry ,shop where her work is to sort out the clothes according to the list after they are done going through all physical and chemical processes. It's not much of a job, but it at least gives the girl to pass the time and stops her from going into the streets. And it is not like one job, she has to do multi-tasking in her menial jobs to fulfil her days' desire, which is to survive. The place she lived is crappy and crampy, which she's sharing with other misfortunes.
Not much conversion goes among them as they get worn out from their low prolific jobs. it's just an occasional talk about hows your work is? How much do they pay for the job? How much you can save by the end of the day?. Wondering how much they can save by the end of the day. Well, the world is advancing and developing at a fast pace. But whos advancing, and to be precise which part is getting developed. She has no one dear to her. Her roommates tried a couple of times to take her out with them on the weekends, but she always had an excuse.
The place she grew up call her often, pointing at her and shouting, "you pale girl come in the line."She dint feel offensive, everybody in the house was called just like that. There's not much to learn from the house, except how to live, eat, sleep, and do daily chores without getting bored. She doesn't have much time to think about what actually to feel about something or someone. The only thing matters are they alive or not by the end of the day. When the girls hit prime age, they move away from the house to the other side of the world, making a place for the newcomers.
She was married early in her age after coming from the house and got abused by her drunk husband, she managed to escape from him and living on her own since then. When the days got passed by, she couldn't remember the pain she went through, or she simply rejects the thoughts coming to her, or she just not had enough time to sulk about her past.
They were thought nothing except how to do menial work in the house. She managed to get part-time jobs, which don't require to use of much of her brain allows to work in solace. Although she has one desire, to get noticed, she couldn't have enough courage to deal with and face that situation with grace. At least she might get a peaceful death.
The day starts when the subway train passes right next to the building at 6.45 am and serves as a wake-up call to all the building residents. She has to start by then to reach her workplace, which gets opened at sharp 9.45 am.
Everyone in the room is waiting down before the building to catch up on their rides. Today the girl just sits at the end of her bed and looks down through the window, watching people rushing through the streets in a hurry to reach their destinations. She opened her money pouch and counts how much saved from all these days of work she did. It's enough to make her go through a couple of weeks to meet her daily needs and pay rent. Her eyes puffed up from improper sleep, she wiped her nose on her sleeve and coughed unto her skirt which gives red dye to that worn-out pale rose colour skirt. Clutching to her money pouch, she just sat there all day watching people passing through the busy streets of the city. By night she curled up in her bed, coughing up all the time. The roommates seem not bothered by it as usual worn out by their hard day's work. She went to the general hospital to get free medicine offered by the government for the poor.
The next day she decides to take a walk to breathe whatever fresh air she gets. On the way, she watched a family mourning over a little boy's dead body clinging to him refusing to give up on the people who carried the body by a municipal truck. The driver gets frustrated and yelling and complains at them for the delay they are making tells that he has to pick more today, and he's not going to finish if he moves at this rate. For poor people, sadness is a luxury they simply couldn't offer it. They cant even offer a place to bury the body decently. They can't just sit and mourn long enough to feel solace in the dead. If they do, it might be someone else who turns in the family due to malnutrition.
She wonders, Who's going to mourn her death,
She reaches the public park, which she didn't have time to visit all these days of her life, and sat on a cement bench watching over the people entering and exiting the park gates. There's excitement when entering the park. That they going to get something exciting. But not much left when they are leaving, but one thing is sure they gonna remember things did in that park, not all the things just the ones that they felt mattered to them.
On the other end of the park, there's a fortune teller with a parrot with make-believe stories. She mechanically went to him and watched over the act he was showing to other people. How much do these people believe and follow?
The fortune-teller looked at her and asked if she is waiting, politely.No body had spoken to her like that before, there was only demanding no requesting.
She got curious about what he was going to tell her about as even though she knows hows it going to be for her. He offered a mat in front of him to sit on and asks for her name.
He then feeds the parrot guava and tells the girl's name and asks her to pick a card to predict her great future. She smiled at the word's great future and eagerly waits to see the card.
The parrot picks up a card and gives it to the fortune teller and returns to his cage quietly. He opened it and sees there was nothing inside. He then turns to the girl and tells her that great things are going to happen in her life where anything can be possible. Tomorrow is going to be a great day that her name going to be everywhere, and everybody notices her existence. As she knows whatever he's selling is pure crap, it kind of creates hope in her heart to see the great day of tomorrow.
She took her money pouch and gave the fortune-teller paid more of what he asked for. She felt royal for the first time showing generosity to another human. She starts home carrying a smile on her face and an imaginary hope in her heart in the drizzling rain of the city. The rain got heavy. She went under a cement pillar to avoid getting wet. The poor construction damaged by heavy rains dispatched a massive chunk of cement block and dislodged onto her. People gathered around her took her to the hospital.
When the early sunshine rays fell on her eyelids, she somehow managed to open and see the noise the nurses making over a news headline and whispering among themselves. She tried to look at the television placed directly above the wall. There's her name in big block letters, MANYA AGE 25 a girl from a suburb and a story is written about her, and now everybody knew she existed.
The room was angelically lit by the morning rays and left with the sound of the monitor going flat.