She was sitting beside the bed on a chair with an unwavering stare fixed to her mom . Her eyes were tearing up but she couldn't cry . It was as if she wanted to speak , to let out her emotions . But she couldn't.
Ruby was only ten years old but her character seemed to be of a twenty year old . She was raised by her grandparents for her parents were always out of station for business. These ten years she lived happily in that house . Many memories were connected to that house .
It was nothing but a two story building by the road , in barasat. The main speciality of the small warm house , according to her , was that it has a balcony with a marble slab . This is where she spent most of the time of the day , looking outside and waving to her neighbours . Her neighbours also waved back to little Ruby, as that brightened there whole day . It was as if her heart wouldn't beat anywhere else even if her family was there with her .
Little Ruby got terribly attached to this little house . Every corner of the house had a touch of the tiny hands of that kid . There was also a small garden where daffodils grew. When she was born , the daffodil tree was planted . It stayed abloom for the whole year , much to the surprise of everyone around it. It was called a miracle and a gift bestowed to earth by Ruby's birth.
Ten years later her parents came back with permanent transfer to Kolkata. They wanted to finally spend time with Ruby. Her grandparents agreed to settle in Kolkata as they were also getting old to live alone .
Ruby knew that this was her parents way of making up for lost time . But she wasn't going to make it easy for them . She was going to make them regret not taking her with them.
Later , she realised that she would have to give up her loving house . She would have to live somewhere else . The smell of the house flowed in her blood . The bond was so strong that she knew she couldn't leave the house . Was she so weak ? People would call this a small bond and homesickness but this was a question to her health .
That day, during moving she cried , begged and wriggled to be left in that house . Logically, that wasn't possible . She looked at her favorite spots again . She kissed them and took a sniff of the sweet smell . It was her way of telling goodbye and she was now leaving the free and warm house to the confinement of the four walls of the city.
She laid on the balcony, one last time . A drop trickled down her pale face . The house also seemed gloomy that day . Nothing would be same anymore . Nobody else could have loved that house more than she did . Because to her eyes , it wasn't just a house , it was her home . She only had memories of this home . Would she ever get that feeling and emotion somewhere else ?
She went to the garden , telling goodbye to each and every plant and flower . She wasn't coming back. This fact hit her hard , her throat hurted because of how much she cried that day . She couldn't speak . She had no more tears left to cry . She looked at the daffodil and touched the soft petals . It swayed in the wind .
The daffodils looked less bright that day , the yellow colour kind of dimmed . She left and with her , all the joy and happiness also left the house.
Everyone missed the wave of the little kid every morning. Only some realized that the life of the house left . It seemed more unalive than it was .
Day by day , her health deteriorated in Kolkata. The doctors couldn't figure out her problem . She refused to eat anything and only wanted to see daffodils again . In barasat, the flowers didn't sway anymore , the wind also stopped making the leaves dance. Everything stopped in a heartbeat that made the place lively .
One spring afternoon, one petal of a daffodil flew in through the window to Ruby. She looked at it and held it tightly in her agile and feeble hands.
That night she breathed her last . Everyone in barasat saw that the daffodil plant died , shrivelling up to wilt. A single dry leaf flew and rested on the wide marble slab in the balcony.
The plant came with her and went with her , to heaven to assist her , to support her and wipe her tears .
