Dating : Soft Plastic Bottles — Short Fiction

It was a hot day, and the long seething mark on my back made it worse. Did I also break a bone or was it the usual 5 days of agony. My cycle looks beautiful standing in the sun. The rays falling over it and it shining as only new things do. I still have 237 rupees left and 20 chapatis. This along with the free food they sometimes distribute should support me, Radha and Pinky for at least 4 days. I will go out and find two more bottles and make a pair of shoes for Radha, but currently, let’s just rest in this shade. I will tell them I ate in the morning. When I went out to find a way to get to our village. That should help us last longer. Anyway, I don’t need food today, as I did find food yesterday morning. We can last longer this way, but how many days can we go on like this? It’s getting difficult and risky every day to find these food camps. I will ask them to stay at home and bring them whatever food I find, this way at least they will be safe from this disease out there.

Maybe, I should have listened to Mahesh and started on foot by the railway tracks. Sure they stink, but there’s no chance of getting beaten by sticks. You can always walk 5 mins away from them to sit down and eat. These plastic bottle shoes he made me must surely be way better than walking barefoot or by tying a cloth around your feet. I am only worried about the extreme heat near the railway tracks, what if these shoes melt. Ha, I must be stupid, these bottles stay intact throughout summers, sometimes directly in the sun, they should be able to handle the heat. Anyway, I can make new ones very easily. I just need those soft plastic bottles, which are aplenty in every dustbin.

So, it’s decided then, I will go out in the evening and get some plastic bottles for my wife and kid. We can live off the chapatis we have and I can try and get some food back home. Maybe, go talk to my Maalik, if he can give me this month’s pay. I will surely work and repay it some months later. But, the last time I went there, he was afraid to talk to me, afraid to come near me, and he told me to not come back again until he called me. But maybe he will understand, when I tell him, that my family needs to eat. I can’t spend the money I have, that’s only for emergencies. I better focus on finding these food camps, I don’t think I will be let in their apartments. In a couple of days, when I am able to walk properly, we will walk off along the railway track. Mahesh told me, It took him only 8 days to reach our village. He has done that before. Maybe I should have gone with him when he left last week. But they said on the TV, that they will send us back in free buses. I think it’s best to do whatever we can on our own now, it would be foolish to wait for the government. They got so much to do already, I don’t know when they will come to us.

But what do I do with this cycle, it cost me 2300 rupees. Radha told me to not spend all of my money on it. But everybody was buying it. But people said, that we were allowed to go back on our cycles, and we had our 20 chapatis. And on the way, we would have found the food camps. It would have been a good life. Me, Radha and Pinky, riding along towards our home. We would have reached in 2–3 days. The food would have been plenty. And we would have had a cycle at the end of it, safe at our homes, with our people. We could have worked on our small farmland along with my brothers and father. It was supposed to work out, but here I am. Lying in the shade of a tree, beaten for trying to get home. My cycle also got scratched, I don’t think the shop will take it back now. I still got two days ahead of me, before I can walk properly. And then it’s 8 days of walking, the walking doesn’t scare me. But what if Radha or Pinky can’t walk, or if we don’t find enough food camps along the way. I know I will be fine, but how do I ensure the safety of my family? Yes, I will go out and get some plastic bottles and find some food. I will try to sell this beautiful cycle off to someone. Then I will have money I can actually spend. We can buy some flour then, and make some more chapatis. Then we can get home walking, even without looking for food camps. Sure, the khichdi would be a nice change, but I don’t mind walking and eating Radha’s chapatis with water if I am going home.