MOLLY

IT KEPT on going like this for several years. And then there came the change. A
very old lady was passing by the garden at the centre of the little town, she was
thinking about being young again. That was the bravest moment of ones life and it
felt awkward for her to think of girlhood as she found it impossible to get back to
where she had once been. When she reached home, it was dark outside and she, for
a long time had fabricated herself into a chain, went to bed much earlier at
daybreak. She did that routinely and stepped in her little bed a little while after she
had reached home. She was used to eat nothing for dinner. So, she discreetly fell
asleep almost after getting off to bed.
When she woke up, there was utter silence out there. She feared silence a lot. But
now more than normalcy, she grew curious. She looked around and found it dark
out there. She grew agitated at the sight of darkness, blushed and then worried as if
someone might overhear her sweet little insanities. Finding herself secured, locked
up and distant from everyone else, she put on her eye-glass and felt deadly silence
everywhere. She grew afraid and out of curiosity tore off that fear from mind,
denying the old-age trait quite bravely. The room she lived in had no mirror, no
window; the only exception was a ventilator which was built not for the old ladys
sake but to keep the temperature more balanced and amicable. A bed, a rocking
chair and a very old-cracking door were the heirloom possessions of that room. But
at times a sparrow used to sneak in her room to which she used to talk without
fainting out of fear. The arrival of the sparrow was a lot more or so unexpected.
When she felt like talking to it, the sparrow didnt show up. But when she
cherished to keep apart from every living creature and got furious enough to thresh
the flies, cockroaches and the ants that regularly strolled on the floor in search of
leftover corns, the sparrow showed up. She, using all her forces and capacities,
tried to grab the little creature and thresh it, too. She had failed for several times, so
she grudged the little bird and ran after it and cursed it. The sparrow, too, perhaps
responded to that by marvelous chirping and at one point by flying out through the
ventilator leaving her nuts. She, once more, got lonesome and loved to hymn
whatever songs she had learnt once and fragments of which had been stored in her
numbskull.

She had a son living in that very apartment, happily married and busy with his own
school of adults. He cared for anything but the old lady and remained gaily happy
with what he had believed of his own; age. But the old lady found age almost a
marvelous wound; being old meant angry and annoyed, palsy and feeble, lacking
any physical charm. Her world was solitude and silence. She feared them both.
Actually she was scared of being old, lonesome with nobody to talk with.
Astoundingly, she wasnt fond of having friends either. From the very beginning of
her old age still now, she cherished the dream of being young again.
The urge she felt was years old and it was to look her reflection in the mirror. She,
at first, grew ashy and surprised. Age took all the charms she had had once and
now all she had were bones and crumpled skin. She lived her life for so long a time
that had she known to keep account of that, it might very well have crossed four
score. But luckily she wasnt an academician and was aware about nothing of
aging. So, she couldnt say no to the urges and in search of a mirror, she blindly
walked out of her room scrawling down touching her bed, floor and the wall where
the switch of the light existed. But she failed to locate it.
She knew the feelings very well. Thats what made her happy, curious and fond of
proving her assumptions right. Had she been proven wrong, had it all been a
mirage; would her instinct lie to her? She felt stronger and fresh, better than ever,
she took off her glass and rid her of the stick. She glanced at the door. A
shimmering light was visible from a little distance which she took for the door.
Right she was and thus believed with joy that she had just stepped out of her little
wreckage.
Everyone called her Molly when she was young and she was beautiful. So
beautiful that her most important task was to stand in front of the mirror, look at
herself and comb her hair. She blushed at the sight of herself, felt proud and
hymned love songs celebrating her beauty. She did it with lots of care and
affection, took a lot of time in garnishing herself. She put on her favorite necklace,
earrings and bangles, all with deep love and considerations. She was terribly in
love with herself. That got into her blood so deeply that in those years of her life
not even a single day had passed when she didnt stare at herself through the mirror
and got amazed. What she didnt like to do was to put on red dress. The common

prejudice she had was that. She neither liked to walk outdoor for she feared losing
her charms nor she liked to make love with man which would take away her
virginity. She stayed at home for so long a time that people upon hearing her fame,
especially those young bachelors, crowded her window with curious and lustrous
eyes. They wanted to charm her like this, each one of them. But she didnt show up
and showed no interest in them. Eventually she grew scared, wearied at this and
her parents tried amusing her with words which failed to calm her down. People
got the news of her beauty and wanted to have a glance at her at any cost. She
became a miracle overnight with men proposing her in so many weird ways that
she secretly started enjoying that.
That mystery made her the talk of the town both in good and bad ways. Gradually
it reached her ear, shaking off the glooms she grew happier and thus kept on taking
care of her physical charms which she believed to be the core of her life and thus
forgot her scared situation. But suddenly a very rich man visited her family. She,
too, co-incidentally was undergoing a crisis situation. Her parents failed to bear her
expenses and she grew miserable. She was worried of losing her beauty, charms
that kept on amazing her for so many days, months and years which she didnt
know to count down. She almost committed suicide unless the rich man had shown
up. He thus became a savior and earned respect from both Molly and her parents.
The whole town got shocked when Molly left the town forever with that rich man
and might never show up again. What was miserable about her was that she knew
her world too well and thus the new world turned hostile towards her, she never
had been in need to adopt and thus turned peevish, grumpy and silent. Yet she had
the mirror to look at, to comb, and then to love herself. Thus time went by. She had
three kids by that rich man whom she didnt seem to believe to be her own kid.
The rich man loved her blindly, so he took care of the kids and allowed her
freedom to take care of her beauty and also provided her with what she loved most;
solitude. She regained her happiness gradually and then one day suddenly the rich
man died.
She remembered everything quite well. She was happy after all. She left her inlaws and settled once again in her parents apartment. She had no sibling which
turned out to be a great deal of fortune. But there had been a rumor about her,

almost apt to truth. Nobody blamed her anyway. She, therefore, spent her life in
great joys and her parents took all the responsibilities of her kids.
But a terrible thing occurred once in an evening. Her eldest offspring, a baby-boy
of five then, knew his mother. He called her from behind the door. Mom, I want
to sleep with you. That was shocking for her. She couldnt just share her solitude
with someone else.
She, then, failed to recollect the rest of that incident. Was that terrible? What
was that I was thinking about? But despite of being agitated, she felt like aroused.
Is that nausea or a trauma, or a dream? she asked herself. All her life she had
been scapegoat to time. And now, it came to an end! Ridiculous! she shouted, It
must be a mirage! But I can see through the corridor. Had I not grown younger, it
mustnt have happened. Time cant wind backward. Thats crazy. She blushed
once again.
She, now, knew what to do but wasnt actually aware of where the mirror might
have been. Her son Robin just forced her out of the room when her parents died.
They died like a flying bird dispreading its wings. Robin was married then and his
wife needed the mirror just like Molly. So, he shifted Molly out of her room and
compelled her into that tiny little room. At first she felt like shaken at this, but time
was a marvelous wound which gave her plenty when it was her time and now it
started to retake what it had provided once.
Being marveled at what was happening, she stood stunningly for a long time just to
accept it. She chided her lips for being dried up, rotten and surprisingly felt her
teeth once again those were long gone, she wanted to feel her breasts, too, which
she failed to do for being extraordinarily shy. She blushed followed by an awkward
smile. She resisted herself from going down to the room at this hour of the night
which she thought to be crazy. But the second thought that stormed through didnt
allow her that delay. She just needed a mirror to look at and thus would be able to
make sure of the fact that she had grown young once more!
She felt shy, feeble to inner intrusion and thus had decided to wait no longer. Her
son would never mind at her intrusion, he loved her a lot. If not, hed respect her at

least and never hurt her. She just step by step walked ahead and felt relieved, fresh
and a lot more stronger. All she had to do was to have a sight at her in the mirror.
She entered the room, found the mirror which was clean and large, larger than she
had been expecting. She felt happy as she finally managed to come across the
mirror. She remembered her beauty box which she used for so many ages. She
blushed once again and smiled, and then she laughed and continued doing so for a
long period of time; she blushed, smiled and then laughed again and again. When
she calmed herself down and tried having a glance at herself through the mirror,
she failed. That was touchy, but she didnt give up yet. So, she kept on trying and
all the time she ended up without succeeding.
That was hard for her part to accept this, she still felt her teeth and angrily
managed to touch her breast and somehow felt her nipples alive! That was a pitiful
situation, she felt young and had the urge to carry on with the old habit; she needed
to see herself in the mirror which she couldnt!
When in the morning Robins eldest son got up and walked out to the corridor, he
screamed like hell out of terror. Robin and his wife rushed out, afraid.
What happened, son?
Theres a witch out there the boy stammered out of fear.
They looked through the corridor in the dimming morning light. Theres a fresh
and cold breeze blowing. It felt unearthly when they heard an old voice murmuring
which sounded like an alien language to them. They looked carefully and were
afraid to step ahead lest it should be a witch.
Robin was the first person to identify Molly. She was fallen, weak and fatigued by
the cold wintry wind.