The Endless Night

He usually shows up before 11, but he doesn't. But the mother knew; she could tell it was already past time. He should have been in the house sharing a meal with her sisters. He didn't show up, and the worries now can be seen on the mother's face.

It is hard to focus on anything if you think your blood is in danger. But she was an adult, and she knew how to suppress the thoughts of paranoia and fill them with optimism. She heard the stories of the people going missing and never coming back. These stories do make movies more appealing but reality more horrifying.

Fate handed her the ball as it wanted to see her play. But she was an adult and wouldn't show any weakness in front of her daughters. The last thing parents want is to see their child drip in wariness.

As she knew, the only way she could make herself sane in this insane moment was to be surrounded by her family. Her daughters became the only thing that kept her mind distracted. She never even uttered a word about him to her little daughters.

Fate was never kind to her, as the entire family shared a single room. She couldn't go anywhere else to think for herself. She could go to the authority, but they don't see the homeless as people.

People like her told her many times in the street you are everything to your family. People who wear ragged cloth knows their life is limited. They must be their doctor, lawyer, and cop to protect themselves from others. They know they can only trust themselves when the sun falls or wakes up.

A tale that many mothers tell their kids, but deep down, they all know they are alone in this world. Even though millions of people pass their tent, they all see them as parasites. A stench that is cornuting the entire neighborhood.

They won't mind if the city scrapes their lives. It will only bring joy to the man standing above them. As a mother, she might have told hundreds of stories to make the kids feel better about their lives. But the stories she told herself were the exact opposite of the world she conjured for her son and daughters.

Late at night, she fed the daughters and went outside. The weather was piercing, and she decided to grab the blanket she was going to wrap herself and her son with, cover her body, and go outside to meet her fate.

The city opens to her like a door to a ghost train ride in an amusement park, and people are playing with their toys; some are playing with their lives on the street. The neon lights distract everybody; nobody checks what goes behind them. But she knew, as her family lived behind the neon lights.

Every time she looked at the lights, she knew that was where her daughters were sleeping. A commercial light of an obscure product quickly becomes a hope for her, a reason to do the right thing. She walked for miles, and whenever she felt like she was giving up, she turned around and saw the light.

A day ago, the product on the neon light made her burst into comical laughter, but now she feels happy. Atleast she is not alone in the world; even in the crowd of strangers, she had two people who loved her dearly. 

She asks questions to bystanders; some nod their heads, some point at the road, and others ignore her. The world was crueler than she thought of in her tent. Never moving past a specific limit showed her how vicious people can be to unfortunates.

She did everything to stop the evil thoughts from creeping into her mind. The only review of her son that came to her mind was his face. She decided not to think about anything else. People weren't kind to her when they saw her in a moderately affluent area.

They never were, even in dark times; none, one of them, stepped in to even comfort empty women. She starts questioning fate and why it wanted her to become strong. She breathed the same air as others, but they didn't want to do anything with her.

All around her, she can see mothers like her hanging around their children. But none of them will help her because they can't look down. She could care less what the word thought of her; an hour ago, she would never even think about walking into these areas. 

Now she finds herself amid an unknown world with strange-looking people. She continued walking in that direction and disappeared into the crowd.