Dawn…the end of everything

It was nearing dawn on the cold, frosty day. The darkness of the night was being washed away by pale, yellow sunlight, too feeble to affect the chilling weather. The wooden shack looked quite ancient in its surroundings, echoing the imminent loss of someone who used to care about its well-being. The snow covered conifers, added to the gloomy grey environs, never making any efforts to look bright for they understood and felt the sorrow emanating from the solitary window let open to the outside world……

Even before she had finally allowed herself to be washed down with sleep, she knew she might not see the face she knew so well. It had been a night full of pain and anticipation, and with the passage of time, of rising fear. In the musty bed, her mother tossed and turned, crumpling the sheets in pain, fighting an invisible force which was draining all the strength from her body. Her mother fought with spirit, yet brain fever doesn’t abandon its hold by spirit alone. Sabrina felt like a droplet isolated from the ocean, to eventually evaporate into the atmosphere, a meaningless existence. She was all alone, the only one who still hoped a miracle might just occur. Her father, a foolish pessimist who had failed to clutch every opportunity bestowed upon him, had already tried to convince her that her mother was waiting for the palanquin from heaven, from Jannat, to serve and be with Allah. He had no hope that her mother would live to see the dawn. Sabrina’s heart cried in despair, over and over again. She believed her mother would live, she had survived much worse. Sabrina hated her father for losing hope, and even more for trying to stamp down on the bud of her undying hope, much before it had to shrivel down and die on its own. The last thing she noticed before she became entangled in the cobwebs of sleep was the warm, loving touch of her mother’s palm, hardened over the years with unending toil, on her cheeks. It silently conveyed the assurance that her mother would keep on fighting, that their love would never die. But here Fate decided to make its presence felt…….

As she woke up with the new light of the next morning, Sabrina knew that the calmness on her mother’s face came from freedom; freedom from the painful clutches of the one thing from amongst the hundreds that proved us everyday that we were mortals, that one day every one had to go. Sabrina never felt the tears flooding her face and splashing down on her skirt, never felt the strong arms of her father pulling her away from her mother’s side, and never realized that the ear splitting cries were emanating from her mouth. She just realized one thing; that she was all alone, that the dawn had brought her world crashing down….