My Yellow Slippers

Day one of her stay, and it was with my yellow slippers I had to part away. She seemed to love them too, though they were worn she treated them like new. A lot younger than me, when she smiled you could notice a missing tooth or three. Her unkempt hair and shabby face almost gave me a fright, yet there was something magnetic about those eyes that shone so bright. Giving me a sly look, hiding behind her mother's faded saree, I knew with her around I had a lot to worry. Within a week she was to my mother what the moon is to the night, owing to which not a day went by when the two of us did not fight. One fateful gloomy day when I came home from school, with the winds wailing loud and the rain clouds of the deepest grey looking so cruel. The house looked deserted with no one in sight, it was only later I learnt that Meera, our maid's daughter had been hurt. A bus ran her over while she was crossing the street, and no matter how much she willed she will no longer be able to stand on her feet. My gaze now settles on the yellow slippers lying abandoned in a corner, as if mourning for it's limbless owner.