An ordinary day

She stared at the vegetables, willing them to climb out of their boxes and into her shopping cart. Were tomatoes supposed to be hard or squishy? What were cauliflowers supposed to look like? It was all so confusing.

She winced as she felt a kick in her stomach, the baby was growing restless. It was nearly 9 o’ clock, and she needed to get home fast. She stumbled through the process of grocery shopping and paid for her items, eager to get there as quickly as possible. Waiting for an auto in the rain was infuriating, especially when there seemed to be none on the road and just when she was about to give up, one tiny little auto came rumbling down the road. She waved her arm up and down frantically, and hailed the auto, he asked for an exorbitant amount of money at first, but took another look at her and motioned for her to get in. The humidity soon got to her, little beads of perspiration started to trickle down her face, down to her neck, settling in a small pool on top of her enormous stomach. She was no longer anxious, as she could see the building up ahead.

The lights flickered in the building, and everything seemed to come to life almost at once. Several vehicles came parked in the front, and an array of people started to get out, trickling to the front in somewhat neat rows, the sound of laughter and casual chatter making a low buzz. Joining the small group of people, many of them old and a few young, she made her way up to the 15th floor. From there, it was almost mechanical; there was no particular need to think about it. The baby stirred in her stomach, people ran around her making their ways into rooms that looked like small apartments, she navigated her way skillfully and hummed a soft tune to try and calm the baby down. Finally she entered a room and moved towards the corner, a few friendly faces smiled at her. A man came in soon after and the silence filled the room.
“I see some new faces!” he said, enthusiastically “Let’s fill them in on things shall we?” his face searched the room and landed on her. “You, at the back. You can go first. Tell us your name and why you’re here.” She was startled at first, but stood up slowly and cheerfully said “My name is Maya, and I’m here to get my high school diploma.”

Mithra