This morning I woke up to the annoying sound of the juicer in the kitchen. It is one of the cons of having your room close by to the kitchen, but the perk is that Lucky and I can sneak in for snacks late at night while watching Netflix and nobody comes to know.
I was surprised to find that Lucky is not in his bed; he has never been the morning kind. I presumed he might have gone for a walk and did not pay much heed to it and started readying myself for work on the last day of the week.
I informed Maa of my big weekend plans to the Spa Tree Resort with Lucky and some work friends and left for work.
I booked a cab for home at around 6:30pm and I am startled to see 6 missed calls from Maa. That’s odd. How come I missed so many calls? My phone was on silent! As I dialled back on Maa’s number, my mind was bustling with questions. What kind of an emergency could it be? Was it Maa? Was it Lucky? Did something happen? Is someone hurt?
No one answered the phone. I called back thrice, and still no answer. I could hear my heart pounding and all sorts of bad possibilities crossed my mind.
I asked my cab driver to help me reach home faster.
I reached home and see Maa standing outside at her friend and our adjacent neighbour, Neena Aunty’s gate speaking to her.
She seemed so tense.
I asked her what had happened, and the next words shocked me: “Lucky left the house in the morning and hasn’t come home since then. Neena’s son has looked everywhere for him. He also printed these fliers for missing…”
I snatched those flyers and started posting them everywhere mindlessly.
At night, I sat outside in the verandah of my house upset and almost teary-eyed looking at the gate waiting for him to come home.
Since Dad and my elder brother died 3 years ago in a road rage accident, our family has ONLY mom, Lucky and me.
Lucky had come to our lives on the day of my dad’s last rites. I was sitting in a corner outside the cremation hall, crying … when Luck slowly leaked my toes with his little tongue. Every time I husked while crying, he squeaked like he was trying to bark me to not cry.
Maa came looking for me and instantly picked him up and stopped crying. Since then, he has been a part of our family.
Well, he IS a family. I had named him ‘Lucky’ to remind myself of how I lucky I was that it chose me out of all the people out there.
This is the first time in the last three years that I felt lonely since my dad and brother departed for the heavenly abode.
I burst out crying and bend my head over, curling my knees to the chest, when a big looking Indie run into my lap and makes himself comfortable.
Oh my god!!!!!! You are back! I pick him and snuggle him up. I see a frail looking tiny black kitten follow his trail.
The kitten is hurt on one of its paws. Lucky turns around and barks at it. “So that is what you’ve been up to! Let’s take your little friend to a doctor.”
On our way back home from the clinic, as I snuggle the wounded kitty wrapped in band-aids, its green eyes begin to shut; the medicines begin to kick in. Lucky raises it paw to the kitten as if to pat it to sleep. “Haha… what did we humans do to deserve you?”
Good one