Void Thoughts

Rema stood in her grandparents’ courtyard, where her childhood footprints had once traced paths of joy.

The echoes of thirty years ago filled her ears—the soft hum of her granny’s favorite tunes, the comforting stories her grandpa told after evening prayers, and the laughter of her cousins. This house was where she had been happiest. Her grandparents had never let her feel the absence of her parents.

But when they, too, passed away—while she was away in another city for her studies—she couldn’t bear the thought of being an orphan again. This time, she wasn’t a six-year-old who had lost her parents in an accident and found comfort with her grandparents. She was a 19-year-old who had lost her family twice.

After her grandparents’ funeral, she couldn’t bring herself to return to their home. The place where her happiness had once flourished now felt empty, devoid of the love that had nurtured her.

“This is my home. Yours, too,” she said to her children. Did they also hear the voices of their great-grandparents floating from the veranda as she did? She couldn’t wait to share the joyful memories this house had given her with them.

Here, she wasn’t an orphan. She couldn’t feel like one in a place where her most cherished people had lived, surrounding her with love. Rema knew her children would be able to trace the love and warmth of their great-grandparents, just as she had in that house.

© Vinitha Dileep

---

This piece is written in response to the two hundredth and fourteenth edition of Fiction Monday inspired by the word prompt – VOICE hosted by yours truly. Do join in if you have a tale to tell.

Check out my YouTube Channel here.