New Beginning

NEW BEGINNING
The house is quiet. Everything is as neat as a pin. By noon all the chores are over. The serenity of the next hour is something I have always cherished. It is a delicious moment, to me. Mine, to while away looking at my garden, mine to spend with a book, mine to use in a million ways. Just an hour before the children return from school, and throw the house back into its customary rough and tumble.
I am, of course, daydreaming. The children no longer go to school. The house will remain as neat as a pin till evening when my husband returns. And even his return is like a drop in a bucket some minor ripples and the calm again
I brought them up like twins. There was only one year between them and from the beginning they played together, fought together, with hand and foot and fist, as boys will. They went to school together, fighting, laughing, and arguing, all the way. They shared their clothes and toys, and as they grew they shared their thoughts and plans. And through it all, I was growing too, learning on the job. Teaching, explaining understanding.
I sit in the verandah watching the squirrels, flicking their tails running up and down the bottle palm. And enjoying the distant sound of children’s voices from the garden across the road. It is warm, pleasant, familiar sound. Unbidden the memories flood in. Of cricket on the lawn, of cricket in the house, of table tennis on the dinning table, of tennis on in wall of their room especially left for the purpose. Of specially devised ingenious indoor games, apart from the usual scrabble and monopoly. There is a loud thud as a ball traveling at great speed lands in the garden. I smile at the thunderous sound of feet running. They chirp, “thank you, aunty in unison as I hand the ball back to them.”
The end of the school is momentous occasion. I still remember the painstaking dressing up for the farewell social. Straightening tie here, flicking a speck of dust there, the high-polish of the black shoes... [continues]

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