These days she could not sleep. She saw her husband and children sleep peacefully beside her and envied them. After the back breaking work of a whole day, the household chores, the daily farm work, she was exhausted but could not sleep!
As soon as she lay down, the same stifling feeling arose within her along with a restlessness that she could not describe. It had been a month now. She had not told anyone. Who could she share this with?
Her husband had long stopped conversations with her. The communications between them were now related to information sharing,about children and the routine requirements. There was no love anyway. In the beginning there was lust, now there is nothing other than duties, obligations and norms, which defines their marriage. But that is how it is, she already knew it. That is how it has always been.
Life is about doing what you are supposed to do not what you want to do. She had tried to make her daughter also understand the same. But she was too naive and foolhardy to understand this basic thing. Dreams and desires took over reason.
Her duty is towards her family, foremost towards her husband. She understood this. She had always been the faithful wife and the doting mother. Fasting and prayers were a part of her life. Gentle and sensitive, she never replied back or spoke in a loud voice. She could not hurt any living being, not even the cat which regularly stole milk from the kitchen.
She loved her daughter more than her sons. She was proud to be her mother. Her husband too loved the girl and treated her almost like his sons. They were not like other families who would not even educate their daughter. Her dream was to ensure that her daughter would pursue her dreams and live a better life than she did.
But that was not to be...
Her daughter, she betrayed them; her husband, her family. She brought shame. Love! How she hated this Love. Her daughter told her about love. That love was all that mattered to her. She could only stare at her girl, stare and stare. She was going to go. For Love!!!
It haunts her. The last moments of her daughter’s life, the last gasp of life!. She held her child close to her heart, comforted her with her embrace. The child whom she killed... she strangled and killed. She had to... for her husband... for her family... oh the honour! It haunts her... all night, all day
But whom could she tell?
