Blind Awakening

"I don't care if I'm lying to him; I'm a soldier on a mission, not his Father!"
Silence engulfed the room. Zooni stared at this man- this Captain Ranjeev. Stupid Captain Ranjeev. He had no right to raise his voice at her in her own house.
"Rehan, come here now!" She held her son tightly, wishing he hadn't been in the room for that. She dragged him up the stairs, leaving the man (who shamefully donned the Indian uniform) alone downstairs. She left little Rehan in the guest room and asked him to just play with his toys for a while. She hoped he wouldn't question and thankfully he didn't. She quickly dashed to her drawer to pull out Rehan's tattered clothes, the only thing she had left of him. Sometimes she wonders if people think she is crazy for still keeping them. She knows her routine of cutting and pasting random pictures is not resulting in anything concrete, but it is the only thing that has kept her moving these past seven years. It is the only that has motivated her to instill love and hope in her son, instead of telling him how harsh and cruel the world really is. Despite all this effort, she knows now that the world is harsh and cruel, but it wasn't always like that. Captain Ranjeev's harsh words are still stinging and the tears begin to fall. Her voice begins to crack and she can't seem to stop it. He has so blatantly reminded her that there is nothing but darkness in her so-called colourful life. She sees sights that are supposed to be beautiful but are nothing like what she had imagined them to be when she was blind.

However, something tells her that her Rehan must have been the only thing whose beauty she underestimated. Her beautiful son is an indicator of that. As her body stops shaking and her eyes have nothing left to cry out, she slowly sits down, breathing in and out. She feels so much anger toward that stupid Captain Ranjeev, but for some reason can't get herself to hate him. He reminds her of someone, maybe a place, a person from a movie, she's not sure what.

At the dinner table, she serves her food, paying no attention to her surroundings, still upset about what had happened earlier. After telling that man where his bed was, she hears her son confess, "Dead man made Ammi cry." And even though she can't see him, she knows Captain Ranjeev is looking at her, quite possibly with a pang of guilt. But knowing he feels bad isn't enough for her to rattle off the anger and move on. In her eyes he is a cold person. Still she finds herself wanting to be proved wrong but is almost fearful of what that may bring.