Anamika looked through the window as streaks of lightning lined the dark skies. Heavy thunder followed. Her mother shrieked from behind. She held her hands in a fist and muttered some words. Worry riddled the lines that etched her eyes. Anamika turned to her mother.
“Mother? Why do you keep getting anxious when it rains?”
“Because fifteen years ago, on a stormy night, I found the most striking little bird outside my window”. Anamika cut her mother halfway and finished the sentence. She had heard the story a dozen times and she knew it by heart.
“But it's true Ana. It was just there drenched by the rain. It had the most striking wings I had ever seen. Something between a gold and silver luster. I quickly ran outside. As I moved closer, I noticed it wasn't alone. Its mother was beside it. She had extended her wings to shield it. I didn't mean any harm. She must have sensed it. So she let me. They were both badly hurt and couldn't fly. For days, I tended to those birds. The mother recovered quicker so she flew away and let me keep the child. But I knew that the day would come when the bird would eventually be fine and fly back to its mother.
“You know mother, you've told this story like a million times but every time you repeat it, It feels like I've never heard it before and my feelings just erupt. Puff”. Anamika snapped her fingers. Oh, my back hurts. When will this pain go away?” Anamika groaned. A ruffling sound came from a corner of the room. “Did you hear that sound mother? I think it came from your box”.
Anamika's mother ignored her. Except for the content of that box and its mysteries, She never hid anything from her daughter.
“Soon the pain would go away.” Her mother sighed.
“But I've had this pain in my back as far back as I can remember. Was I born this way?”
“Come on now, bring the lantern closer let's have dinner”. Anamika’s mother ignored the question again. The two ate their dinner in silence. The kind of silence that engulfs a room and fills the heart. Anamika loved her mother more than anything in the world. Together they shared a little hut where they made memories and found fulfillment.
That night, Anamika went to bed thinking about her mother's little story. As a child, her mother would tell it to her as a bedtime story to make her fall asleep. Soon, she drifted into a deep sleep. Moments later, she was awakened by a loud thunderstorm accompanied by a nagging pain in her back. She had been dreaming again. She quickly ran to her mother.
“Oh, dear. Is it that dream again?”
“Yes, mother. And my back too. I keep having the same dream. A woman in the sky telling me ‘it's time’. Do you think there are people up there mother?” Anamika sat beside her mother's bed.
“I believe so my dear. When people die, they go up there. And sometimes, people from up there come down here”. Anamika looked into her mother’s eyes and they both began to laugh. For a moment, she forgot her pain. Their voices were drowned by the storm. Suddenly, Anamika began to cringe again.
“Come. Let me see those blades”. Her mother gestured.
Anamika turned and lifted her blouse. What her mother saw made her eyes widen in terror. “Mother? What is it?” Anamika jumped and faced her mother. She touched her back. She could feel her shoulder blades protruding and piercing her fingers. “What’s happening to me mother?”
The woman began to cry profusely. “It is time Anamika. Come, I have to show you something. I wished this day would never come but here we are”. She took Anamika to her safe box and for the first time, she opened it in front of her. As she lifted the cover, a bright light illuminated the entire hut to reveal a pair of wings with a silver and gold luster. Anamika’s eyes turned red.
“Listen to me Anamika” Her mother started still weeping. “You are not from here. You are an ethereal being. You are that bird in the story. Only that, it wasn’t a bird, It was you and your birth mother. You were just a poor baby, badly hurt”. She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
“Your birth mother wanted to protect you from some terrible ones within your kind. They were going to hurt you because you had marked wings. The one that could travel through portals. It’s a gift that every one of your kind wants. Your mother escaped with you to earth and landed in my backyard badly hurt. She made me promise to keep you safe until you are old enough to protect what’s yours. She said to me, ‘when it’s time, you’ll see the signs on a stormy night’.
“I’m sorry I had to clip your wings to keep you safe”. Her mother brought out the pair of wings from inside the box and Anamika’s back began to hurt even more. Everything was too much for her to take in at once. She was bewildered, she passed her fingers across the soft glowing feathers. Suddenly, the feathers began to flutter. Gently like a soft breeze, the pair of feathers made their way to Anamikas back and aligned with her shoulder blades. Instantly, the pain she felt all her life left her immediately.
“It is time my dear. Until we meet again”.
Anamika's feet began to lift off the ground, out of the hut. Her wings grew in size. It illuminated the thatch on the hut and the trees around it. She felt herself go as her wings continued to flutter. For a moment, she hoovered around the but feeling so surreal. A portal then appeared in the sky. Her mother watched her ascend graciously unto the heavens as the rains poured down. It was a painful yet breathtaking moment for her.
