BOO

The young boy was sitting with his elder sister on a wayside restaurant. It was a dry, dusty day. They were in the outskirts of the village and arid lands were all around. The vegetation consisted chiefly of dry, thorny shrubs. Once in a while, a vehicle passed them on the road - a state highway - moving towards the city. Every time a vehicle passed them, the dust on the road swirled up and appeared to dance with the tune of the engine, settling down slowly only after the vehicle was out of sight. The midday sun shone with blinding resplendence – not a speck of cloud was visible in the azure sky.

There was no one in the restaurant. After serving them, the waiter, who was also the cook and the owner, had gone to his house as his buffaloes could be heard bellowing for a long time. The boy was looking at her sister as she was scraping the last morsels of food in her plate. There was a playful wistfulness in his demeanor. The girl was chewing the food and the mingled dust without feeling either - apparently. Between two consecutive sessions of mastication, the girl was chattering incessantly in a drawling voice and the boy, without paying any heed was looking at her and day dreaming. He saw a thin red line appearing on her neck. The line was lengthening and encircling her neck. The girl went on chattering without the slightest hint of discomfort or pain.

The thin red line had become a full circle and a liquid – red in color – started oozing out from the line. Flies from the surrounding filth started buzzing around her neck – many of them sitting on that circle and devouring the liquid. The liquid was now flowing like a stream and her neck, below the cut, was completely red. It was like a grand necklace with flies carved into the design. She had been talking without a pause. Then, she let out a sigh, brought her hands near her ears, clasped her head with both her hands and with a soft groan, pulled her head off her body and placed it on the empty plate. A fountain of blood gushed out through her neck and her body fell backwards along with the chair. Blood streamed all over the place and mixed with the filth all around.

The head kept on chattering. The boy was delighted. He let out a yelp of joy, picked up the head of his sister, holding it with the short hair above and went out of the restaurant. He threw the head up lightly. The head went up in the air till his shoulder height and then started falling down. The boy gave a light kick and the head rolled forward into the field, scraping the shrubs as it moved. The boy steadily moved in the fields, kicking the head along. The head chattered incessantly.