The Beauty Spot
During afternoon times, Babu’s favorite activities were to cycle around or play with his friends. Normally after returning from school, he would quickly freshen up, have some snacks, take out his cycle, roam around in the neighbourhood, and then meet up with his friends. They would play volleyball or football but mostly they would play cricket.
This was the era before technology took control of everything. When laptops and cellular phones were just a concept for normal people, desktops and the internet was not affordable for many and were used in schools and institutions only. It was the time when the kids preferred to play outside and the adults would meet up at a commonplace to chat and gossip as social media platform was beyond imagination. It was the time when telephones or cordless phones used to be the fashion statement and the CRT television was one of the sophisticated items in the house. Daily soap operas were the main topic of discussions and movie halls used to have a single screen with the concept of 4 or 5 shows. The night show was from 9 to 12 and watching the first-day-first-show was still the trend. During those times, learning to ride a bicycle or even owning one was nothing less than a prized item for the kids. Boys used to perform all kinds of stunts to impress their friends and more importantly the girls of their age group. And if by any luck, the boy succeeded in impressing her, then they would definitely become the topic of discussion among the kids of the school or in the neighbourhood.
But Babu was not interested in those school or neighbourhood sweetheart stories. He just loved to cruise around on his cycle and play. He, sometimes, would go to another part of the town to meet his friends or buy stuff not available in his neighbourhood. It never mattered where he was roaming around, but he made sure that he reached the field before his friends started the day’s play. They would continue till late in the evening until they could not see anything. He considered playing as his second love, after cycling. So if he missed any of his play days, mainly during exam times, he would just sit grumpily and silently without talking to anyone in the family.
The playing field was large enough that can be compared to a stadium. It was open on all sides with just a kaccha (dirt) road leading to it. The field was covered with grass with no houses nearby. Babu and his friends had cleared out the central part of the field to play whatever game they liked. The field was located a bit far from their own neighbourhood and on the outskirts of the town. The narrow kaccha road, which led to the field, took a 90-degree left from the main road between the boundaries of two houses and again took a sharp turn to the right. So both the turns didn’t give any visibility of anyone approaching from opposite direction. The path was not a daily used road and was normally used by people as a short cut. The kaccha road was mainly made up of sand and small stones which made it dangerous for cyclists because the chances of skidding were very high. After taking the turn, for some stretch, either side of the road had swamps and were covered with plants that were almost the height of an average human being. People never knew how deep the swamp was and what kind of life breathed inside it. Since it was a less taken path, there were no lights alongside the road and after the sun went down, the area became darker making the swamp, field, and road all of the same level. Thus the kids also returned to the main road before the last light of the evening was out.
One fine day, as usual, Babu was roaming around with his cycle after returning from school. Since he was now promoted to high school and the classes had freshly begun, he went to the other part of the town to a friend’s house to discuss regarding high school life with his friend’s elder brother, who had just passed with good results. Babu had gone to take some tips about how to manage high school studies and get the best results. While having this discussion, he had completely forgotten about the playtime. When he realised that it was already late, he asked for his leave and requested if they could continue later. He then bid them good-bye and hurriedly left his friend’s house. He fast-paced pedaled his cycle because he knew this time he was going to get the blame for starting the game late and rushed through the town’s crowd. Since it was afternoon, almost all the town’s people were out on the road. Kids were playing or were going for extra classes, adults buying food or household stuff for daily use, some people were chatting on road or near betel-shops and older people sitting, talking, and laughing among themselves on their house verandas. Even the cowherd can be seen returning with his herd. Using the cycle’s bell as loud as possible, Babu tried to rush in between all these occasionally getting scolded by the passers-by.
Babu rode like he had never ridden before. He made the 90-degree left turn, to take the kaccha road which led to the field, at the same speed. As he knew the road was less traveled, he even dared to make the next hard right turn at the same speed, but suddenly he saw two girls coming from the opposite direction. The girls panicked and gave a loud shout. Babu also panicked and lost his control over the cycle as the road was vulnerable to skid. He somehow tried to regain control but ultimately couldn’t complete the turn. He rolled some distance, skidded, and fell directly into the swamp along with his cycle. Since the depth of the swamp was unknown and Babu was not coming out, the girls who initially panicked were now praying for the cyclist’s well-being because Babu was not visible among the tall plants. Babu tried to come out of the swamp hurriedly fearing that he would be dragged down. Though it took him some time, he eventually came out some distance far from the girls after making his way from the plants in the swamp. Angry and furious he wanted to shout at the girls but he saw that the girls were tensed and were shouting for help. One of the girls, who looked the same age as his, was wearing a red frock with a blunt haircut up to ears. She had a birthmark as a beauty spot above the upper lip on her left side. On seeing her, he completely forgot about his situation and couldn’t take his eyes off her beauty spot. He just stood there and kept looking at her, awestruck.
While looking for him, the other girl, who seemed like her sister, spotted Babu. She nudged her tensed sister and showed her that the boy was not in danger and had come out safely. They wanted to help Babu but instead, they burst out laughing loudly on seeing his condition. Babu, now standing dumbstruck, was looking at the girl’s beauty spot appreciating the beauty of her face. He wanted to tell her that the beauty spot made her face look prettier. He wanted to talk to her or at least say ‘Hi’ but instead he just froze on seeing her smile and stood there immovable like a rock statue. In the meantime, Babu’s friends, who had already started to play, came rushing on hearing the girls’ cry for help. Realising that his friends had arrived to help him, the sisters left laughing all the way.
Babu’s friends started to pull out the plants and asked him about his condition. But Babu was still in his dream world, imagining about the girl, her dress, hair, and most importantly her beauty spot on the lips. He kept smiling and did not answer his friends. Finally, one of his friends kicked him and brought him to his senses. When he started to jump in pain, he realised, he was completely wet from top to bottom with dirty and muddy water from the swamp. The plants from the swamp were tied all over his body. He was wearing only one sandal and the other was lost somewhere within the swamp. There were insects stuck to his clothes and a frog was jumping back to the swamp, which he realised was sitting on him sometime back. Though there were no injuries on his body, he felt itchy throughout his body and wanted to return home to get cleaned. As he started to walk towards home, he realised his cycle was missing. His most precious item was missing and nowhere to be seen. Panicked, he begged his friends to help him find his cycle in the swamp.
Although now they were aware of the depth of the swamp, they were still afraid of the life present inside it. Babu made the courage to go inside again and quickly found it just at the edge of the swamp. Feeling blessed, he rolled his cycle back home. On the whole way, he kept thinking about the girl and everything he noticed about her. A smile automatically came to his face when he thought about her beauty spot. Her skin colour and red lips made the beauty spot more prominent and attractive. He reached home and on seeing his condition, his family members got tensed and asked about his well-being. Babu narrated the accident and after realising his part of the fault, his parents started to scold him for riding recklessly, forgetting about his condition. Its funny how the scenario changed for Babu from being asked about his condition to getting scolded. He quickly cleaned himself and went for the evening study. But the face and the beauty spot of the girl didn’t allow him to concentrate the whole evening. He took his dinner and went to sleep but soon realised that the same thing didn’t allow him to sleep either. His heart beat became faster and a smile naturally came to his face whenever he imagined her face. Promising to look for her, he went to sleep.
The next day he didn’t cruise around, rather he directly went to that same spot where he slipped, to wait for her. He wore his best attire because he felt that her first impression about him was very bad. He skipped the play that day and kept waiting till late in the evening but she didn’t come. He continued to do it for some weeks and even stopped cycling and playing, two of his favorite things, and continued to wait for her. He would go to the field to play sometimes but always kept an eye on the road and on that turn, which was somewhat visible from the field, hoping for her to pass by.
Then the summer holidays came. Babu, though didn’t forget about the girl, continued his usual life i.e. studying, cycling, and playing. While cycling around, he always wondered if he would ever come across her mainly while taking the kaccha road and the turn to the field. He always thought next time he would definitely say a “Hi” to her and ask her name. But that time didn’t come, no matter how hard he wished for it. He prayed for just one more chance to see and talk to her. Babu has always been shy of girls and maintained his distance from them but somehow he felt that this girl was special and he can gather the courage to talk to her. He never talked to his friends anything related to the girl because he knew they will make fun of him and tease him with her name.
During those summer holidays, Babu used to rent movie DVDs for him and his family to watch. Since the internet was not common in every home and an online streaming platform like Netflix was just a concept that was about to be implemented, rent shops for movie CDs/DVDs were the only option those days. While renting DVDs, some people even rented the DVD players because computers or DVD players were one of those luxury items which was beyond everyone’s capability. Babu used to rent many movies and in the process developed a very close bond with the shop owner. So sometimes he wouldn’t go to the field to play rather spend some time in the shop and its owner. He would help him with the business by home delivering the DVDs and its player to the customers on his cycle and earn some pocket money in return. Sometimes he would handle the shop all by himself when the owner took a short break.
One fine day as it was a lazy afternoon and no rush was there in the shop, Babu was discussing with the owner regarding new movies or if an upgrade was needed to the shop, when suddenly from the back he heard a girl asking, “Is Raja Hindustani movie DVD available for rent?” The voice was very sweet and childlike. The voice was the same as the girl who on that day was shouting for help and had been resonating inside his head for so many days. Babu realised the voice and instantly looked back. How could he ever forget the voice, the laugh, the smile, the beauty spot on the red lips, the haircut, the red frock? All those images came dancing back to his eyes and ears when he realised she was directly looking at the girl whom he had been looking for so many days. He kept looking at her face and then slowly started to map her face until he located that beauty spot that made him so desperate to look for all those days. He kept his eyes fixed on that beauty spot and the lips, forgetting where he was and felt the urge to kiss her. The girl again asked for the DVD and on seeing Babu, she remembered that she had seen him somewhere. On remembering that incident, she again started to smile which again converted into laughter. On seeing her smile, Babu froze, with goose bumps running all over his body. He couldn’t take his eyes from her smiling face which was now so close to him. It was as if whatever Babu was desperately looking for, he found it but somehow he forgot what to do with it. On seeing Babu’s weird behaviour, the shopkeeper interrupted and gave the DVD to her. He asked her to fill out her name, address, return date, and other necessary details. She thanked the shopkeeper and left. While leaving, she glanced at Babu who was still looking at her.
After she left, the shopkeeper nudged Babu and asked, “What happened? Why were you behaving weirdly?” Realising that she had left when he was standing like a tree and directly looking at her which could have made her uncomfortable, Babu rushed out to look for her as he didn’t want to miss this second chance for which he had prayed so much and had desperately waited for. He had always imagined various ways to make a great impression whenever he would again meet her. But he knew he had already messed it up and somehow wanted to rectify it. He saw that the girl was not very far from the shop. He ran towards her and with all the courage that he could muster, he said, “Hi” nervously. Babu’s sudden greetings surprised her but she kept calm and reverted with a “Hello”. On hearing her voice, Babu’s heart started to beat faster, and felt some tingling in his stomach. He had rehearsed so many times what to say but now he was forgetting because of the nervousness. He had never realised it would be so difficult. Just to break that weird silence, which seemed to him like ages, Babu asked her name. The girl, with some kind of authority in her voice, inquired the reason for this question. Babu panicked and unable to find any reason said, “It was for the DVD rent purpose.” The girl with a confident voice said, “I have provided all the necessary details. You can check the shop’s register.” Babu started to sweat a bit and excusing himself, he left hurriedly back to the shop, realising he had again embarrassed himself. Hoping for his embarrassment to be over, he started to look through the register containing all the customers’ lists. As soon as he found the latest registered names against the movie, a smile came to his face. He murmured to himself, “Ruby! Ruby Rai!”
That day he went back to his home after playing, all the while smiling and murmuring her name and memorising her address. He could now calm down his desperation a bit because finally, the girl with the beauty spot has a name and address now. He was also smiling because he knew he was going to meet her again within 7 days, which was the maximum rental period. Though he now had her address, he wouldn’t dare to cycle into that neighbourhood because the chances were high that he might embarrass himself again.
So he promised himself that if required he would sit in the shop for the whole time just to meet her. And this time he won’t embarrass himself and would have a proper a conversation with her.
!~^*^~!
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horror (1) love (1) short story (3) thriller (1)
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Good story narration..Beautifully explained
A beautifully narrated love story of a pubescent boy. I wish for Babu to to meet Ruby again.
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