In love forever: A story by Neeti Parti

I sat quietly observing from the corner. I would never be the ‘Chosen One’.

Our eyes met, I looked away. She smiled, I didn’t. I never smiled!

You see, I had a Cleft Lip, a congenital anomaly that occurs in the face during foetal development. I had been teased mercilessly at the Orphanage for the last four years after being abandoned almost immediately after birth. I was a girl and hideous to look at! I would always live here. The pretty children would be taken lovingly away to warm and comfortable homes.

She was looking at me again. I looked behind me. Nothing but a blank wall! Coming closer, she gently lifted me in her arms and spoke to a tall, kind looking man next to her, “ Isn’t she beautiful? She is the daughter I have yearned for all my life.” Then she turned and looked at me with her warm brown eyes and said, “ I am your Ma. I will call you Muskan. Let’s go home Muskan.”

At home, Ma and I would play our favourite game of ‘Hide and Seek’. I would hide in a new place every day before she returned home from work. She would pretend to look for me , call my name, pretend to give up, allowing me to sneak up behind her shouting, “ You lost again!”

Both of us would burst into peals of laughter.

I loved her then……

She made me forget I had a Harelip.

With time I received cosmetic treatment. Out of an ugly unfortunate me emerged a woman who truly defined her name. I smiled all day in the sunshine of love.

Many seasons have passed. She is frail now and bound by the wheel chair. When I return from work I look for her. I know she is always behind the curtains but I pretend to look hard for her. After sometime I pretend to give up and call out to her. She wheels out from her hideout shouting, “ You lost again!”

We burst into peals of laughter.

I love her still……