"Was there a clarion call? Did you see the stars fleeting around?" I sat dumbfounded, my eyes wide with speechlessness as my melodramatic friend soaked me in her queries about the feeling of falling in love.
"Hellooo! Were you born yesterday? And me generations before you?" I felt the pounding response in my mind but I gave her my sincerest looking smile. "No,Dear! Its nothing like that!" I replied calmly. I wonder from where that calmness came in my tone when I was actually fuming like an active volcano about to erupt.
She took a tight grip of my wrist as if by doing so she would meet her soul mate in my throbbing nerves. Nerves! My God! I never realized my nerves were so visible! Age surely seemed to have taken a firm grip on me. Well! forty years of life is not so young for the nerves to remain hidden under the wrinkled skin.
Forty years! Time seemed to have grown double pairs of wings to take a faster ride. It felt like only yesterday I walked in the corridors of our school;hand in hand with my friend and here she was seated in front of me still looking the same while I looked like her mother(how I wish I could say like her sister!).
Marriage and Motherhood ages you more than your actual age I guess. I saw a tint of envy in my own eyes as I stared in her eyes, she looked so lovely and YOUNG. I checked myself, my fingers looked awful with its nails clipped short and without any colors. I had decided to keep my nails clipped as soon as I became a mother for I didn't want my nails to make an accidental scratch on my baby. My collection of nail polish too went in the trash bin at the same time around for I didn't want to take any chance with the chipped pieces fall into my kid's meals.
On the other hand,my friend's nails, perfectly manicured stretched out like a freshly mowed lawn.
As she lifted her hands to tie her ponytail, I saw her shirt rise up to show a clean waistline. Ech!I wouldn't dare to wear a low lying jeans like her;wouldn't people see the stretch marks from my pregnancy?
"Mama!" we both turned our heads to my two teenage daughters running towards me. As they came and hugged me, I saw something in my friend's eyes that I was thankful I didn't suffer- I saw pain of loneliness in her eyes! While mine own danced with joys of fulfilled parenthood.
Wow! Another wonderful post, ma'am. I was caught off guard by the twist of the story in the end.Really liked the post. Everything happens for good; it is true in most cases. :)
ReplyDeleteI can see not only a pain of loneliness, but also a regret and envy. Who doesn't want to live a life filled with source full of joy and happiness? I for sure felt it all(even though I am not a girl!)
ReplyDeletewe may be old by age, but never with our mind, so keep writing mam' its really encouraging..:-)..
Thnks both of, n yea I got to keep on feeling young,oops I meant old but happy! lol.
ReplyDeleteAmong us men... aging doesn't discriminate but what my friends celebrates as freedom is an illusion sometime, which they realize when they return home late... their freedom is very lonely.
ReplyDeleteYou have given us another reason (some may say excuse) to be happy having kids!