The Pantry Piglet

 

            “Bick… bick… booook…bick… boook…”, the early-rising birds flutter around my house singing, the first sound that greets me every morning. Time moves slowly, Vincent comes home to clean up. He diligently cleans the house and lights the prayer lamps, even though he doesn’t share my faith, he does it for my happiness. He starts preparing the food for me and a little more, which he later will be taking to the orphanage nearby. Then he cleans up the pigsty and grooms the plants and flowers in the garden. Over the year, some of my pigs have died, and now I am left with 3 pigs and a cute little mischievous piglet. I often spend time sitting out by the fence, engaged in conversations with these little creatures.

    After completing the work around the house, Vincent goes out to his other day job. He will return to prepare dinner. During this time, I find myself alone in this spacious house.

    Every day, I rest on my Rocking chair, swinging back and forth and looking at the door, hoping that one day the person walking through that door would be my grandson, my baby Rishi, but that never happens. It has been 10 years since he last came here. I still regret seeing him leave the house crying.

    The day passed slowly, much like every other day, sometimes on the chair, sometimes standing on the porch, sometimes in the garden, sometimes playing with the piglet, and sometimes back in my room. The moon started to rise leisurely while the sun was sinking on the opposite side. As usual this evening, I moved back to my room just before Vincent arrived to prepare my dinner. He was unusually energetic, cleaning up the whole house as if expecting guests. I didn’t bother asking him though.

    He had brought people to clean every nook and corner. He cleaned up the shelves, removed the used bedcover, and covered the furniture with clothes and the other people started dusting the ceiling. The whole house was cleaner than ever in an hour.

    My son, Aadhi, visits occasionally, but Vincent never cleans up like he did this time. It was as if preparing the house for a new occupant.

    “Oh No...! Is Aadhi planning on selling this house? But why? Where will I go if that happens?”. My mind drowned in an ocean of possibilities.

    Meanwhile, Vincent was done for the day and was leaving. “Why are you so happy about this Vincent?”, “Are you tired of taking care of this house?”, “Are you that relieved to get rid of me?”, A wave of questions surged through my mind as I saw Vincent’s image slowly disappearing through the main door.

    With these thoughts consuming me I felt as if I was lying on a bed made of pins and needles. Even though the thought of being abandoned scares me, I can’t deny the fact that Vincent deserves this, he had been a very good friend to me, took care of me, and takes care of this house till today. Even though my son pays him a handsome salary for these, he has and still does a lot for us. He deserves a rest.

    However, the night heavily passed and the day broke with the sweet cries of the birds and I heard a large truck pulling in. I looked through the window and saw Vincent getting down from it.

“Why is he here so early?”, I thought to myself.

He unloaded a bunch of stuff from it and placed them on the front porch.

“What are these? Why did he buy all this decorative stuff?”, I thought looking at the newly bought curtains laid on the porch.

He started redecorating the house after a quick cleanup.

    I was looking over him as he was decorating the house enthusiastically. It has been a while since I saw him this happy. He had this charming smile on his face as he started to unwind the pipes to add the curtains. He adorned the window with turquoise blue curtains complementing the creamy white wallpaper. He fixed all the windows with the curtains.

He covered the sofa with sea-blue-themed sofa covers and placed little square white cushion pillows with marine life designs on them to match the cover.

He quickly sprinted to the porch and came back carrying a big box. From that, he took out vases in different shades of blue, looking all glassy and glossy. He would place one vase on the table, step back and look at it, and change if he didn’t feel it fit that place. He repeated that for every other vase and place. Soon the house had several vases decorated with fresh daisies.

“Hmph! It has been a very long time since I saw this shade around here. This new change takes me to the past”, I said.

    He began to set up all the bedrooms with the old bedsheets, that were washed and hung to dry last night. He then pulled out a new cobalt blue bedspread and matching pillow cover from the packages and started to set up that bedroom.

    In a couple of hours, the entire house changed anew taking me back to the old days, when I decorated the house in a similar way for someone. He even added new plants to the garden.

    Seeing all these, I understood that I had over-imagined the cleaning stuff the day before. He was just redecorating the house.

“But why? Why now of all times?”, I turned around and looked at the calendar.

    “Oh… It is that day tomorrow, isn’t it? Has it been 10 years? Already?”, it dawned on me. “But still, why so much preparation? Doesn’t he usually just clean and prepare the rooms for everyone’s stay? What is so special this year? Is it to mark the 10-year anniversary?”, I asked myself.

    By the time, my inner voice went down, it was already noon and Vincent had set out with food to the orphanage. It was soon evening, and Vincent started preparing sweets, occasionally smiling, occasionally shedding tears. He was bustling between the pantry and the kitchen while chasing away the naught piglet that escapes the sty and enters the pantry often. It is quite naughty, unlike the character specifications of its species.

Another day passed by.

 

 

---- The Next Day ----

 

    Along with the birds’ music, there came the sound of a lineage of vehicles entering the front gate of my house. I knew who was at the door and was excited to see them. The door started to unlock, “cluck… cluck…” and with every turn on the lock, the eagerness to see my family increased.

The door slowly creaked open. There stepped in a handsome guy followed by an elderly man and woman.

“Wow!! My son looks younger than last year”, I thought for a second before realizing, “This is not Aadhi. This is my baby. My Rishi… My Rishi, all big and handsome. He is all grown up now. Now I understand why Vincent was so excited.”. My son had shown me his picture before, but this was my first time meeting him since he left. He was a kid last time, now he had grown into a handsome guy.

“I can’t wait standing here quietly anymore.”, I thought to myself and sprinted towards him with my arms wide open shouting,

“My Munchkin!!!!!”,

only to walk through his body and hug the air instead.

I looked at my translucent palms with a hint of hopelessness,

“My munchkin is right in front of me, but this cursed old guy can’t even touch him.”, I said as I turned around to look at my grandson with gloomy eyes walking slowly towards my photo hung on the wall.

He said, “Grandpa! I am sorry.”, with his eyes tearing up.

“If not for me…. if… if not for me…”, his voice choking up, “If not for me you would still be alive.”, he said.

“Oh, my dear! You are still blaming yourself for this. It wasn’t your fault. You are not the reason for my death”, I said, he couldn’t hear it though.

 

----------

 

Ten years ago, on this same day, my son and his family were returning to the city after the holidays. Rishi wanted to spend more time with me, lied to us saying that he had severe stomach ache, and started to cry at the railway station. Rishi was only 11 years old then. My son who couldn’t get a cab at that hour, called me to send someone to the station with a car to pick them up. Unfortunately, that day as no one was around, I sped by myself towards the station in my car, got into an accident, and ended up in the state I am currently in. Since then, he has been blaming himself for my death. The last I saw him was while performing my final rites.

That day, he stepped out of the house crying and never came back after that. I don’t know why I am unable to move to the afterlife either.

Since then, this house has been maintained by Vincent, who is also a good friend of mine. Aadhi pays him monthly, but he uses all that money to provide food to the orphanage in my name. For his personal expenses, he earned separately through another job. Aadhi visits this home at least once a year and never misses my death anniversary, but Rishi never comes. This year was a real surprise.

 

---------

 

    Vincent patted on his shoulder and comforted him. Then he pulled away my son, my daughter-in-law, and my munchkin to the dining table for breakfast. After breakfast, Aadhi and his wife stepped out for a walk as usual while Rishi stayed back.

    He walked around the house, reminiscing all the memories that these walls and inanimate objects hold. He stepped into the pantry when the piglet came running in and startled him. He bent and sat down with one knee and said, “You naught pinky, you scared me”, caressing his head. He talked to it like I have been doing all these years and that naughty pink head stuffed his face into my munchkin’s torso and he hugged him back.

    That was a beautiful scene to see. My munchkin smiled for the first time since he came back to this house. He picked up the little piggy and sat on the floor. I couldn’t help but sit next to them admiring their beauty.

“Well!! This is a pleasant view.”, I said caressing the little piggy.

Rishi suddenly looked up bewildered and looked all around him. His eyes said he was confused. He was looking for something

“What are you looking for munchkin? “, I asked. “Hmph!! I can’t help anyway, right?”, I sighed realizing my state.

My grandson even more bewildered, looked up and asked,

“Grandpa?”

I was caught by surprise and exclaimed, ”What?”.

“Holly Molly! Have I gone insane? Am I hearing things now?”

I stood up from my place and asked again, “Do you really hear my voice?”, all excited, but he didn’t look like he heard it.

“Looks like just my weird imagination”, I thought to myself and sat back down and caressed the lil piggy.

“I guess I might be delusional”, I said stroking its nose.

 

“No… No…No… Why am I hearing Grandpa’s voice? Am I going crazy?”, Rishi asked in an even more shocked voice.

“Rishi!! My munchkin!! Do you hear me?”, I asked again and he replied instinctively, “Yeah…”. We both were equally shocked, and that is when I realized the cunning smirk on the little piggy’s face.

I took my hand from his head and asked again, “Hey Rishi, do you hear me?”, there was a silence for a while, and then he asked with a bewildered look, “Grandpa, Is that you? Are you still there? Is that really you?”.

I kept my hand over the piggy’s head and said, “Yes! It's me… It’s me munchkin!!”.

My grandson was equally shocked, but eventually, he understood it wasn't his imagination and started to talk to me. The first thing he said after realizing it was, “I am Sorry Gramps”.

“It is not your fault munchkin, It has never been your fault, to begin with”

“But if I hadn’t lied that day, you would still be alive and talking to me”

“Well, the second part still happens. We are talking with each other”

“But still…”, his eyes brimming with tears, “I did lose you”.

I couldn’t bear the sight of him crying. I slowly put my hand through his hair to stroke his head. Only this time, it didn’t pass through, but I was actually able to caress his head. He started crying hard and I consoled him.

    I kept one hand on the piggy and held his hand with my other hand. He started telling me everything that had happened over the years. I asked him to keep our conversation secret from his mom and dad because I didn’t want to hurt them.

    For the next few days, after breakfast, both of us would sit in the garden and talk for hours. He fulfilled all the loneliness I had over all these years. Eventually, my munchkin started smiling more.

 

---- After five days ----

Five days have passed. Today, we both were chatting on the lawn. He told me,

“Grandpa!! Do you know, I have got a girlfriend. Dad and mom don’t know about her yet.”

“Is that so? Wow!! Lucky girl”

“No Grandpa… I am lucky to have her. You know what she gave me the courage to come here this year. We have been in a relationship for over six months. She takes care of me like mom does.”

“Really??”

“Yes Grandpa!! She understands more than I do myself. She trusts me more than I trust myself.”

“Awww!!!”

“She is the one who said,

‘Rishi, you avoiding your grandad due to your guilt isn’t right. You are hurting him even more. This year go and send him off properly. He definitely will not blame you, and will always want the best for you. Don’t hurt him just because you feel guilty.’

That’s when I realized, in the name of guilt I have been avoiding you all these years and then I decided to come here this year”.

 

“I have really been longing to see you. I missed you. I wanted to see how my little munchkin grew up. I wanted to see him live a happy life. I am very happy now. I….”, as I was talking my spiritual body felt lighter than ever, and my hands started to look hazy… I understood what was going on. The time for me to leave has come.

 

“Rishi!! I am content now, so I can happily move on. I will always be looking out for you”

“Grandpa!! Why would you say that out of the blue?”, my grandson asked his eyes tearing up as if he understood something.

“I am finally able to leave in peace. Grandpa will always love you. Tell Vincent that I thanked him for everything he has done over the years.”

 

I could feel my body growing lighter and lighter and lighter. I could see a divine light reaching out to me. As I gave in to it, I felt myself floating as if I mixed with the air.

 

-#---- The End ----#-