(Chapter - 27)

  [Karu Arfan Rafin (3)]

  Every way out of the garden is blocked. The smoke continues to spread, making it harder for Mrs. Keya and Karu to breathe. Their vision slowly blurs. The heat is also becoming unbearable. Mrs. Keya crouches low to avoid inhaling the thick smoke.

  Karu : What are we gonna do now mom?

  Mrs. Keya : Calm down… Nothing will happen.

  Though she speaks words of comfort, she herself is distressed and scared within, not knowing what to do. She hugs Karu tightly as he shakes in fear. Tears fall down his face. Meanwhile in the house, Kobir is reading a book. Suddenly he notices the black smoke outside the window.

  Kobir : Huh? Why is there so much smoke?

  He walks to the window. Terror washes over his face as he sees the garden consumed by monstrous flames, his heart thuds.

  Kobir : F-F-Fire!!!

  Without wasting a second more, he runs downstairs, takes their mother's phone and calls their father.

  Kobir : Dad! T-The whole garden is on fire! Mom and brother are inside! The fire is huge! Everything is burning!

  He cries with panic, feeling too helpless to save any of them. In the flaming garden, Mrs. Keya finally sees a small hole below a wall of grass that's not fully on fire yet.

  Mrs. Keya : Karu… I found a way out!

  Karu : Huh? Where?

  Mrs. Keya : There.

  She quickly takes Karu to the hole, kneels down and takes a look at him, with eyes filled with affection. She caresses his face.

  Mrs. Keya : *The hole is too narrow for me. I can’t go out. Then…* Listen, Karu… Get out from here and make sure of Kobir's safety. Make sure he's not harmed by the fire.

  Karu : Okay.

  He crouches to go into the hole, then stops to look back.

  Karu : W-What about you mom!?

  Mrs. Keya : Don't worry about me. Just go!

  Karu : No! Wait!

  His mother pushes him and he comes out of the garden through the hole. He crouches again to look at his mother with dread-filled, tearful eyes.

  Karu : Mom!

  Mrs. Keya : Run away from here.

  Karu : No! I won't leave you! Mom!

  Mrs. Keya : Please, Karu… Go so you can get help.

  Karu : …

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Mrs. Keya : I love you so much, Karu… Now run and don’t look back… Run away!

  The words ‘Run away’ ring in Karu's ears. The roaring flames reflect on his eyes. The garden looks as if hell itself has appeared before him. Karu shivers, his face drains of color. He immediately gets up and runs, desperate to bring help and save his mother. His nonstop tears mark the path behind him. Mrs. Keya opens her locket to see the family photo, and holds it close to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  Mrs. Keya : I'm so sorry…

  “I ran until I reached the doors of our house, and I saw Kobir come out running, with a phone in his hand. He looked terrified and as he hugged me, he kept shaking. The house was fine, since there was a good distance between our house and the garden. I quickly took the phone from him and called the fire service immediately.”

  “The air was already thick with toxic, black smoke. That day, the sky also turned black. Loud thunderbolts roared in the sky, as if nature itself was accusing me, scolding me for what I had caused unknowingly. But I prayed from the deepest of my heart that, it would rain. That it would wash away the evil monster of a fire, and mother would be saved.”

  Karu hugs Kobir tightly, both crying uncontrollably. The garden is still burning before their eyes.

  “Then it rained. Dad came with the fire service, and they extinguished the massive flames. It took a lot of time. Everything… Was burned to ashes. There was no garden anymore, just ruins. Mom was nowhere to be found… Not even her body. Maybe… She… Burned to ashes as well…”

  Mr. Shilpok stands in front of the burned garden with devastated eyes, hugging Karu and Kobir as they burst into tears and scream ‘Mom!’... All of them are soaked in the rain, as the firefighters search around thoroughly. But no bodies are found.

  “I couldn’t save mom… She sacrificed herself to save me…”

  At night, Karu packs up his things into his backpack in his room, while wiping his tears. Kobir walks up to him with eyes that reddened from crying.

  Kobir : Brother…

  Karu : …

  Kobir : What are you doing…?

  Karu : Kobir… I'm leaving.

  Kobir : Huh!?

  Karu : Whatever happened today… Was because of me. I didn’t run away when that boy threatened me. And now…

  He trembles, holding back his cry. Kobir's eyes fill with tears.

  Kobir : Don't leave, brother! What will I do without you? What about dad!?

  Karu : Kobir… Your lives will be in danger if I don’t leave. It's the only way for you to be safe. That way, that boy won't hurt you.

  Kobir : Brother!

  Karu : Promise me you’ll take care of dad when you grow up, you’ll always be good to him. Stay safe. And please, tell him everything and that I said I'm really sorry…

  “He hugged me tight and cried, begging me not to go. It wrecked my heart… But somehow I convinced him in the end. Later he fell asleep, but dad stayed up the whole night… Just like me. He kept staring at the sky. The next morning after sunrise, I quietly came out of the house and ran to the wind forest. My whole world had shattered in just a few hours… I kept wishing to go far away from my city, my home.”

  Mother’s last words keep ringing in Karu’s mind — ‘Make sure of Kobir's safety. Make sure he's not harmed by the fire… Run away from here… Don’t look back… Run away!’... He desperately runs through the wind forest. After some time, he trips and falls hard on the ground. His knees get bruised. Unable to keep running because of the pain, he decides to rest under a tree. He stares at the grass with exhausted eyes. A while later, Tori finds him while looking for animal traps he and Tushar had once set. He walks to Karu.

  Tori : Hey, are you lost?

  Karu : …

  Tori : Where's your home?

  Karu : …I have no home.

  Tori : Huh?

  Karu averts his eyes from Tori. Tori notices his bruises.

  Tori : *His eyes look like he cried a lot…* You're hurt! Let's go to my house, hurry! You need to treat the cuts!

  Karu : It's… It's nothing.

  Tori : Please! Come to my house. I'll treat your cuts, I promise!

  Karu : …

  Tori forwards his hand. Karu, after thinking for a few seconds, takes his hand and gets up. The morning sun shines through the forest leaves, casting warm light over their colorful hair and eyes.

  “At that time, Tori felt like a savior. I felt the urge to take his help. I was craving shelter. And he took me to his home for treatment. There I met Asroy, Tushar and dad.”

  Miraz is treating Karu’s bruises. Karu gets surprised to see Tushar coming into the room.

  Karu : You're alive!

  Tushar : Huh? Y-Yes.

  Karu : That day, you just vanished!

  Tushar : I don’t remember anything after I passed out. So the green-haired boy was you! I wanted to thank you for a long time! Thanks a lot for saving my life!

  Tori : Really!?

  Asroy : Whoa! You're a hero!

  Miraz : You're such a brave and amazing kid. What's your name?

  Karu : …Karu… Arfan Rafin…

  He bursts into tears after trying so hard to hold back. The boys get startled. Miraz hugs and consoles him before asking what had happened to make him cry like that. Karu clings to him like he's the only hope Karu has.

  “I told them everything, since I had no place to go. But Dad, Tori, Asroy and Tushar gladly accepted me in their family with warmth and kindness. I found a new hope in my life… That's how I arrived at Miraz Monjil a week after Tushar. Though I started living away from home, I always prayed for my brother and dad's good life. Still I could never get over the guilt of that day. I often cried when I missed mom, dad and Kobir… When those memories haunted me and I had nightmares.”

  Karu trembles in his sleep beside Tori and weeps. Tori tries to calm him down by hugging.

  Karu : Mom… Mom… Don't go… No…

  Tori : Karu? It’s okay… Don't be afraid. I’m here with you…

  “But they never showed any lack of emotional support for me. They cared for me, loved me… They felt like my own people. And I slowly got used to the new life… At Miraz Monjil, with my new family.”

  At the garden of Miraz Monjil, Tori, Tushar and Asroy feel absolutely amazed when Karu nurtures a plant with his powers. They play around and make Karu laugh.

  “We shared everything, starting from our life stories to the everyday mischiefs. That was the story of my life. Though I'll never forget the day everything was destroyed and my life changed overnight, I'm forever glad that Tori was the one who found me in the forest that day…”

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