The school bell rang. Every student hurriedly stood up from their chairs. On any other day, the school halls would be filled with the lively commotion of the students. But today, their sounds couldn’t compete with the roaring of the heavy rain and thunder. While everyone was rushing out of their classrooms, Bussaba slowly began moving out as well. Just as she expected, she was able to get out through the side gate of the school without any of her classmates noticing her.
Despite the harsh weather, Dok Khoun flowers along the roadside managed to thrive, shining like golden armor. Admiring their beauty, Bussaba started walking towards her father’s food stall. Bussaba’s father was a street vendor who sold grilled meats from a stall attached to an old, worn bike. He used to drive around and sell grilled meat to customers. Every Friday, she would eat some hot grilled meat from her father’s stall before heading to her extra classes. Even though she was scared of her friends finding out that her father was a street vendor, she couldn’t resist tasting her father’s perfectly grilled meat with its juicy flavor. As she walked in the rain, she pictured herself eating a meat skewer to distract herself from the cold.
After arriving at the usual spot where her father used to park his bike, she couldn’t see him anywhere. Bussaba’s father always parked his bike in the same spot every Friday afternoon, knowing his daughter would come for meat skewers. But today, he was nowhere to be found. Bussaba felt both angry and disappointed. “Maybe he forgot I was coming”, she thought to herself.
After waiting a few more minutes, she headed to her class on an empty stomach. There was almost fifteen minutes till class started. The rain had stopped, but it was still gloomy outside. Bussaba was chatting and laughing with her friends outside the classroom when she heard someone call her name. “Bussaba!” She already recognized the voice. She turned around, and her father was standing near the classroom’s gate holding a bag of meat skewers. He looked tired and the lower part of his trousers were soaked from the rain as the polythene cover he used as a raincoat couldn’t cover his entire body.
Bussaba’s mind went blank. She felt like everyone was looking at her. She struggled to decide what to do next. All she could do was take her father to a place outside the gate where her classmates couldn’t see. “Why did you come here?” Bussaba asked impatiently. But Bussaba didn’t wait for a reply from her father.
“I told you not to come to my classes. Go back!” “I brought you some-” He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“I don’t need it. Please go back!”
After Bussaba came back to the classroom she couldn’t concentrate. Her mind was occupied with many thoughts. Even if she got angry seeing her father, after her father left, she began to feel something different besides anger. She couldn’t shake the image of her father quietly leaving with the bag of meat skewers he had brought for her.
After Bussaba’s mother had left home, her father took the responsibility of his child. He started working harder to earn money to make Bussaba’s life better. He always tried his best to fill the mother’s absence in Bussaba’s life. When he found out that Bussaba couldn’t attend extra classes as they were too expensive, he started working even harder to earn more. Bussaba was a talented student at her school, and it was the only thing her father took pride in.
The teacher already started her lesson, and Bussaba tried to control her mind and concentrate on the lesson. While she was battling with her mind, her hand accidentally got cut on something and started to bleed. When she searched for what had cut her hand, she saw it was an ornament she used to attach to her backpack. Her father had bought it for her when she was little. She felt a sudden regret for her past actions–the way she hid her father from her friends and the way she treated him when he came to the classroom. These regretful emotions started gushing out as her hand bled.
Without thinking twice, she stood up from her seat. She didn’t care that her classmates and teacher were watching her. She couldn’t even remember how she left the class room – all she recalled was asking the teacher for permission to leave. Once outside, she started running towards her father’s food stall, praying in her mind that he would still be there.
Suddenly, it started raining again. But today, the rain wouldn’t stop her. She didn’t even bother to hold an umbrella for protection. The raindrops hid her tears from the world. Dok khoun flowers continued to scatter their petals in the wind, as if they were cheering her up.
Her eyes caught sight of a food stall a few meters away. She continued running towards it. To her relief, it was her father trying to cover the stall to protect it from the rain. In a moment, he saw his daughter running towards him in the middle of the rain. Surprised and confused, he quickly went to her and covered her with his polythene raincoat. They both managed to find a shelter near the food stall.
After her father removed the polythene cover from her, she realized she was soaked from the rain and freezing cold. Yet, she felt more relieved than ever before –more so than she was eating hot meat skewers. She suggested to her father that they should go home together. On the way, when her father asked what had happened in the class, all she could say was, “I was really hungry for a meat skewer!”
By Rtr. Lavanga Jayathilake.
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