It began with 'DEAR DIARY' followed by 'LAST WORDS'. Here is the end 'TO LIVE'. This can be considered as a short story trilogy. Enjoy.

DEAR DIARY:https://fearlesssinister.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=d7BONlQBAAA.FfwWBqcyy2tnwPNr7BnMiPlBNwQQlAxFY7PGolHZV8YZPE9ek7Jmb4tJTFKblealOgtY2vHzEsSjQv5TrhFL7A.YmdFDavcckez-vtKaW91hg&postId=4737329634189959473&type=POST

LAST WORDS: https://fearlesssinister.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=yeZQNlQBAAA.FfwWBqcyy2tnwPNr7BnMiPlBNwQQlAxFY7PGolHZV8ZrLcIUKUDTiZAHq5ZLQh1TCqOgQGM0ybtZDXZycqaSTw.24jx_EI9d77FZInfTCYf5A&postId=3560762637702979831&type=POST

TO LIVE.

It was the first thought that came to her as she woke up. He was gone. And, soon, this bedroom, the house in whose eastern corner it sat, and the tiny garden outside with its gnarled old red hibiscus and the half-grown mango tree they had planted together, all those would be gone as well. It was the strangest feeling ever. She had penned down those words in her diary she has been writing since day one of the year she thought at the night of new year’s that she would never forget. She never thought it would be so through such a memory.

She could hear his laughter now, though it had happened a few months ago. His half broken cricket bat sits by the corner of his wardrobe, where he hid it every evening after coming home late so that his Dad would never find out. Last day she had spotted him sitting there and holding it, reminiscing on all those days he was so angry he could beat his son with it; and now all he can do is laugh for the very thought and that angered him a bit in his heart. They hadn’t gone out of the house for a month now, and their dog Augie had been silence since his master’s departure. The weather has been treating them well, and they chose to ignore. ‘No more walks in the beach and swim in the pool without my son,’ she had made a note to herself. But hearing Augie whimper for the first time since he had been brought home broke the pact she made herself. It was time they all went out to greet the sun and wish the world a good day through their bad times.

“Vijay,” she mumbled, afraid of her husband’s reaction. “I think we should go out.”

“Without Ishan? I hope you don’t have a memory loss Daya. He is dead. Our son is dead.” He replied. “My son.”

“He was mine too,” she finally spoke up. “He was Augie’s master, and now he is whimpering and not eating well. I think he needs a day out, and believe me or not I am going even if you choose to stay within these four wretched walls.”

“These four wretched walls could’ve kept out son alive!” he broke down, letting all the pain he had held in all those days. “He would’ve been safe under our arms!”

“We couldn’t have chained him to this house and we definitely aren’t dumb to spoon feed him!”

“If we had been a little dumb then he would’ve been here now! I was dumb enough to marry you!” he yelled, though in the end he wished he hadn’t said that. Her stone cold stare sent a chill to his spine.

“Come on Augie,” she called out to the dog. As she turned to the door, she could feel someone embrace her from the behind. An embrace she had felt a million times, a tight one at the engagement party dance, a playful one with a tickle on the road trips when he would drive and she would guide, and a soft one at the night in hospital. She didn’t know where to categorise this.

“I miss him,” he spoke softly.

“I miss him too. Let’s go somewhere. Away from this house,” she pleaded. His hug grew tighter, and she took it as a yes.

20^th April, 2016

Dear Diary,

It has been a month since I’ve felt the pages in this book. It makes me shiver to touch the last page I wrote, for I get carried away to the night where Ishan realised his Mom never lied. As a young boy, maybe at an age of five, he used to ask me where heaven is. I told him it was some place where people that have done many good deeds over bad deeds go, so that they can see the people they love in happiness. “Is it scary there Ma?” he had asked. “No son, you see right here,” I had told him, touching at his heart. “Mommy and Daddy are right here wherever you go. And do you know what else is right there? Your good deeds. So whenever you feel alone, you’ll know we will be always here.”

I can imagine my son there looking at us, and for him I smile today. After a month or so, we went out of the house and to the beach, where Ishan loved to play his music. He always had a group of friends who played with him and had his back. As we walked on the sand with our bare feet, with Augie on a leash, we could imagine Ish playing his somewhere, and suddenly I heard some guitar strums. Was it me hallucinating under the sun? No. It was a group of boys, playing the song he wrote on the beach. It was always five boys with Ish at the middle. And today, I saw that spot still there, the boys leaving a little space for him. My flawed genes played a good trick on me for the first time, making me see Ish standing right there smiling at us. At that moment I knew, it was just another day of the year, and he was still here, not on the ground or the beach but in our heart. Whatever I made up for my son when he was five made me stand strong for a moment. It is funny how life treats us one moment and changes the next. My only wish is to make this moment last longer than any other.