Womb (abridged)(Kanishka Roy) Author's note- This is a shortened version of my short story 'Womb', published here in story star. If you have found the caption interesting I would suggest you to read the original and come back for this. This piece has been created for the purpose of story reciting for a contest. I would highly appreciate if you stick till the end.

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Joshua reached out his arms frantically.
Desperately trying to hold onto his beautiful child and wife.
But they were moving away into a sullen singularity. Their voices, clear as crystal, became louder.
“Come home love, Amari is waiting for his papa!”
His wife’s calls and unborn child’s cries reached their crescendo.
The black sky all around him shattered into a thousand pieces.
He gazed, like a lamb to the slaughter, into this familiar oblivion and closed his weary eyes, while the dark walls collapsed on him.

Joshua woke up, a disappointment harbouring within him.
He lived, again, to die every single moment.
Third day or, night? He cannot tell anymore.
No sign of saviours, he wandered about the extent of decay his body would host before being found and dragged like a rag doll and thrown in front of his pregnant wife.
Or perhaps decompose over epochs, to return to this very cave, as the coal around him, becoming the carbon prison that traps him, completing the vicious cycle of mistakes…. that is life.
Blood gushes as he gnaws on his chest wound, drenching him scarlet!
For in his experience pure agony, distracts one from the concept of absolutes- of truth and lies, right and wrong, black and white
His life did not have black … …. or white; grey – a luxury he could not afford.
There was only purple. Only….. pain.

It was the last day of his tenure, when they decimated the cave and the coal mines sunk in, trapping him inside it.
He had seen the fair men use the latest of their instruments of destruction- dynamite, they called it.
Few moments away from detonation, caught between a race war, Joshua realised how he was too weak to fight for his kind, or for his child to be.
But his instruments never wanted blood on them, but to provide enough bread, inside a hut before a warm fire, and beside his love within a warm embrace.


It was difficult to hold on to sanity in those dreary confines.
He sits there, clad in his dried up blood, trying to convince himself of the inescapable truth.
Not that he would die. But that he would be aware of it. And it would not be forgiving.
He feels that he would die the same way he lived- in pain.
But amongst a million scars of flagellations, there was always a healing caress.
Like the night they made love for the first time.
That night, they grew wiser.
They knew not to mourn anymore if they found themselves lost in their pursuit of happiness. They had found happiness in love. And hope in each other.

“Did it hurt when they whipped you?” Mame asked, resting her head on his shoulders.
“Like the coal I mine, I burn too Mame.” he said, tucking her closer to his chest, “….but my mantle remains black, and it shall stay that way!”

But the illusion breaks. Truth prevails and he finds himself broken.
Bloody, he springs up on his feet. He clenches on his wound aggressively and lets out a beastly scream.
He screams and screams, trying to numb one form of pain with another
Yet no tears glaze his eyes.
His parched throat, drenched with coal dust, spews bloody mucus.
His desperate cry resonates throughout the blocked mine, his insides explode in chaos.
But his lungs give up, shortly followed by his will.
His mind drifts in and out of consciousness.
The end seems near.
Joshua makes peace with his eventuality.
He sleeps there, with his knees dug near his chest.
Cradled before death, he thinks of his child, merging with the innocent soul in hopes of feeling the warmth of Mame’s womb.
So that at least in death he could feel protected.


Joshua wakes up.
The sky shines a nimble blue and a bright light steadily swipes across it.
Confused he lies there, trying to understand the rules of this new place.
And then he saw her again.
His beautiful Mame, rising out of the oasis and walking towards him.
Her nude body glistening in the light, smiling her perfect smile.
Joshua prays to whoever would listen. He prays for this to be real and not another torture.
The nearer she comes, a god-like luminescence projects out of her. An enticing silhouette, against a brilliant golden. She holds his hand, and pecks his cheek.
He could feel her touch. He could smell the scent of her scintillating cascade of hair.
And almost, without his assent, his eyes find a flooding release.
He cries like he has never cried.
His arms wrapped around her body, he plans to never let go.
He now knew that this was not his punishment, not another hell. This was his liberation, his freedom.
“Promise me you’ll never go!” he chokes
“I am here to take you home, you silly man.” she said, taking her hand, as a mischievous smile adorns her.
“Where is our child?” he asks.
“Amari is sleeping like an angel, didn’t cry when I left. Such a strong boy!” she says, “Takes after his father, of course”

She faces the light towards what seems the horizon, and tucks on his forearms, indicating to walk with her.

Joshua, happy and free, follows her.

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Glad you could make it till the end. I'm hopeful you enjoyed the read. The purpose of this abridgement is to recite my longer version of the story within a short time frame. The video of my recitation has been put up in YouTube. I have learnt much more than I have contributed to this community. Today I'm asking for your support, something I've always had here. I hope you will share the video. Give it a thumbs up and show some love. And put forward your thoughts in the YouTube comment box.
Your votes and support can make me win!

Thanking you in anticipation.

The link-

https://youtu.be/tl858Nii5Lo

Unfortunately you have to manually copy the link. I would really appreciate you taking the trouble.

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