A Perfect Family

‘Take me to the moon!’ said the old lady to me.

‘Honey! You should be saying take us to the moon’ an old man visibly in his early 60’s corrected her. He put his arm around her then looked at me with a beaming smile.

For a minute I was lost in that whole hearted smile ‘Ah! Yes sir, 2 it is!’ I pulled myself together and answered his smile.

The old lady looked grave but this old man seemed to have the energy enough for both of them. I dropped the money in the money box I put in a sealed drawer in the driver’s cabin. I was about to enter the passenger’s cabin to return the change to the couple when I overheard their conversation.

                            ‘They don’t want us!’ the old man said with a stern expression.

‘I need them Oliver!! I can’t live without Reg or Susie. I gave them my blood and raised them with utmost care for 20 long years…they are like my both eyes, I would go blind without them to see!!’ the old woman yelled, her strong voice now breaking down into a sob. Oliver came close to her, took her in his arms.

‘Rosie’ he said, his voice showing deep affection. ‘I would be glad to give you both of my eyes and see this world through you! We raised our kids with all our might and with beautiful dreams for their future but they just don’t seem to have time for us in their busy lives. All the loving memories we have of them, lets not allow them to be rewritten by the grief we faced through their abuses. Let’s disappear from their lives so whenever they think of us they see two happy faces caressing them and not two old people trying to fit in their already perfect families! And 'we' for each other that’s more than enough for our life to perish in happiness…’

The old woman sobbed slowly for a while, brought herself back to composure, took oliver’s arm in hers and said ‘I still have my heart right here with me and I can live well with the hope it has shown me!’ she said it with a deep breath. ‘That’s certainly a heartfelt remark!’ Oliver chuckled.

This minute I thought would be the right time to barge in so I politely called out ‘Mr.Greghouse?’

‘Oliver!’ he corrected with a smile. I returned him the change and left.

God cannot stand his children happy I told myself. How much I loved kate! I thought she loved me back too…we got married, everything was perfect until one day I found out she cheated on me for a colleague of hers in her law academy. Since then I never saw her face. I left her for ever that day. I just couldn’t stand her happy face with her colleague. Come to think of it I don’t seem to stand the memories of her with me either. I have never seen my parents my whole life. The sister at the St.George’s orphanage brought me up and educated me that was my world, my only world in fact to which I contribute every penny of what I earn.

‘Sir??’

I was trying to shake the thoughts of my loneliness my entire life.

‘Sir?? Are you alright?’ I came back to senses. A young man was shaking my hand vigorously with a worried expression.

‘Oh! Yes! I…I was just carried away by something’, I said managing an awkward smile.

He gave a relieved expression and said, ‘A trip for two!! Take us far away…to the moon!!’ I gave him a puzzled look. ‘Ah! I forgot. I am Tragg and this is Darla and we are deeply in love!’

The young lady nudged him in his chest and said in a whisper (which was audible) ‘You don’t have to advertise that we are running away 'coz the world is against our marriage!!’ Darla said her blush suddenly changing into a frown.

‘Come on Darla! Don’t temme you are not exited. After all which lucky couple gets to marry on the moon huh?’ The lady gave up the fight and started blushing all over again. That reminded me of myself and Kate, a happy couple ten years ago. No! I am not thinking again. ‘Here sir', Tragg gave me the money. I returned the change and left the place.

‘God!! Give me strength to stand happy faces of lovers without thinking about the deceit i faced!!’ I prayed to the lord.
                         

‘Hey you!! Beardy!!’
I looked at my own chin. Mann!! I had a beard! ‘Do I at least remember how I look?’ I wondered. I was drowned in my own thoughts.

‘Hellooooooo beardy!!’ before I could turn back to answer that irritating call someone gave me a tight hug and moved me in circles.

Something was strange about that hug. I broke the hug and tried to look at the person’s face. ‘Jesus Christ!!!’ I screamed at the picture of what I saw. There was a man with his neck cut and head dangling through his nerves. The person then gave a wicked smile and separated his head from his neck. I fell back on the ground in horror! ‘What the???’ I cried falling short of words to complete my own statement.

‘HALLOWEEN!!!’ he cried out ‘HALLLOOOWWEEENNN beardy!! It’s Halloween today!’ Jimmie announced and unmasked himself.
Jim was the first to approach me in response to the advertisement I put in the newspaper about the ‘ride to the moon’. I asked him if his family would agree for such a long trip and he said ‘To know that, you have to ride me to heaven first!’

Jim lost his family in a tragic accident. He locked himself up in his house for months and the neighbors thought he were dead too. Until one day when he shocked everyone by coming to a kid’s party dressed as a clown. Since then there was no looking back. Kids simply adored him and everybody enjoyed his company more than anything else. No one could resist his humor. I was no exception. I was laughing hard.

‘U scared me u clown!!’ I cried back laughing at my own foolishness in falling for his prank.

‘Since when did clowns start scaring people??’ Jim started pulling my leg. I knew there was no way for me to win the argument so I patted his back and dragged him into the passenger’s compartment.

‘Oh!! Thank God!!! Pops I was so worried about you. It’s okay if you don’t want oats for your breakfast, you needn’t have dragged mum and come this long!!!’ Jimmie started off.

I answered Oliver’s bewildered expression with a smile followed by a nod. ‘It’s okay son!’ Oliver was equally sportive. ‘Your mum knew you would come chasing us…this was just a play to get you on a family trip!’ Oliver gave Jimmie a wink. Every one in the cabin chuckled.

‘That’s like my pops!!!’ Jimmie announced. ‘Team are we game??? Are we ready to rock the moon??’ Jimmie cried.

‘Yeah!!’ came everybody’s tone in unison.

‘Louder!! Are we ready??’ Jim cried harder.

‘Yeah!!!’ a very louder one this time. I thought the moon must’ve heard.

‘Not yet! There’s one special passenger left.’ I announced.

‘U didn’t temme you found a girl friend… beardy u traitor!!!’ Jim was the first to react. He started guessing names ‘laura…lilly…stella…’ I saw people enjoying his company deeply. ‘Marie…iris…’ I gave him a smile and stood outside the taxi waiting for my special guest.  ‘Pops… how do you imagine we would bath on the moon with everything floating by?’ I could hear Jimmie talk. ‘No bathing son! Just wiping…wiping of each other’s backs!’

Oliver’s imagination made me laugh. ‘Arika!’ I thought.
                   
            Arika was my neighbor’s child. Her father died of cancer when she was 2 and her mother passed away in grief months after his departure. Since then her grandma raised her. But she passed away when the child attained 6. I still remember Arika’s words on the day of her grand mother’s departure.

‘Uncle! My granny used to tell me people who die become stars…is it?’

‘Yes little one!’ I tried to solace her.

‘I want to go the stars uncle and meet ‘em all again!’ she said, her face showing immense calmness and her eyes shining bright with the reflections of stars she was watching.

‘Little one!’ I said. ‘How many stars do you see there?’ I asked pointing the dazzling stars and the deep blue sky.

‘One…two…three…umm…many!’ Arika announced unable to count any further.

‘Those many families lost their loved ones!’ I said. She seemed to be lost in thought as if cursing the sky for holding so many stars. ‘Don’t you want to take people to their loved ones in a rather different way other than the painful way your parents took?’ I questioned her.

‘Yes I want to!!’ Arika announced, her voice shaking with her own enthusiasm.

Arika wanted to be a rocket pilot and drive people to the space. She won an admission in the ‘California Space Academy’ for which how hard she worked only the God up above knew. Today is her 15th birthday and I am giving her the gift she would cherish whole of her life, A trip to the moon!

‘Uncle!!’ Arika cried out. The feel that her enthusiasm gives me is still afresh! I took her into my arms. ‘I told momma and poppa I would be gone for a while!’ she told me. She said every single incident to her parents who were resting peacefully in their graves. That made her feel they were with her she used to tell me.

‘Good!’ I told her coming back from the tunnel of memories. Arika explained me how many light years distant the moon was from the earth and how much speed is to be maintained at every level of the earth’s atmosphere and after the Taxi frees itself from the earth’s gravity. ‘She has those eyes!’ I thought. The eyes that show the world that her enthusiasm would keep burning until her rocket launches in the space. She always told me she would take me on free rides. ‘How loveable she is!’ I thought. Where ever he is, her father would be a happy man. Everything about this trip was making me happy.

‘I love you…you love me…we are a happy family…’ I heard Jim singing.

Everyone started counting ten (it was Jim’s idea of course!).

‘TEN…NINE…’ my passenger's were started shouting.

‘I could never be in a better place.’ I said to myself. I never had a feel of a complete family. Mother, father, brother and sister!

‘SIX…FIVE…’ everybody went on.

But I think it could be no better than what I feel now, amidst these people. I realize now that I have a family.

‘THREE…TWO…’ the voices went on.

'My very own happy family!' I thought

‘GO!!!!’ everybody cried out at once.

I kick started the car with a whole hearted smile!

‘There began my wonderful journey in the moon taxi with my perfect family!!’