Surbhi Sachdeva
Linda was just about to shut the bakery when she saw a little boy of about 5 years of age standing outside with his nose pressed against the display, eyes almost screaming hunger. Completely oblivious to his mother’s tugging and nagging, he remained glued to his spot. Linda beckoned him in, and he ran inside with a newfound joy, his mother trying to keep pace. Linda gladly gave him a cupcake and even some candy; “It’s on me” she smiled and told his rather disapproving mother.
Once the boy was gone, she flipped the open sign and locked the door haphazardly, eager to rush upstairs to her apartment. She burst in through the door, only to find her sister Glinda curled up on the couch; about to weep, Linda was late again. She crouched gently on her side and smoothed Glinda’s hair, lovingly kissing her forehead. She used her hands to signal Glinda that it was time for her lesson, and ushered her toward the piano and sat her down. She opened the booklet of sheet music to where they’d left off last evening, a shorter rendition of ‘Ode to Joy’ by Beethoven. This legendary composer and Glinda shared a mutual trait; they had both been deaf and mute since their early youth. As Glinda began to play, she walked to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. As soon as Linda vanished from her sight, Glinda panicked and created a loud monotonic noise, since she did not trust the piano enough to be left alone with it. Linda ran back and soothed her sister, encouraging her to play again. For Glinda, playing the piano was nothing more than sitting before this massive contraption and pressing its keys in accordance with the notes given. She remembered what music sounded like, but she never had the chance to experience the beauty of the sounds that she created. Whoever saw her play just exhaled a sigh of pity, and advised Linda accept the futility of these lessons, after all, even Beethoven learned music before he lost his hearing. But Linda would not back down so easily, and she was willing to defy everyone to prove her sister was not disabled.
An hour later, the lesson came to an end and Linda, too tired to cook anything, reheated some muffins and a bit of leftover quiche. Both the sisters ate their dinner in silence and Linda retired to bed after putting her sister to sleep. As she lay down, she picked up a picture of her parents from the nightstand and caressed their two-dimensional faces whispering ‘I miss you’ before she lay her head on the pillow again.
Two years ago, her father had met with a fatal train accident while travelling to Manchester for work. Linda had been at boarding school at the time, but had returned home upon hearing of her father’s demise. Her mother wasn’t ready to face this harsh reality and refused to step out of her room for a month. Due to severe depression, she had acquired acute insomnia, and was required to be heavily sedated to be able to sleep. One December morning, about three months after the accident, she found her mother sleeping till almost 9. Thinking to herself that her mother’s body was in dire need of rest, she didn’t bother waking her up and went down to the bakery. When she returned in the afternoon for lunch, she found Glinda on their mother’s bedside, violently shaking her arm. Linda stepped between them and held her mother’s face. This is when she noticed that Lilian did not seem to be breathing. She screamed and ran all the way to the hospital 2 blocks away, not pausing to take off her flour-caked apron and put on her coat. Tears spilled uncontrollably on her face as she escorted the doctor to Lilian’s bedside. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Evelyn has departed the earth to join her husband, it seems to be a case of overdosage of sleeping pills, which is quite common with patients” the doctor informed Linda solemnly. Glinda began to howl when Linda translated what the doctor just said, and Linda had to pull herself together to calm her sister. For the months that followed, Linda was constantly burdened with responsibility, be it the bakery or her sister, since she was the sole bread earner of the Evelyn family. What annoyed her the most was how flatly neighbours and relatives told her they were sorry for her loss. But Linda knew that this could not break her, though her soul felt shattered and incomplete. Two years later, 18 year old Linda and her recently adopted baby sister Glinda were managing to get by, albeit the persistent financial shortage they faced, it was as if her earnings just vanished into thin air. Despite the lack of a biological relation between the sisters, Linda loved Glinda immensely and refused to heed any advice to send her sister to a foster home.
Linda slept peacefully that night, only to wake up to find Glinda missing. She jumped out of bed and checked every room in the apartment, but Glinda was nowhere to be found. Now Linda grew anxious, as she knew that calling out her name would be of no avail. She bitterly banged the lid of the piano, only to notice something amiss. The lid was protruding ever so slightly. Linda carefully lifted it to find Glinda lying inside in a fetal position. She urgently scooped her sister out, who was still deep in sleep and lay her down on the couch. She checked her breathing and dialed the hospital’s number on their newly purchased telephone.
Within 10 minutes, an ambulance arrived at her doorstep and Glinda was rushed to the hospital. Linda restlessly sat in the waiting hall, resisting the urge to walk right into the ER. Just as she was getting up to find out what was going on, a doctor came out with a gleaming face.
“Linda Evelyn, yes?”
“That’s correct. How’s Glinda?”
“She’s fine. Correct me if I’m wrong, but according to Ms. Evelyn’s medical records, she suffered from chronic loss of hearing and speech due to injury and infection”
“Yes, I’m aware of that”
“Sure. Linda, Ms. Evelyn’s hearing and speech appears to be perfectly normal, this is nothing short of a miracle”
Linda’s reaction went from disbelief to an ecstatic joy. She followed the doctor to the ER, almost skipping with happiness. She saw Glinda sitting on the hospital bed and pounced on her sister, suffocating her with a bear hug. “Linda, you’re choking me!” she laughed. Linda stared at her in astonishment, her mouth practically hanging open in shock. “You can hear me?” she asked with glee.
“Yes, of course! It’s as if sleeping in the piano rejuvenated my hearing and vocal chords; that piano cured me Linda! It really cured me! You knew about its healing powers all along didn’t you? That’s why you started those lessons of yours” she joked.
“But how in heavens did you land up inside the piano?”
“It’s odd, because I have no memory of leaving bed. I probably sleepwalked. But who cares? I can finally speak again!” Glinda shrugged.
Linda was so overjoyed that tears welled up in her eyes, as she thanked God for his kindness.
Beautiful ending, isn’t it? Think again. What if I were to tell you Glinda had never suffered from any sort of hearing or speech disability? Let’s rewind to four years back, when Glinda, or Amy (her actual name), still resided in the city orphanage. At fourteen years old, she was the oldest there. For several years, she had watched children come and go, pleasing potential parents by exuding cuteness. Amy was always shy and rather reluctant to meet new parents; since she thought they would abandon her just as her own parents had when she was born. But soon, she came to be seen as a burden on the orphanage, as the adoption market for children above 10 years of age was almost negligible. The orphanage had to rid themselves off of her, the older the kids grew the more nuisance they caused. They decided to resort to a rather horrifying strategy, deciding to declare her as a deaf and mute child as they felt this would spark more sympathy in the couples and make Amy more amicable and special. For a month, she was made to ‘prepare’ for this role, learning sign language, obliterating any act that might give her away, like startling when she heard a sound, responding to her name, and other such measures were taken. A fake medical record and case history were fabricated and she was ready to be adopted.
Less than a fortnight later, the Evelyns came to the orphanage, looking for a slightly older girl about their daughter’s age who could fill the missing void Linda had created ever since she left for boarding school. To her delight, Amy was finally adopted and rechristened as Glinda Evelyn.
Though the family was extremely loving and caring towards her, Amy was quite discontent with her predicament. She hated the façade she had to put up in front of them, acting as if she couldn’t hear a word anybody said. She was treated with great sympathy everywhere, and could never communicate how she felt to anybody. This created a gradual transition from happiness to great frustration.
One night, while the Evelyns were out and Linda was at her boarding school, Amy decided to venture outside on her own. Since it was quite late, the only place open was the tavern at such an odd hour. Seeing nothing better to do, Amy walked in. She had an enviable height and built for a fourteen year old, and nobody suspected that she was just a minor. She went and sat on a bar stool and asked for a glass of water. The man, probably in his early twenties, sitting next to her frowned and said “Really? You come all the way to the bar for water? Is it the men that interest you?” he winked. Amy smiled shyly and shrugged. The man introduced himself as Edmund and ordered her a whole pint of beer. She gaped at the humungous jug before her, hesitant to pick it up. “Come on, it’s better than you think” he prompted. She took a huge gulp and instantly spat it out instantaneously and muttered, “It’s horrible”. “Well, nobody drinks it for the taste” he smiled wistfully. Though Amy didn’t drink much, she enjoyed herself thoroughly with Edmund and his fellow miner friends as they joked and sang and danced all night. She looked at the clock only to realize it was almost midnight. She said her goodbyes and got up to leave as Edmund shouted behind her ‘Hope to see you again Cinderella!’
Amy grinned to herself as she walked home, changing out of her clothes and climbing into bed as if she’d never left the house. Her conscience reminded her that the bar was no place for young girls like her, but it was the only respite in her otherwise miserable life as Glinda. She wanted to revisit the bar, but her parents were always around, forcing her to bore herself at home.
Skipping to the aftermath of Mr. Evelyn’s death, Amy realized that the only hurdle between her and the bar was Lilian. She became even more irritable as she was all alone now. One night, Lilian asked her in signs to fetch a glass of milk for her and dissolve 2 sleeping pills in it. While she was dissolving the pills, a very dastardly thought struck her. She opened the box and emptied the 5 remaining pills into it. “Oops” she whispered and grinned smugly. She gave the glass of milk to her mother and flashed a sickly sweet smile at her. She went back to bed, not doubting or regretting her actions for a second. We are quite aware of what followed.
Let’s again skip ahead to 2 years, when both the sisters were fending for themselves. Amy now managed to sneak out to the bar almost every night, exploiting their meager income to buy in order to buy drinks, without awakening Linda (the poor girl being too tired to budge from her sleep). One such night, she drank way beyond her capacity and the bartender practically ordered her to go home, offering to escort her. Rudely refusing, she somehow managed to stumble back home (hurling her guts out en route) and slumped onto the couch. Right in front of her lay the piano she hated so much. She walked up to it and opened its lid, and began to tell it off “You just sit around here with that holier-than-thou expression of yours even though you know how much I hate sitting and punching your keys everyday” she slurred. In her drunken state, she forgot what she was saying and suddenly murmured “It’s so cold, and you look so cozy, perfect to sleep in” and she crawled into the piano and drifted off in no time.
The next morning she opened her eyes to find herself in the hospital bed, a nurse examining her ears and throat. This is when she realized what had happened, and she began to fear the worst. She knew her secret wouldn’t remain so much longer. She began to brainstorm and finally decided upon the most ludicrous and unviable of explanations, that she had no idea how she landed up inside the piano but it had managed to cure her overnight. Surprisingly, everyone, including the doctor, seemed to believe that the girl had magically been cured by the piano! Amy was just glad she was finally allowed to speak again, though this didn’t stop her from going to the bar every night.
A month later, Linda heard about a job opening for a piano player at the local tavern, consideringGlinda to be perfect for the job. But she finally decided against it, thinking her little sister was too naïve to work there and would probably land herself in some ugly mess.
ANGREZI LUNGI 