Matilda's Decision

Two young girls looked at her, said something and giggled...

                                                    free digital photos.net

 Matilda smiled to herself as she glanced at her reflection in the glass of a barber shop on the way to the library. Her first day.

 The library was  stacked beyond its capacity. From behind the bookshelves two young girls looked at her sneeringly, said something and giggled. Prasanth sir was at the counter, busily going through the data in the computer.

                                                                                                                              free digital photos.net

“Good Morning, sir,” she said cheerfully.
 “I was just making sure that you wouldn’t have any problems taking over.”

“I’m sure I won’t, sir. Not when taking over from you."

He gestured to the girls,“Lakshmi, Keerthi, why are you looking at madam like that? She is the new librarian I was telling you about. Come and introduce yourselves.”

“Sorry, you resemble a woman we know. So we were confused.” Lakshmi said and Keerthi nodded.

Readers kept coming in. So Matilda was busy all day. She noticed a few girls looking up from their books and admiring her looks and her ear-rings.

“I’ll ask my mother to get me a pair like those. See here, I've copied the design.”one girl told another.

Matilda had bought the earring for Rs 40. Were they going to order the model in gold?

The day passed by pleasantly and Matilda was thankful for the double benefit. Doing what she loved in the sweet presence of books; and getting paid for it. She’d get Rs 15,000 at the end of this month. She could pay back her chitti (mother’s younger sister) Rs 5000 every month for a year.

She’d give her mother Rs 7000-Rs 8000 to run the family. Then she need not go to work in other people’s houses any more. 

 If only they could shift to another locality…

After all the readers had left, Lakshmi and Keerthi helped her lock all the doors.

“Where do you come from?” Lakshmi asked her finally, as Keerthi looked on.

“From Sowbhagya colony,” Matilda said as a matter of fact and continued walking.
 After gesturing to Lakshmi,, Keerthi asked her, “Do you know anybody called Mary?”

“She’s my mother,” Matilda said proudly. “Do you know her?”

“She used to come near our houses previously. You resemble her closely.”

“Where do you live?” Matilda asked.

“Sogous Nagar,” they replied in unison.

“And is your father Mr. Muthulingam?” Matilda turned to look at them. They shied away with guilty looks.

Mary had worked in Muthulingam’s house. He had tried to harass her.

When she called for help, he put a false case of theft on her. But a smart lawyer brought the truth to light.

             “We are not responsible for our  parents’ mistakes,” Matilda said.
              “Let’s  be friends."