Reyansh was academically a good student and loved sports. He was also captain of his school cricket team. His love for cricket was not hidden from anyone. He played it whenever he was off books. It looked like books and cricket were holding him together with life. He knew his responsibilities well and always wished to give his mother every happiness she deserves. He felt she lived only for him and he knew that his successful career could bring her at peace, and it was only then she would put her feet up to relax.
It was Reyansh summer holidays. One day, at noon, when he was about to go out to play cricket with his friends, he could not find his cricket ball. He kept looking for his ball everywhere, which he remembered quite well that he had kept on his bed, the night before. He restlessly looked for it everywhere and wished his mother was not at work now, as she always knew where his things are. He went to his mothers’ room and while looking for the ball he found a trunk below his mothers’ bed. He gazed at it with astonishment, on how he had never seen that trunk before.
Out of curiosity, he opened it. He found his childhood toys, some of his baby clothes, and other stuff that his mother had saved. She always teased him that, she would keep his childhood clothes so that one day she can use them on her grandchildren. He smiled looking at each stuff, all had a story attached to it. He was then surprised to find someone’s reading glasses covered in a cloth. He knew it wasn’t his or his mothers, as both did not wear one. Then he found a men’s watch and some trousers and shirts which weren’t his, nor were they of his size. He also found an inland letter at the bottom of the trunk. Puzzled, without any thought he just opened it.
Tears started to roll of his eyes as he read his father’s name on it. Everything else seemed blur except for that one name which was sealed to his heart. He took a few minutes to come to his senses and now he realized that it was his fathers’ stuff his mother had saved in her trunk of memories. He got up suddenly wanting to run to his mother to ask her about it but then he stopped. He knew if his mother wanted him to know about it, it wouldn’t be hidden all these years. It looked she never wanted him to know about it. And then looking at the letter in his hands, he knew his mother, would also not want him to read it. Will he let this last chance of getting to know something about his father, pass away? He felt that it wasn’t just a letter, it was his fathers’ letter and today, for the first time in his life, he felt closer to him. It was him in that letter. He, with sudden confidence, felt, he doesn’t need his mother’s permission to read it. It was his father’s letter and he had every right to know every bit of him. He then started to read it without giving it any more thought.
