It had been precisely twenty-eight days since Shiuli Basu had lost her parents in an accident. The only thing that was left with her right now was hope… Something she didn't want to lose, ever. Amisha's parents were going to legally adopt Shiuli and right now she was staying with them. Their money and influence made sure that they get Shiuli's custody and they were very nice to Shiuli. Amisha always tried to cheer Shiuli up by baking her cakes and taking her out for lunch at Mc. Donalds every Saturday. Amisha's entire family was tirelessly working to brighten up Shiuli's face and slowly and steadily, Shiuli had come to accept her parent's demise. It was all very hard at the start… Shiuli would not eat properly and would not take her medicines on time. After her miraculous recovery, Shiuli's medical progress was quite miraculous as well. Her brain injury required her to rest half the day, but she could go out once in a while in her wheelchair. Shiuli felt crippled and useless, but a new fire burned itself in her heart. She did not waste any time… whenever she got the time, she took out her laptop and wrote down a short story or some poems. She was stitching a plot for her new novel too.
Shiuli was resting in her bed. Due to oversleeping, Shiuli was getting quite restless and bored. Shiuli stared at the ceiling of her new room and imagined her old room back in her parent's house. Though Lalita aunty, Amisha's mom had made sure that her new room looked exactly like her old one… Shiuli missed her old room very much. She missed her old house, her time there, and the thing she missed the most was her parents.
"Hey! You should be sleeping!" Amisha entered the room grinning.
"You look like an idiot right now, know that?"
"Really? I think I look just fine, stupid girl."
"Yeah… so I wanted to ask you something."
"Shoot."
"My house." Shiuli looked at Amisha hopefully, "I will have it right?"
"Definitely, Shiuli! That house belonged to your parents… you were their only daughter! It has to be yours."
Shiuli smiled. That house was everything to Shiuli right now. The memories that she had made with her parents were all trapped in that house. Every corner of that house was like a time machine… it transported her to the times when she had a good time with her parents. Shiuli would stay with Amisha and her parents till she grew up and completed her education… and then she would go back to her parent's house. It wasn't like she didn't like staying here, but her attachment to her own house was something that words couldn't explain.
"Okay… so it's Saturday, remember?" Amisha clapped her hands with joy, "It's lunch at Mc.D day! Yay!"
"Oh… right. Since when did you enjoy eating carbs?"
"Since the day I realized that dieting wasn't helping. I mean, I wasn't losing any weight, and plus, how can anyone live without burgers and chocolates?"
"Woah, girl! Chocolates!?! I thought you had stopped eating those."
"That was when I was dieting, stupid. Now I can't live without them."
"Nice, just don't fall sick due to eating too much okay?"
Shiuli laughed. It was the first time she had laughed since her parents had passed away. Shiuli was glad that she had a best friend like Amisha. She was girly and the most popular girl at school, but she wasn't a typical queen bee. She was fun and caring. She always understood Shiuli like no one else. Amisha was like her sister… and well, now that she was going to be adopted by Amisha's parents, Amisha had become her sister… her family.
Amisha called out to the gardener of the house so that she could help Amisha to get Shiuli into her wheelchair. It was their "lunch at Mc. Donald's day" and Manoj uncle himself was going to drive them there. Amisha said that he and Lalita aunty would both join them for lunch today and it would be a complete family lunch day. Shiuli loved her new family… they were better than any relatives she had. They unconditionally loved her and took care of her. But, no matter how much they tried… Shiuli always cried herself to sleep.
"Ouch!" Shiuli winced in pain as her fractured hand hit the armrest of her wheelchair.
"Shit!" Amisha's eyes went wide with concern, "It hurt? Are you okay?"
"Yeah… Chill. It hurt just a little, like very little."
"I have to be more careful with you, Shiuli."
"Sure…" Shiuli smiled.
"And yes! How is your head doing? Does it still hurt a lot? The doctor said that you might get serious headache once in a while… he says it's nothing, but still… if it hurts too much, make sure you tell me… or mom… or anyone in this house."
"Yeah… Got it. It doesn't hurt that bad though. I have learned to bear the pain, I guess."
"Okay… Now that you are officially going to be my sister, I want to tell you that I love you, okay?"
"You didn't love me before, traitor?" Shiuli teasingly slapped Amisha's hand, "Oh, I hate you now."
"No idiot! I loved you back then too, but now that you are going to be my sissy… I love you much more than I did before."
"I love you too, sister."
***
The day had been really awesome for Amisha. Shiuli was finally moving on from that terrible accident and was actually liking it here in her house. Amisha was really worried for her friend, she was recovering very fast, but due to her severe brain injury, Shiuli couldn't strain herself much by reading or writing something. Amisha made sure she kept Shiuli away from her laptop as much as she could, but Shiuli somehow managed to get to it and write something. It was hard for Shiuli to do nothing and rest all day, but the doctor's orders were to be heeded. Amisha was in her room, holding Shiuli's laptop. She had authoritatively seized her laptop and taken it with her… she was being hard on Shiuli for her own good, but it filled her heart with guilt when she thought about what all her best friend had been through.
"How is she doing?" Amisha's mom slowly entered the room, "Is she liking it here?"
"From what I know, she loves us… But mom, she just lost her parents… I think it is going to take her a long time to be that old Shiuli again. We just have to give her all the happiness we can. Her dreams are everything she is living for. She says that it was her parent's dream too that she became a successful writer someday."
"Ridhima was a very good friend of mine and your father was never so close with anyone as much as he was with Mr. Basu. We will make sure she gets everything she has ever desired to have. We will try our best to take her parent's place… I promise."
"I know… I am just worried. She still hasn't completely gotten over their death and I don't know whether I will ever see that fun and smart Shiuli again."
Amisha's eyes were teary and she hugged her mom immediately. All the stuff that was going on in her life had just made her love her parents more than she ever had. She thanked God every day whenever she saw their smiling faces and her perspective towards everything in the universe had changed. She now believed in miracles and magic. Wasn't it a miracle that Shiuli was still alive? Wasn't it magic that Shiuli was recovering so fast? Magic to Amisha was god's blessing. Amisha now made sure that she visited the Ganesha Temple behind her house every day without fail. Her faith in God had been renewed by Shiuli's miraculous recovery.
Amisha set out towards the Ganesha Temple with a content face. Amisha was glad that her life hadn't all gone out of control and she prayed to God every day that he gives her the strength to fight any battle that may arise in the near future. Just as Amisha was about to take a right turn toward the temple gate, she spotted a handsome young foreigner walking past her in the direction of her house. He glanced at her once with his big, cold silver-colored eyes and then looked straight ahead with purpose. He was dressed in an all-black business suit and carried a fancy-looking briefcase with charming grace. The stranger was very intimidating and Amisha wondered what he was doing in her locality. His motive is none of my business. Amisha shrugged the man away and gracefully walked towards the temple.
***
Shiuli was in her room staring at the ceiling. It was really boring to rest all day and do nothing at all! She even missed solving math, which was her least favorite pass time. She stared at the empty room and imagined what secrets the world must be hiding from the human race… If Death was a creature like Yamraj in the Hindu myths, Hades in the Greek myths, and Pluto in the Roman myths, then not everything was a "myth" after all. Maybe Death is a god? Shiuli wondered that if Death was a god after all then, there must exist other gods too… like the ancient pagan gods maybe. And even if he wasn't a god… what was Death anyway? He surely wasn't human! Humans could not materialize as he could. What other powers did the guy have? The thoughts were too many and Shiuli's head ached a little from all the thinking.
Suddenly, there was a tap in the window. Was somebody out there? Some stupid friend of hers who thinks it is funny and cool to call your friend from their window? She slowly propped herself up on her pillows and tried to look outside the window. Shiuli's room was on the ground floor of the house and her bed was attached to the room's only window so that Shiuli could look outside and entertain herself once in a while. Shiuli tried to see who was out there and spotted just a tiny black briefcase… wait! Shiuli's eyes went wide… isn't that Death's briefcase? Shiuli remembered talking to her parent's soul that was stored in that fancy briefcase. Had Death come to see her? Talk maybe about something important he had mentioned that night at the hospital. Shiuli's fractured hand was hurting due to the weight of her body resting on it. She slowly sat up with great effort and tried to open the window with her free hand. It took Shiuli a lifetime to open the window with one hand, but once it was done, she saw a tall man in a black suit gracefully approach the briefcase. One glance at that typical business suit and Shiuli knew that it was Death.
She stared directly at him and when their eyes met, Shiuli immediately looked away. His eyes were hypnotizing and Shiuli felt lost in them. She looked down at her fractured arm and the next moment, Death was standing right there outside the window, just a few inches away from her face.
"Hey!" Shiuli protested, "If someone sees you out there like that, I will be in trouble!"
"I am invisible to the world except for you."
"It hasn't been a month yet and you are here already. Have you changed your mind or something? Do you want to take my soul away?"
"No, but I have to tell you something and it is really important… whatever I will be telling you will seem stupid and unbelievable to you, but you must listen to me. Do you promise to keep your mouth shut till I am done talking?"
"Nothing is unbelievable to me anymore… anyways, yes… I promise."
Shiuli looked at this young man and felt the tension in his eyes. He is not just telling me something, but he is going to ask me something. Shiuli was very good at reading expressions. She could tell when someone was about to prank her or when someone was about to tell something really serious. Even though Death was not human and his facial expressions were very different from that of humans, she noticed a hint of hesitation in the way he pursed his lips together.
"Are you Spanish?"
"What? Why do you ask that?"
"I was just curious to know. You look Spanish."
"I was just about to tell you something!" he frowned, "Anyways, I am not human so, I don't have any nationality."
"That explains you not having an accent… You must be a god then, you know like Yamraj or Hades or something like that."
"No." he narrowed his eyes, "I am no god. You, humans, have written stupid stories about me. I am just a creature of the dark. Moon is my mother."
"Moon? Wow… Is she like a person too? You know like you?"
"Well, yes… I mean she doesn't always show us her human form, but yes…"
"Then she must be a god! You are the son of a goddess?"
"Uh… no." Death blinked, "God is the creator of the universe and he created us all alike. The sun, the moon, the creatures of the dark, et cetera. He also created you humans to adorn this beautiful planet of earth. We, creatures, are just assigned to maintain the balance in the universe."
Shiuli wondered at the prospect of having creatures who look human but are actually people who work for the functioning of the universe. This whole thing was so fascinating that she could write a novel on this… Shiuli now understood how the universe functioned… God did not look after everything on his own… He created creatures like humans but, a little more responsible than them and assigned them the task of looking after the working of the universe. The universe was himself the god!
***
Death was surprised at how this girl here could be so… different. She knew she was with Death himself and if he has an appointment with you, it can never be for a hearty conversation, but Shiuli was not… disgusted by him… yet. Death was sure that once she would listen to what he was here to tell her, she would freak out and never want to see him again. The thought of that alone felt weird to Death… What was it that he was feeling? Tension? But Death was never tensed!
Death looked at Shiuli's eyes and saw a strange light in them. Something he had never seen before in her eyes. Her eyes were burning with a newfound enlightenment. Did she even understand the complications of his work? No… but she thought she did. Good for her.
"Alright. So… I had to tell you something."
"And I promised to shut up till the end and hear you out. Go on then."
"Hmm." Death sighed, "So, the other day when I was in the hospital, I was there to collect your soul. You were supposed to die with your parents that night, but I couldn't take your soul because your parents didn't want you to die. They wanted you to live and fulfill your dreams. They requested me to spare your soul and I had to talk to my superior to let you live. But as you know, nothing in the universe comes without a price. You have to pay a price to live." Death paused.
"Why did you stop? You're definitely not done talking! What price were you talking about and you have a superior? Death has a superior?"
"Well, about the price… my superior was unhappy with some mistakes I made with my job, and thus, he wanted me to have an assistant and since your life was spared by me, he wanted you to assist me. It will be a tough job. I will contact you once in a while whenever I will have extra work about which I will inform you in detail later and you will have to help me take souls away. Now, you might not want to do the job and I totally understand."
"Who said I wouldn't want to be your assistant?"
"What?" Shock filled Death's face, "Why would you? It's a terrible job to do!"
"I thought you wanted an assistant, Mr. Death. Why are you offering me a job and then persuading me to not take it?"
"I don't need helpers for my job! It's just! Ughhh!"
Death didn't know how to explain the nastiness of his job to this girl! It's not like any sane person would like to be Death's assistant! It was like a murder to the humans. They wouldn't understand the nobility of his task and they have always associated him with evil. Why? Wasn't this Hades Shiuli was talking about a nasty god who had kidnapped his own wife and forced her to marry him? How disgusting!
Death punched the wall next to the window he was standing and let the tension and annoyance slip out of him so that he could just try and get over all this already. If this girl here really thought it was fun to be his assistant and that she would like it… Death would be happy to see her dream bubble burst when she gets her first assignment with him. Let her believe in whatever she believes this job will be. Death looked up at Shiuli and took a deep breath.
"Your first assignment with me will be sixty days from now. I will come and get you at 11 pm sharp. Make sure that your friend or her parents aren't in the room. I will meet you right here."
"Okay… but sixty days from now? Isn't that too late?"
"You should heal completely from all your injuries to assist me. I don't think anyone can work efficiently with a sling around their arms and plastered legs."
"I only fractured one leg, sir. Thank you for being the typical rude boss already!"
"Whatever..."
***
Just as Death left, Shiuli laid herself down on her bed and resumed her boring task of staring at the ceiling and resting herself. Death was quite shocked to hear that she would be his assistant and it didn't amuse her at all. Actually, Shiuli knew that Death didn't want any assistants and this time he was forced to have her as his assistant by this "superior", whoever that was. Shiuli took up the job not because she was too intimidated by the fact that she was to work alongside a creature of the dark, but she took up the job because she knew that Death's job was a noble one… it was a service to the universe and not everyone is lucky enough to get an opportunity to serve the universe. Death was important in maintaining the balance of the human population in the world and thus, she agreed to help Death in doing his job more efficiently. Shiuli was glad that she could work with him and learn from the souls. She knew that souls become wiser after their deaths because they realize the importance of being alive better at that point. Shiuli wanted to talk to different souls and try to learn more about life. It was going to be hard… maybe harder than Shiuli was expecting it to be, but she had to give it a try.
Shiuli really wanted to start working on her new novel. She now had the plot to write with and she didn't want to waste any time. Everything that was going on in her life was so complicated and magical that she wanted to write it down and present it to the world. She would write about the universe and the moon in a human form, a mother figure to Death… and she would also write about Death. His personality was cold but charming and his face was as pale as snow! She would write about everything that was happening in her life, but the world will think that it is just an output of her creative powers… wait, creativity does actually have power!
Shiuli wondered if all this in her life was just her imagination. What if I am going crazy? But Shiuli felt enlightened by all of this. She felt like she knew a little too much for a human to know and she felt blessed. Shiuli wondered what her parent's soul must be doing now… maybe floating happily in the fields of heaven. Who knew? After all, anything was possible if Death could be an actual person. Anything was possible if a mere human could be chosen to be Death's apprentice! The thought filled Shiuli with hope. She wanted to serve the universe as there was nothing nobler than that. The universe was god after all. The creator of everything!
Shiuli closed her eyes and prayed to the universe to look after her. She prayed for a while and slowly fell asleep. Tomorrow will be better than today! And well, that wasn't hope… it was a promise she made to herself and her parents.