Homecoming

It was a sunny day in the hills where Vidyut lived. And the rays of the Sun were peeping in frequently through the canopy which was throughout. The world below was totally different. It was full with life. Small shrubs and herbs, plants and short trees served as the carpet.

 On the slope of the hill was a step which had been cleared by Vidyut himself. It had taken him a whole week before he had a clearing big enough for a small house and hadn't slept for a few days. After he was satisfied with his work, he thought of food when only a few meals were left and decided to grow his food himself.

He had built his own kitchen garden to provide him with food and got the seeds from nearby wild vegetation. Till the first harvest was ready he survived on the wild plants.

It was June and the heat was not forgiving at all. He had to till in his kitchen garden all day to reap the fruits of harvest for himself. The plants needn't be watered because the rains were often and the soil was forever moist so irrigation was not an issue. The main problem was of the insects which pestered him. 

They used to eat and destroy the garden in waves. After trying out a few herbs he found Chrysanthemum nearby and grew it in his garden. He also marked his boundary with his pee so that a wild animal could tell that it was taken.

When the rains came, the fragrance of wet mud grew strong and that pleased Vidyut very much, giving him the satisfaction that he won't go hungry and the smell itself was very amusing. He always loved when the first drops fell. He used to go outside and dance to the beats of the rain. He occasionally used to lay in the mud and He always liked the fact that nature surrounded him, giving him a sense of safety.

His small house which he had made of the wood from the trees around was a brown colour and now covered in some places with moss. It consisted of three bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen.

 The first room was for the storage of produce, the second for the household consumption and the last room for him to sleep in. The kitchen had a mud oven which was lit by the dry wood he had to find once in a week. The house had two windows and they gave a beautiful view of the scenic beauty of the green cover which spread out like a warm blanket over the hill and the surrounding plains.

He had set up a sharp and ragged fence around the house to keep wandering animals away and had marked the trees to find his way back. 

The place for nature's call always changed every day and he had to be careful if there were insects nearby. The days when he went in search for wood were the most boring and tiring. He had to cut down a small tree which was about five to six feet high above him with an axe that was now blunt. 

He had found the axe lying in the mud when one day he was marking territory. The wild animals were not many and proved not to be a botheration. The cutting took half the day and by the time he was done he had to haul ass and the wood back home after selecting what he needed. 

Those were the worst days when every inch of his body screamed with pain and the next day was always a haze.

He had lost his parents when they were on vacation, mountain climbing. They were five hundred feet above the ground and climbing when the ropes gave way. They were side by side when it happened. The rope was held tightly by a hook to the mountain and held for a few hours. But when they shifted course because of a large protrusion in their way the rope became stretched on a sharp edge and held for while before it tore in half. 

It was a surprise at first because they had heard the sounds of ropes tearing but couldn't see it and so continued. After that the ropes quickly cut until they hung by the last strand. Alec's father was about to set up another hook in a small crevice when it finally tore and they fell all the way landing with an unsettling thump which made their guide shiver.

Ever since then he had been going from foster homes to schools and back. One day he decided to escape from the foster home and run away to live his own life. He was always treated as a boy who was good for nothing and given the last opinion on everything.

 Vidyut was given the broken bed to sleep on and the smallest room in which all seven children were crammed into. He was always traumatized by the nightmares which came to him every night. The nightmare of his parents falling to their deaths side by side was always the same, recurring every night, leaving him restless throughout the day. It was always the thump which awoke him sweating profusely.

He had had enough of being pushed around and treated badly. He made plans one week before the day he left and told no one about it. He had been on his best behavior for the week and did all his chores with extras, helping the mother.

 Vidyut told the foster mother that he'd go going out for a while to the library to return some books he had taken from school and that it was the last day to do so unless they wanted to pay a fine. Out of care for money she let him go and he packed his bags with goodies to last him a few days with a few bucks that he needed.

He climbed down the stairs and breathed the air of freedom. He looked left and right and ran to the nearest bus depot where he bought himself a ticket without much hassle from the counter,  to somewhere far away from this place, He was filled with joy and boarded the bus with newfound curiosity, sat in the bus and travelled for four hours.

He didn't have any plans to go to anywhere until he found the place. He stopped the bus, slung his backpack on his shoulders, walked with his head held high and never looked back. He had to let go of his past and found a new life among nature.

He found the hill on which he currently lived and fell in love with it immediately. He had wandered around till he found the perfect place to set camp and built fires at nights to make him feel safe. It was a year now he ran away and he didn't regret it any moment for everyday something new was to be discovered.

 Since then no police sirens were heard around and he was finally sure that his foster mother had given up. 

It was a beautiful life since then. No nightmares, no nothing. Only two entities lived there. One was him and one was nature.

 At times he used to look up at the clear sky and watch the stars move. It was true bliss and the night didn't feel so dangerous anymore but instead it was as if she was his mother and took care of him. His old past never bothered him and thought only of tomorrow which was always a step ahead and he wanted to catch up with it.

After toiling under the Sun for most of the day he went inside and made himself a cup of tea. He was fourteen. His body sparkled with sweat all over him and made his muscles stand out. He had broad and beefy shoulders and strong legs which he had made with time. His stomach was laid with a six pack and his face was defined, his hair hadn't been cut for a year and had grown six inches long. His eyes were chocolaty brown and his smile was worth remembering. He had scars on his body which set a reminder for him to not go on the other side of the hill where he had had dangerous encounters with death.

The warm drink slowly slid down his throat and he let out a sigh of relief. He was tired and wanted to fall down on the floor and sleep. That's when he heard a knock. “What the hell was that?!” He thought.

“Was that what I think it was?” he thought to himself and it happened again. This time he was sure that he had heard the correct sound. Vidyut slowly moved towards the wall and picked up his axe. The door was now being knocked frantically.

He held it firmly in one hand, ready to strike and with the other opened the door with a swing. He closed his and brought down axe and missed. He heard running footsteps enter his house and he quickly looked behind.

 For the first time in a year he saw a girl.