Baby Brother

There is a huge bougainvillea creeper in front of the house in Madras. It is like a tree covered with red flowers, the ground below strewn with the flowers and place looked enchanted. On one side of the house was a mango tree and around the house coconut palms swayed in the wind.
A few days later, “Where is amma?” I ask the maid.
“She is inside working.”
I go inside and check and find her in bed.
“What are you doing in bed? It is still morning.”
”Go outside and play and let amma lie down for sometime. I am feeling tired.”
“Can I lie down with you? I am feeling tired too.”
Okay come on in, where is Vena?”
“She’s with Kousalya.”
I climb in and the bed feels wet. I look at the bed and see blood all over the bed.
“Amma there is blood all over the bed. Amma are you hurt?” And I start crying.
Amma gets up checks the bed and sees she is bleeding.
“Kousalya, Kousalya, come here come here fast.”
“She comes in and sees the blood and looks terrified.
“Here help me clean up. Change the sheets.”
She comes out of the toilet and looks terrible, pale and sick. Kousu helps her sit down and then picks Vena up and goes off to get her mother. A few minutes later Kousu’s mother is here and she shakes her head and asks Kousu to send someone to get appan. Then Kousu takes Vena and me to her house.
“What is wrong with amma?”
“Oh don’t worry nothing, maybe she cut herself.”
“Then why did your mother want appan to come home?”
“Maybe she has to be taken to hospital.”
“Why?”
“To get a check up.”
We eat at Kousu’s house. Then go to sleep. At night I feel I am being carried, I open my eyes and see I am at home in my bed. Appan and amma are talking softly.
“Don’t worry. It was not meant to be.”
“But it was a boy and we didn’t even know.”
“It was not in our hands. God gives and He takes away.”
I listen for sometime before drifting back to sleep.