The Forgotten One- Contest Entry

PROMPT:
On your 30th birthday you receive a package from your family that includes a photo album filled with pictures from your ninth birthday party. As you look through it you realize that not only do you not remember your ninth birthday party, you don't recognize the house where the party is being held, or anyone in the photos (except your nine-year-old self). What's going on here?

WORD COUNT:996


The faces in the album smiled at me as I looked at them for the umpteenth time. Their happy grins seemed to mock at me, even as I went through the pages over and over again. Who were all these people, and what were they doing with me? The little girl at the center of attention in the pictures definitely looked like me, but that was all I could recognize! The nine candles declared that it was my ninth birthday, and I could see myself cutting the birthday cake, but where was I? To my utter frustration, it was like I suffered from a memory loss. This needed an explanation.

I made the tenth call in as many minutes to my mother and found no response. My parents had recently shifted to a new house and in the process found a treasure trove of memorabilia in our old house. They thought I would love to see my old pictures and had painstakingly got all the albums brushed, cleaned and spruced up. The albums were a delight indeed. But this particular one was very, very frustrating. I wondered how and why my sister, four then, was missing too.

When the phone rang, I jumped as if my life depended on it. I couldn't wait to ask,
"Mom, where were you? I was so eager to talk to you!"

"What about? We just spoke an hour back. I was not expecting you to.."

"Where were you on my ninth birthday? Was I alone? Who were all those people?" I demanded without letting her finish.

"What?”

“Well, in this album here, my ninth birthday, I am at a loss about who all those people are and why on earth are you and Dad or anyone from our family not a part of it all? Where were you? Where was I?” I emphasized on each word irately.

“Maybe you don’t remember, but you were staying with the Sanbhat family, at my friend Shalini’s house for some days. We had requested them to take care of you. They moved to Canada a few months later and you never saw them again. So you probably don’t remember them. But you must have heard us mention them surely.”

I suddenly remembered Mom’s friend Shalini and realized that it was indeed her. But over the years I couldn’t quite recollect what she looked like then. Then, instinctively a thought struck me.

“Why was Supriya not with me?” I wanted to know.

“Supriya was too small to be left with them. So we had to leave you there alone and you celebrated your birthday there. But I remember you were very happy with your celebrations. Shalini did not make any compromises. She arranged a good party for you and even got you the beautiful dress you can see in the pictures.”

I was even more agitated now. My birthday was always celebrated in the middle of the winter vacations; so obviously, it must have been my vacations then. But the thought that my parents left me alone with another family on my birthday, but took my sister along, was disappointing. And they hadn’t even bothered to get me a birthday dress! I was suddenly engulfed in a whole gamut of emotions.

“You must have had a good time, didn’t you? I’m curious to know where you had been.”

I spit venom unashamedly. I wondered how and why this story never came up amongst us ever before. I also wondered how my sister never mentioned this holiday, since she was not one who could have been silenced easily. I have had many a tussle with her when I tried to get her to keep silent about something, but she invariably would let out the word. How my parents could have kept her silent was a big wonder.

Mom fell silent. I was now very keen to know. I was just about to say something again, when my dad came on the line.

“I think maybe you should discuss this later. Your mother is very upset now.”

He obviously heard our conversation over the speaker phone.

“Why should she be? I just want to know why I was left with the Sanbhat family that winter vacation, even on my birthday! You chose to let Supriya be with you and left me with strangers? I mean, I know she was Mom’s friend, but...”

“We thought you should enjoy your vacation, your birthday and not get stressed with us. We didn’t want to bother you.”

“Bother me? What do you mean?”

“Do you remember your mother was pregnant around that time? There were some complications in her pregnancy and the doctors advised an abortion. But we were keen to have the baby. So we were in deep stress, conducting tests to ascertain if we could keep the baby. We lost. She had to abort our child, and believe me, it was the most stressful time ever. We so wanted that child. Just like we love you both. But we lost that baby.”

I could feel the ground slipping away from under my feet. How could I have misunderstood my parents so? How could I?

“We did not want to ruin your holidays or your birthday. Shalini had kids your age, and offered to take you home for some days to keep you away from this atmosphere. We could not pretend to be happy, and did not want to put you through this. But Supriya was small enough to not realize anything, so we managed with her somehow. The abortion was very difficult for your mother since it was very late into her pregnancy. I’m just thankful she’s alive.”

We all fell silent. I wanted to just disappear somewhere at that instant and was so terribly embarrassed. I just couldn’t speak.

Dad then said, “My child, did you think we forgot your birthday? We wanted to make every birthday happily memorable for you always. But you know, sometimes children forget.”