A Mother’s Love and Protection
A short fiction story about a mother’s love and lesson for her child
The young mother had her one-month-old son strapped to her back, with a dark blue, gold-embroidered cloth. The forest floor was wet after the heavy rains. She was scared and she was running for her life. Savitri was used to the forest, she had lived as a child here it was home to her.
The young woman had lost her husband a month ago at the hands of the rebel guerillas who scoured the area for land that they could take over. They were now after her land. Her husband Raj, who was a school teacher in the local town school refused to give in to the demands of the rebel leader, the notorious Ram Singh. He did not stand a chance as he was gunned down in front of her. Ram Singh the murderer told Savitri that he would return and claim the land.
It was now a month since they had attacked her home. The young mother knew that they would return to kill her, her son and claim the land as their own. She knew what she had to do to protect the future of her baby son.
Savitri was heading to the Mission Orphanage in the nearby town with her baby. One hour later she was on her way back, she had successfully completed her mission. Her son and her land were safe now.
The next morning, she heard the rebels coming up the jungle trail. The young mother knew what she had to do. She ran into the forest and towards the raging waterfalls. She whispered a prayer, as she reached the edge of the waterfalls. The rebels and their blood-thirsty leader Ram Singh were coming up behind her in their jeeps, screaming her to stop, with guns blazing bullets in the air.
It was at that instant that Savitri flew into those fast-flowing waterfalls, with a prayer on her lips for her son, she would never see her son grow up to be a young man.
Thirty years later. The forests are wild, and the rebels still are a threat to the people. But, there is one place where the rebels and their leaders keep away from, the Orphanage for Children in the heart of the jungles.
The government protects the Orphanage which is managed and owned by a young man, Reverend Ramesh. He was a popular, respected man in the village, having completed his education in the city. Ramesh had returned to fulfill a promise he had made as a young man. He would protect those children who had lost their families. He was the owner of the land on which he built his haven for lost and abandoned children.
Ramesh heard a noise outside his door. He opened the door and saw a small child standing outside, with a letter. The child was from the Savitri Orphanage for lost and abandoned children. He opened the letter and was happy with the news. The Government was finally going to arrest all the rebels and their leaders.
He walked to his verandah and looked out across at the jungle trees, leaves, pathways, and foliage. His mother would be happy he thought to himself. He looked at the wall in his study, there was a black and white photograph of his young mother Savitri, who gave up her life to protect him.
At the side of the photograph was a framed copy of the Land-ownership deeds for the land owned by his family. Ramesh looked at the small display cabinet in which he kept his most treasured item, the dark-blue gold embroidered cloth in which his mother had wrapped him, when she gave him up to the Mission Orphanage, so many years ago.
The final wish of the young mother Savitri was to give her son to an orphanage in the nearby town, along with the land documents which were in her family for generations. By saving her baby son that day, Savitri had also taught him the value of children in the world, they are humanity's future.
