Masked Men

By Melvin Eapen

He’d have been 13 today. “Daddy, look at me… I’m Batman!” Reflecting on the washroom mirror, Richard recalled the same day two years back. How the boy loved the costume they gifted him on his birthday… His favourite superhero. He was flying in ecstasy through the apartment. Five storeys below the balcony where they found his lifeless body, he still had his Batman mask on. 

Richard would’ve taken the day off, but being back in that empty apartment would only torment him further. Both he and the mother were still fighting to get over the tragedy; with each retracting to their own private spaces. He kept washing his face in a bid to outwit his tears. A colleague that passed by him pried, “Hey, is something wrong?” With a flash too quick, he put on the mask he had frequented as an adult. He uttered in a struggled smile, “No, its just headache.. ” He made way to his desk, among the innumerable cabins.

By Melvin Eapen