The Mother

By Prabir Kumar Datta

The baby was crying incessantly in hunger for last half an hour, screaming at its 

loudest, to the extreme anguish of Paula and much annoyance of the fellow 

passengers of the aircraft. She was at a loss and cursing herself for having 

forgotten to carry the baby food in such a long journey, which she had never done 

earlier. 

‘But something need to be done urgently, or else, it may succumb’, she 

thought. It was a six month old baby that had come to the earth prematurely at the 

end of her thirty fourth week of pregnancy and had  survived at last after struggling 

a lot ,but she herself became  incapacitated to breast feed it. 

That something like this was going to happen today came to her mind the moment 

she had found that ugly looking lady with bad scar all over her face in the seat next 

to her. With much agony she had tried her best to have the seat changed, but did 

not succeed. So she now left the seat with a frown and started strolling in the aisle 

with her baby, trying to pacify it frantically.

“ Give it to me.”

Startled, Paula looked back and discovered with surprise that the offer came from 

that very ugly lady who by this time had got up from seat and was coming to her. 

She was scared, but before she could react the lady snatched the baby from her and 

to her utter amazement, took the baby in arms, unzipped her large breasts and held 

before its mouth. Paula wanted to resist her vehemently but could not. 

All the co passengers in the aircraft kept gazing at the unexpected incident 

happening before them. The next moment, they all saw that the baby suddenly 

stopped crying and began to suck her breast with great joy.

Paula was at her wit’s end and did not know what to do now, whether to scold the 

lady or beg pardon to her. Just a while ago she was thinking the presence of the 

lady to be an ominous one to her, but now suddenly she appeared as her rescuer. A 

feeling of relief gradually replaced the frustration that she was in a short while ago.

“I am sorry. But there was no other way.” The lady said. “Don’t worry, there is 

enough milk here.”She added with a guilty smile.

After things settled and they got back to their seats the lady pointed to her scar and 

said,” Everyone is afraid of these. They are the result of a fire in my bedroom 

months back.”

Is it. So sad. I am very sorry.” Paula could only say with lot of hesitation.

“I somehow survived, but my baby died yesterday after fighting a lot.”

Paula could not believe her ears.

“I was hesitant, but could not resist myself to see your baby crying.” The lady said.

Paula did not how to react. Her own conscience was now biting herself. 

After two hours two new friends came out of the airport smiling and talking.

By Prabir Kumar Datta