Opinions Cost Nothing

Public Opinion by George Bernard O'Neill

The clouds with a noticeable tranquility have begun to shed their greyish tint over the fatigue troubled trees, lifeless apartments, nests and the people and birds hurrying to bestow their liveliness back. With the roads radiating from the glow of myriad vehicles and the happy faces riding them, the sun is down again after ironically waiting for its moon to arrive. Absorbing the ambience at the near doorstep of her home, she strode past all the mutterings and looks coming from nowhere. The buzzing from the kitchen and the invariably flashing news brought her senses back from brooding over the plight of her hair. She rested her bag on a pile of a rack and rushed to revive her ardour dissipated in the monotonous quest for knowledge.

Nothing is more soothing than water dripping over, piercing your skin with all the chill it has, she thought for the unaccounted time. Unconcerned about the conversation which hardly reached her ears, she caged her long sable colored hair with an aide of a band. Some thick strands of hair beside her ears rebelled against being held captives and freed themselves making her whine for their messiness.

“Why don’t you get married again?” Renuka’s father asked and muted the volume of the television, shifting his impatience towards her response.

“Hadn’t we complied on this ever before?” she reciprocated, swaying away from the mirror which always backed his father’s concern.

“Yes! We had it enough, but we never resolved on this, if my recollection is good.”

“This one will never be resolved if you wish me to say the exact words you have framed in your head.”

“How long will you stay alone or along with me like this? This is not doing any good for any of us.”

“I don’t feel any necessity to marry again, and this is my decision for always. You don’t have any trouble in the name of me as far as this moment. And let me know if there is one.”

“This is not about me. It’s about you and her. You are not receptive to understand the burden of a single parent.”

“I am earning well for myself and her. And are you really bothered?“

“I can’t bear the disgusting small talk that reaches my ears albeit my ignorance.”

“So that is what bothers you, people and their opinions, not me, my life!” she said in a tone which is superfluous to hush the feud.

“You don’t give ears to what I really intend to say. I badly want you to get your life together, darling.”

“Dad, you will be contented with my life when you don’t think about the small talk that you hear,” saying that she chipped into her daughter’s room after getting approved for her knock.

Leisurely reaching her glance she asked, “How was your day, honey?”

“Not much interesting, mom,” she smirked.

“You look weary. Come, I will give something for you to eat,” she fondled her forehead and slid her hand against the back of her head.

“Mom, I am not hungry. A coffee would be generous.” A zephyr tickled her liberated strands of hair and reminded her of its abhorrent proliferation.

“Okay with that. Wait! I will be back with some coffee.”

“I need to do a haircut, mom.”

“Seriously, why?” she jolted with a smile.

“Look! Isn’t it clumsy?”

“It doesn’t look so, and you have such long hair.”

“Yes, but I am not very comfortable with that. It is distracting and I don’t like it this way.”

“No, not now for sure. Our relatives, God! the glances and the prying they would cast upon us will be more annoying than your hair.”

“So, I should do things as people want me to do and not live on my own terms?” despair fenced around her lips and heart.

“You can live as you wish but at some time you can’t seclude yourself from society.”

Not allowing the silence to follow her mother’s words she advanced, “And when I try to do that my mom would pull me back to put an end to her neighbour’s questions and my desires.” At the end, her hair and head felt gleeful as the forced decision on them to part their ways was futile.

By the moment she left her daughter’s room, the greyish clouds had turned black emitting darkness over the lives beneath it.

THE END