Her mother woke her up early in the morning and instead of cuddling and playing with her, she took her to the washroom, helped her brush her teeth and unlike other days, bathed her in haste, not allowing her to play in the bathtub for a while. This made her restless and she ran out of the bathroom, refusing to wear anything. After a lot of pulling, pushing and hitting, her mother managed to make her wear a skirt which had a weird print and which she had never worn before.
Her dad made her sit in the car and she was overjoyed, thinking that they were going for a drive! But alas! Her joy was short-lived as she was dropped in front of a white building, with all colours of the rainbow painted on the sidewalls. She started crying when her dad left her with a woman she did not recognize. She jumped towards her dad, but the woman caught her and carried her towards the white building. There she saw many other children crying and shouting their lungs out. It somehow calmed her a bit to think that she was not the only one. After a while, the woman asked them to follow her. To her surprise, everyone immediately got up and they were taken to a room where there were many blocks of different shapes and sizes in all colours imaginable. While playing, she stumbled against a block and fell down. All the kids around started laughing at her. This embarrassment was too much for her to bear and beads of tears trickled down her face. She didn’t know what made her walk towards that woman who had led them so far. The woman was at the other end of the room and she just went and hugged her, crying all the while. Just then the bell rang, signifying end of the day. The woman wiped her tears, kissed her on the forehead and escorted her towards the gate where her dad was waiting for her with a magnificent smile on his face. The woman put her little palm on her dad’s fat one and said in a soft, tender, mellifluous voice, “My sweetheart, you are a sparkling diamond, and I wish to meet you tomorrow with a sparkling smile on your face.”
About twenty years later, this incident is still fresh in her mind, as if it were yesterday. How easy it was to trust someone at that time. She has remained in contact with the woman all these years and every alternate weekend, she goes to meet her. She still wants to hear the same line again and again, “My sweetheart, you are a sparkling diamond, and I wish to meet you tomorrow with a sparkling smile on your face.”The woman is now a frail, almost lifeless body but her voice is still the same, warm, soft, tender, just like sweet honey dripping into the ears of the listener. She plans to gift the woman a bracelet the next time she visits her.
The next day she receives a letter. It is addressed to her. She immediately recognizes the rotund handwriting. It is a letter from that woman. The letter reads:
“My sparkling diamond, you keep telling me that I mean a lot to you and I am the only person in the world that you can completely trust. But my girl, you don’t know what a pillar of support you have been for me. Forgive me my child. I have kept a secret from you. I am HIV positive. I came to know about it seven years ago. I could not muster the courage to tell you about it, thinking that it will drive you away from me. You do not know what you mean to me. Maybe it has been you for whom I have continued living, without contracting AIDS, for all these years. Today, I feel that my end is near and I will never die in peace until I told you the truth. I believe in you and now, I will not feel bad if you break all ties with me. I have no relative in this world and nothing to leave back. You have been the jewel of my life and your happiness and well being means everything to me. I do not know what kind of a relationship we share. You have been a daughter, a sister, a friend and sometimes, even a mother to me. I will cherish the moments spent with you till my last breath as you may not come to visit me henceforth. I do not blame you, sweetheart. I should have told this to you earlier.
Goodbye.”
She wipes her tears. The next morning, she goes to visit the woman with a bouquet of fresh roses and her planned gift, wrapped in a beautiful piece of paper, as if nothing has happened and it is just another weekend she longs to spend with the woman. On the bracelet are etched her truest of feelings in three simple words,
“I trust you”.
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