Garbage Dreams (a short story)

“It’s a gold ring,” whispered Selvam, his mouth gaping…looking at the beautiful ring between my dirty fingers. The glassy reflection of the smooth shiny ring lit his wide eyes.
“Where did you get it da?”
“I found it in that corner there,” I pointed my finger across the vast ocean of garbage…our fellow rag-pickers busy competing with stray dogs and crows to get their best.

Selvam’s face…his expressions…the great times we had…rolling on the bouncy garbage…the parottas we ate together…the images of me and him starring with awe at those young men with race bikes practicing their stunts…every little detail flashed before my eyes.

I could see the red blood running towards my dirty feet, finding it's way through the cracks on the cemented pavement.

Selvam and me, we would lie on the pavement everyday, with the sounds of high-horse powered engine sounds on one side and the strong smell of garbage on the other. All through the night we would talk about having our own bikes and racing each other.

We would fall asleep, the gleaming halogens of advertisement hoardings lighting our rugged cement beds.

But that day, we felt that we were just one door away from all our dreams becoming real.

Both of us knew the gold ring we found could change our destinies.

“Today is the last day we are sleeping on the pavement”
Yeaaiye!!! Shouted Selvam punching his fist towards the dark sky
Suddenly a hush
“……… What if they think we stole the ring?”
“What else will they think? That we both pulled together our savings and bought this ring?!!!
“Don’t worry; I know a setji who’ll buy it”

After safely tugging the ring under the garbage bag, we sank into our dreams.

The loud roar of the garbage Lorries jogging by, woke me up from my last dream on the cement slab pavement.

I tried feeling it, my fingers running all around me – under my garbage bag pillow, under my buttocks, near my armpits.

My gold ring was not there.

Selvaaaa? Sel….v….

The Ring was gone and so was Selvam. I crawled around my garbage bag like a restless cat. Straining my eyes on the dusty road, I saw him. Running along with the busy traffic, where everyone was neatly dressed, in hierarchical modes of transport, chasing distant dreams.

I bit my teeth…cuss words flowing through my mind…he was taking my part of the dream with him!

My heart, body and soul were heavy with anger. I ran as fast as my feet could take me.
I pounced on him from behind.

Whaamm!!... We both fell on the road.

Hoosh!!... Whoonnnhhh!!…. Whooonn!.... the traffic too busy to stop and look, Zoomed past us, the gush of wind from the vehicles passing by, kissing my ears.

His heavy hand was squeezing my throat. Kaarrgghhh!!....

My both hands wandering around me, searching for something on the hot dusty road, I felt something hard. May be it was a stone; I couldn’t make out what it was.

Thuddd!!... I hit him. His hands around my neck loosened.

The next minute, I was there in front of the shop – ‘Mool Chand Pawn Broker Shop’

“Ha.. ha.. ha.. ha.. haaa…” What do you want for this my boy?
One lakh rupees?... ha… ha… ha…”

“What? What are you staring at me for? What do you expect me to give you for an aluminium ring? Get going boy, I have other works to do.”

I stood there stunned. It was like falling from the sky straight on to a heap of garbage. All dreams shattered away amidst the stinky trash.

“Get lost you fool,” the sethji shouted. “Don’t stand here…”

I was thinking how I would tell Selvam all this. How would he feel if he knew that all this stealing, greed, running, beating and punching was after all for a piece of aluminium.

I thought to myself that sometime down the crossroads of our lives we would laugh about it when we think about these incidents.

I could see a small crowd gathered on the pavement.

“What could all those people be looking at?” I said to myself, walking towards the crowd gathered on the side of the road.

There was thick crimson blood flowing down the road from Selvam’s head.

Selvam was dead. I killed him for a dream we both didn’t have.