Shahriyer Hossain Shetu
Lrig, a fairy, wakes up in the middle of the streets of Dhanmondi at midnight, completely naked and afraid. Unaware of her whereabouts, she kept on walking, and no one was there to help the poor thing. The place is unfamiliar to her, and Lrig has no idea how she ended up in that darkish gloomy surrounding.
Lrig, the fairy, remembers that she was in her room with her sibling fairies. She takes care of her two younger sisters, Elamef and Namow all by herself as their parents died, to be more precise, murdered by human creatures. Since then, the three sisters silently lived in a Jungle all alone, under a big mango tree. She protects them, and they never went outside until or unless it was too necessary.
Lrig is a worldly being. She knows how to cook, do household work, and speak gently. She loves to maintain herself by being well-dressed in her self-made attires, almost like a newly wedded wife. The best features of Lrig were her beautiful skin and eyes. She was the only fairy with bright green skin, as the other fairies were darkish green, which made her the most hated in the community. Her eyes had a sparkling bluish light that resembled the ocean. She was like a mother to Elamef and Namow, and always tried her best to fulfill all the wishes of her two sisters. They used to sing, play, dance, and take care of themselves all inside their one small room, and the only time the three sisters went outside was during the summer to gather mangoes that would fall from the trees. They did not just live in mangoes as Lrig could cook fifty-five items based on the yellow fruit. Her handmade fruits were very much well-known to her community of fairies.
The moon that night in Dhanmondi was big, and the face of the moon was consoling poor Lrig. She was in search of a hiding place as well as a piece of cloth that she could use to cover herself with. She saw some human creatures on the bridge of Dhanmondi Lake, holding a big brown bottle and smelling unpleasant. They were all laughing very hard, and this terrified the poor fairy. She was too afraid to go any further as she knew they might take her and kill her. She stepped backward and rushed as fast as she could. And just like that, the poor thing kept on running and running.
She ran with the fear of getting murdered by the humans just like they did to her parents. She didn’t know the reason why and how her parents got murdered, but she heard from her community people that her parents trusted the humans, which was the most unforgivable sin in that community. Remembering all these, she kept on running and running, as if she knew where she was going. She was mostly concerned because of her sisters as they were all alone in their house, and, as they are yet small, they must be hungry and afraid.
Somehow that day, the streets of Dhanmondi were not busy. Maybe because of a disease that she heard was killing human creatures. She was very much thankful for this disease, as for the last four months, she and her sisters could walk in the jungle even in the daytime. She suddenly found some light blue soft clothes that had rubber bands attached to them. She was not sure what it was, but it seemed like human attire, maybe to cover mouths. She also heard the rumor that human creatures wear masks on their faces to protect themselves from the ‘heroic’ disease. Lrig used the human face attire to make her own body attire by sticking all the pieces together. That is the best she could do, and that is the only thing that she could find right now in that dark, unfamiliar world.
The moon was her only companion at that moment, but suddenly the moon covered itself with the blankets of the cloud. Maybe it is time for the moon to go to sleep, or is the moon trying to hide from her? She was getting confused. She stood on the street, wearing a chain of masks, barefooted, and the weather was getting chilly as if a ghost was going to appear at that moment. The fog blurred the vision of the streets, and she was now in the middle of nowhere and she could only see cold vaporize smoke. Her mother once told her that if she is lost, she should be patient, and she will find a ray of light even in the darkest places. She tried to remember her mother and father, the two most admiring idols of her life that kept her going. And she suddenly could see two rays of light far from a distance. The more she remembered her parents, the more she smiled, and the more the lights got closer to her. She couldn’t wait anymore and rushed towards the lights, hoping both her father and her mother had come to save her from this blurred dark world. She also could hear a kind of loud sound, the closer she approached the two lights. She spread her arms to welcome her lights, and ready as well as happy to be free from this world.
She closed her eyes, and the lights touched her small innocent body, and the sound of those lights pierced her beautiful bluish eyes. The push of that light made her fly in the sky, and her light green skin turned into a red liquid as she kept on flying backward and backward to the time where she was dancing and singing with Elamef, Namow, and her parents.
The deeper she flies backward due to the push of the lights, the faster she starts to regain her lost memories. She suddenly remembers that she and her two sisters found three red sweaters in front of their door, and the sweaters had their names written in beautiful golden glittering colors. They were so happy to see those sweaters that they did not even care to think who gave them those clothes. They took it as a blessing from their late parents. They wore those beautiful sweaters and went in front of the mirror. The reflection quite shocked them as a new revelation came to their knowledge, and an epiphany turned around their whole life.
The fog cleared, and she could see that the two lights were the front headlights of a truck. She was lying on the streets, and all her fear and terror were slowly going numb. All she was trying to remember was the shocking revelation that she saw in the mirror. “What was it?” she muttered weakly. The time was halted by the Almighty out of pity, and she was offered the flashback of her revealing moment as the last blessing of the world.
She and her sisters went in front of the mirror and the names that are written on the sweater reflected on the mirror as it revealed the true identities of the three fairies, Elamef as Female, Namow as Woman, and Lrig as Girl.