Story of my life

I’m back to where I had started. No, not the same place but to what I used to do. It is like life has turned a full circle for me. My fingers once deft and skilled in this art now don’t move as fast as they used to. This was supposed to be my time for relaxing but I have to work now. I was a stickler for perfection then. A slight mistake would irritate me to no end. But now I make mistakes and I have to deal with it. I’ve to suffer now because of wrong decision that I made.

I had moved from my village to the city. Those were the days when I had to work hard to earn my daily bread. I had learned the art of stitching clothes. I could say that I was gifted in the art of tailoring rather than saying that I learned it.  I was lucky to have found work under one of the most famous tailors in the town. I was paid well. But that kind of life didn’t entice me. The long hours of work, the daily struggle, the temper tantrums of my master were too much for me to bear. I wanted an easy life. No struggle, just fun. I felt that I had struggled enough throughout my growing up years. I wanted easy money and hence I decided to steal from my employer. Call it my bad luck or something, I picked up the wrong bag- the bag with the jewels stayed there and all I was left with was the bag of clothes. I couldn’t go back hence I ran. I ended up getting into a truck full of goods and that is how I landed in an unknown village left with nothing but a bag of expensive clothes and a few spare coins.

I stayed outside the village, observing people and I realized that these people could be easily fooled and that is how I decided on what my means of livelihood would be. I wore those expensive clothes and went around telling people about how I had the answers to all their problems. But honestly, I didn’t know anything more than what these people did. It was all pretence. I kept saying big words which I had learned during my short stint in the city. I was gifted with the knack of talking to people. I could talk people into doing anything. And that is how I had lived all these days. Most of the time, I made people believe that their problems had been solved. And the problem resurfaced, I would blame it on them not following my instructions to the T. It was an easy life for me for people believed me. People did whatever I wanted them to. They built a house for me, cooked food for me. I expected people to do my work in an instant, for I didn’t have the patience to wait for them to take their own sweet time.  I went around offering advice for I felt people appreciated my insight in matters of daily life. I pretended that I knew a lot more than the people around me. People worshipped me! It was easy to fool them. I was growing old and I was pretty sure that these villagers would take care of me till I died. But now that hope was lost. Everything had changed.

I’d found this young man weird ever since he came to this village. His face looked hauntingly familiar. He was supposed to be some government official. And he questioned all that I did. All the answers that I would give to people for their various problems were now proved to be lies all thanks to this man! I was plotting and scheming on how to get him out of my path but what I never knew was that he was the one after me. I can’t forget that day when my life changed! He was none other than the son of the tailor for whom I used to work during my youth. He was a little boy then and used to come to the tailoring shop often as their house was close by. He told me that he remembered what I had done. He said that his father still kept cursing me for breaking his trust. And then the ultimate threat! He threatened to expose me to the people of the village. He told about the stealing and he could easily explain to the people how I been cheating all this while. He said he could easily hand me over to the police and I knew that he could. All my dreams of a happy and contented old age, now lay shattered.

I begged him for mercy but he did not listen to my pleading. May be the time had come for me to make amends for my wrongdoings of the past, but I didn’t want to spend what was remaining of my life in prison. And then as if by a miracle, he said that he wouldn’t hand me over to the police. But I had to stop fooling people. I agreed but then how would I earn my bread? I was too old to toil in the fields. Even the little stitching that I knew was now forgotten because of lack of practice. May be knew what was going on in my mind and he said that he would give me whatever I needed to stitch clothes and earn my living. I felt ashamed of myself. Here was a man whom I had wronged but he was offering me a chance for redemption. How could I not agree?

I gave back the things that people had given me. People questioned my sudden change of profession. But all I said that I loved doing new things. I knew that wasn’t a convincing answer but they didn’t ask me many questions. May be they were used to my strange ways. And now I sit by this old temple, stitching clothes. Business is steady if not great. I earn enough to feed myself. And whatever extra I have, I use it for some good cause. Though late, I’m sure my repentance will bear fruit.

This story is entirely fiction and is in no way concerned to the person in the picture. The picture is just a prompt.

This post is written for Foto Friday 3. Foto Friday is an initiative by Team Writehouse. All of us write on a picture prompt. Do share your feedback. The awesome picture use for this Foto Friday is clicked by my blog buddy Divsi. 🙂