A mother’s embrace | Sunday Observer
Short Story

A mother’s embrace

26 May, 2019

 

Saman loved to take pictures and record the voices of our friends living in the jungle. Late one evening he was in the thick jungle behind their home. He was carrying a very expensive mobile phone. Suddenly, people from nowhere caught him, covered his face and took him to a cave. It was the hideout of a very dangerous gang of robbers. Saman was taken before their leader. He was sentenced to be shot. He was blindfolded and his hands were tied behind his back. “Do you have anything to say before you die?” asked the leader. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. The boy was silent. Next he spoke.

“Sir”, he said “I like to relive a memory. A happy memory. When at the age of ten, I ran up to my mother. My face covered in blood, blood streaming from a head injury, she was hanging some washing on the clothesline. With a cry, she ran towards me. She embraced me.

Tears were falling from her eyes. She literally lifted me. Held me close. I put my hands round her and my head on her shoulder. Her beautiful face and her dress was soaked with my blood and my tears.

“Please Sir, I can vividly picture that moment while being blindfolded. But Sir, undo my hands. I would like to relive that memory of embracing her when I die, Thank you.” His hand were untied. He simulated the loving embrace of his mother. No one moved.

The leader took his gun from his holster. Threw it on the ground. He dismissed the firing squad. “His mother is embracing this chap. “We cannot shoot his mother. He let the boy free.” “Son” he stuttered, “Go tell your mother that her embrace saved you. All of us have or have had a mother and we have beautiful memories about them.

The leader’s supporters were amazed and in raptures when the leader embraced the boy and kissed him on both cheeks.

All cheered. All were in tears. “Long live mothers”, they shouted. They escorted a weeping boy to civilisation and to the embrace of his mother!

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