The majestic sound of a large dog’s bark, resounding from
far, always enchanted her. But things had changed, since she brought Raako home.
The enchantment was replaced by frenetic attempts to stop him from barking, as
the noise reverberated deafeningly across the household. That day too, it was
not too different. As she rushed to see what was going on, she found that Raako was at
the back door instead of the front, which surprised her since no one usually came from there. On
looking outside, she saw another dog, with its lead hanging from its collar. It
was climbing up the paint-stripped wooden steps, moving towards the glass door.
Her normal reaction, in such a circumstance, is to go out
and get hold of the dog if possible and check to find any information available to
contact the owner. This time though, while her feet moved forward, her mind
paused and she picked up her phone instead. Animals enchanted her and she had
not learned to fear them, since she was a child, unless of course they were
wild. She had once even got stung when she tried to befriend a wasp, after
several benign experiences with honey bees. In this case though, the dog
appeared to be of a breed of the Rottweiler family and from a few experiences
in the dog park, when Raako was a puppy, she had developed a slight hesitation
in interacting with them, as freely as she did with other dogs.
As she picked the phone and attempted to message the members
of the community she lived in, she had two
more visitors dashing out of the sylvan woods, behind her house, arriving right
at her stone patio. At that point, she went outside. It was a father-son duo
who had trailed behind the dog, through the small patch of woods, before it got
too far. They told her that their furry friend bounced into the woods after a
hopping rabbit and they followed suit. They introduced her to Nova, who was of
course a sweetheart and made her laugh at her initial hesitation. They said
that they were glad that Raako was there since that led Nova to the door
instead of running away elsewhere. The trio complete with the family dog,
walked back through the grass, this time avoiding the woods, their legs
scratched by the bushes.
Two days back.
As she woke up from slumber and was getting ready
to leave for work, one thing preoccupied her mind. It was her dad’s
birthday and she wanted to wish him. Before heading out, she went and wished
him a 'Happy Birthday' and as usual he smiled back at her warmly, albeit from a
picture. For his last four birthdays, since he was gone forever, that was how
it had been.
It was certainly a special day for her, one that was
celebrated for as long as she remembered, but otherwise, a very mundane Monday
morning. She drove on the Interstate, her `mind oscillating endlessly between
memories and her to-do list, while simultaneously her head grooved side-to-side
to the beats of her favorite radio channel as her lips hummed the parts of the lyrics she knew.
The morning drive to her workplace took her about forty
minutes and the coffee in her mug was dwindling, when the city skyline appeared.
Right then, while crossing an overpass over the river that flowed by the city,
her wide eyes sighted something pristine. For a few moments, a large dragon-fly,
glided over the bonnet of her car, moving in the same direction as her before
flying away into invisibility. The winged gladiator shimmered in the sunshine, showing
its magnificent green shine and golden translucence, for those few moments. It
was divine and she felt like her dad had sent her a messenger to remind her of
his continued presence in her life.
The day went by and she returned home, the shimmer still
brightening her eyes, while she refrained from sharing the occurrence with
anyone. It was too precious to share, she thought.
The following day, another messenger came. Only this time it
was more mesmerizing. This year she had vowed to make her backyard as beautiful
as the Swiss chalets and so she did. She hung pots of brightly colored
geraniums in the stairs leading to the backyard and filled the entire yard with
petunias and marigolds, amidst the perennials that came back every year. While
she watered the geraniums, hung on the rails of the staircase ,with a sprinkler,
the water droplets rose above her showering the leaves and blossoms. It was
then that, very blithely, a hummingbird, as green, pretty and nimble as it
could be, came and flew through the water taking a quick shower. She could only let
the beauty of the moment absorb into her, like the drops of water were being
absorbed into the flower pots, speechlessly.
She was getting used to beautiful messengers and was looking
forward to the third day as she believed in a trifecta of beautiful events. However, that day turned out to be pretty humdrum. Other than the hullabaloo of the
neighbor’s dog chasing the rabbit into her backyard, nothing striking had
happened. By the evening, she had actually even forgotten that she was waiting
for a third messenger.
The following night, as she retired to bed and was about to
fall asleep, she remembered and wondered about how the third messenger never
came. In a split second, her mind lit up. Her third messenger had come, only
she never realized it. The not so divine looking, yet adorable mutt that
climbed up her stairs right to her was her third messenger. She wondered how
she could not recognize it right away, but it made the feeling of it all the more
beautiful. A Nova – a bright star had visited her.
