Preeti

The doorbell clanged, and I answered it with a fair degree of annoyance. Outside stood a cherubic young girl, with large black eyes that gazed at me soulfully. Clutching a ragged-looking doll that had defintely seen better days, she looked like Snow White come alive in her orange and white dress, with curly hair framing her delicate face.

"Yes?" I queried, a trifle sharply, since I really wasn't looking forward to company.

She stood silently, staring up at me with those bottomless eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked again, my impatience showing.

She seemed to have made up her mind about something, for she brushed me aside and walked right into my living room. She stood for a moment, looked to her left and right, then marched over to my sofa, and perched herself on the edge.

I was a little taken aback at such self-assurance from so tiny a person, and I slowly closed the door, accepting the inevitable.

"What's your name?" I asked her, as I sat myself on a chair across from her.

She took her time in replying.

"Have you just moved in here?" her reply was a question instead. It was obvious from the boxes strewn around, some half-open, some still taped down. Books and CDs were lying on the table, still to be assembled neatly into the bookcase. The broom and the dust-tray were lying in full sight on the floor, and the suitcases in the bedroom were visible with their gaping mouths opened hungrily.

"Yes", I replied, "what's your name anyway?"

"Preeti", she said, swinging her legs, as her doll slid to her lap. "You have lots of books, don't you?"

"Yes...which apartment do you live in?" I asked.

She stood up and went to the table.

"My mom loved books too", she said softly, stroking the cover of Anna Karenina. "She read all the time...I love books too. My favourite books are Noddy books".

There was a silence as I watched her, a small sturdy figure bent over my large tomes.

"So, Preeti, which school do you go to?"

"I don't go to school", she shrugged, and wandered into the bedroom.

I followed her, a little uncomfortable with the way she just strolled around the house nonchalantly.

"This was my mom's bedroom". She had sat on the bed, folding her legs into a cross-legged position.

"She used to keep the bed in that position", she indicated a position perpendicular to the bed. "Her head used to be there and her feet here. I used to like sleeping with her in the afternoons, and watching out of the window..."

I began to sense something was amiss. Preeti was looking out of the window, with her large black eyes misting over.

I went and sat next to her, and put my arm casually on her shoulders.

"You used to live here before?"

"Yes, this was my mom's room. That", she indicated to the room across the hallway, "was my room. Mom had made it so pretty. We had blue and white curtains, and I had Winnie-the-Pooh bedsheets. Mom had also bought me a big teddy-bear to keep the monsters away at night".

"And who is this?" I picked up her doll.

"Oh! She is Bunny. She's very naughty and I have to keep scolding her all the time. But she loves me a lot, just like I love mom", Preeti hugged the doll close to her, her curly hair falling in front of her face.

"Where's your mom, Preeti?" The question immediately clouded her face.

"She's far away", she whispered, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "Far, far away, where I will never be able to reach her."

I instinctively hugged the little girl, my heartstrings tugged by the sight of her little face, now stained with tears. Oh poor thing! She had just lost her mother, and now to see the house being taken over! It must be heart-breaking for her!

"Shall I get you some biscuits, sweetie?" I released her gently, and asked in an attempt to cheer her up.

She mutely nodded, wiping her tears away, and hugging Bunny even closer. I hurried to the kitchen, and rummaged in the numerous plastic bags, thoughts whirling in my mind. What a terrible tragedy to befall such a small girl! It must have been so awful!

"Here, Preeti", I called out, as I emerged from the kitchen, having managed to find not just biscuits, but a tetra-pack of juice too.

There was no response.

"Preeti?" I looked into the bedroom, but it was empty. I looked into the other rooms also, but she was nowhere to be found. The front door was also not open, but it didn't rule out the possibility that she had let herself out quietly.

"Must have just run off! Children!", I muttered under my breath. "I do hope she's not some sort of thief or something, and made off with any of my stuff! One never knows nowadays..." My cynical old self had returned, and I checked my valuables, but they were all safe.

"Oh! Well!" I shrugged it off, but it kind of hurt that she didn't even bid farewell properly.

Settling down in my new place took all weekend - there was so much to do, and I was quite exhausted. Luckily, my friend had invited me over for dinner, so that saved me quite a bit of work.

The apartment looked in pretty reasonable shape when I left for the dinner, all spruced up myself. My neighbour, Mrs. Mehta, shared the lift with me.

"So, all settled down?" she asked kindly.

"More or less," I smiled.

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me", she offered, and I accepted gratefully.

"By the way", I asked casually, "do the people who lived in the apartment before me, live close by?"

"No, I don't believe so.. why?", she asked, a little puzzled.

"Well, you know their little girl, Preeti, had come this afternoon to my apartment. She seemed to miss it a lot. Did she lose her mother recently? She was quite upset..."

Mrs. Mehta stared at me open-mouthed.

"Preeti had come here?" she asked in a whisper.

"Yes - well, that's what she said her name was. This high", I indicated with my hand, "curly hair, with a doll named Bunny..."

Mrs. Mehta just nodded, still agape.

"You know it did strike me as a little odd that she was here all by herself. I thought her parents, er, her father, might be in the neighbourhood, and she just kind of dropped in, you know..."

"Preeti had no father, he died when she was just a year old".

"Oh! Now that I come to think of it, yes! She didn't mention him at all. How terrible - that means she's lost both her parents now...Whom does she stay with?"

Mrs. Mehta stared at me for a moment, then shifted awkwardly.

"Ummm...Preeti actually died last year, around this time", she mumbled. "She was on a school excursion when the bus toppled over... Her mother is now in Hyderabad, she's all alone..."

A beep from the lift stabbed the sudden silence. We had reached the ground floor.