Next Station : Dadar

Glittering eyes looked up from between the benches, eyes nervously following the pretty girl who had climbed on. 

She must have been running, now standing with her hands braced on her knees, a heavy looking bag digging into her shoulders. Finally catching her breath, he watched her make her way to one of the seats, smiling as she caught notice of him. 

Terrified, he ducked back down into his seat, only hearing her amused chuckle, placing his palms on his eyes, internally berating himself. Maa had told him not to talk to strangers, now she'd be angry.

He continued to look down at his fingers, almost hearing his mother's reproachful voice until a pair of shoes entered his line of sight. Closed shoes, easy for running to and fro. In a train of high heels and old woman shoes, this particular pair could only be a student's.

"Hello", came the soft voice of the woman, making him jump in his seat. "What's your name?"

Too terrified to look up from her shoes, he simply shrugged, refusing to answer the angel. He couldn't make Maa any angrier. The girl was resilient though, offering him banana chips and frooti, he could never let Maa know that he'd caved for a few of his favourite snacks.

By the time the announcer said "Next station: Dadar", he was smiling at the pretty girl, waving as he got off at his stop.

As soon as the train continued it's journey, his smile dropped, feet dragging as he walked toward his Maa's place to be chewed out. He had seen his neighbour on the same train, she'd rat him out, he knew.

Hours later, standing naked in a bucket full of cold water as punishment, he thought of his angel's warm smile, as Maa made him forgo dinner once more.

Her quiet, almost unheard whispers of "I'll save you" when she noticed the scars on his legs giving him hope of escaping his abusive mother, the fifteen minutes from Church gate to Dadar being the highlight of his otherwise painful existence.

Standing in front of her to do list, she looked utterly lost as she stared at her PinBoard, a train timetable with one line highlighted and the same two words written on every date for the past year.

As she took the train and sat down next to a cute little boy, she missed the sad looks on the other passenger's faces as the words on her calendar mocked her. Save Him.

The other passengers sighed, knowing exactly how everything panned out, having seen it running on a loop for a year now.

Alzheimer's was a terrible disease.