God lights

The street lamp’s light hit Kanha’s shard of mirror, the reflected ray falling on his face when he moved the shard sideways. He twisted the mirror so that the light fell on Alna who didn’t notice. He didn’t expect her to. They were perched on an abandoned house’s outer wall, their feet dangling. Alna had lost one her over-sized slippers on their way here. When one of her foot nudged the other, it looked as if it was consoling it for its loss.
‘Are they here?’ she asked him, her mouth full with fried dough and potatoes. Kanha had managed to obtain, without being caught, two of the samosas the Chai wala had put out on the counter.
‘No,’ he told her. They were here to see the God lights. They were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life though he hadn’t lived for a long time. He was six; rather he thought he was six. Alna looked to be three, so she had to be three. He had been shocked when Alna had told him she had never seen the God lights before. Alna had lived alone from the time her parents had abandoned her. Kanha had found her five months ago and they had bonded instantly.
Alna drew herself closer to Kanha as the December air touched her. She played with the lone bangle on her wrist. It was the only jewelry she owned. Kanha had found it lying in a local bus. It was a lucky bracelet. Kanha had said some fancy magic words he had learned from a street magician before slipping the armlet on her hand.
‘It will keep you safe,’ he had said. And she believed him.

‘Are they here?’ she asked again.
‘No,’ he answered, ‘you will be able to hear them.’
Kanha had told her all about the God lights.
‘The rich people? They have these cylinder things,’ Kanha said, describing the lights, ‘they set fire to it and off it goes! Like a rocket. When high up they burst into colors.
‘They are of all colors!’ he had continued, his voice coated with exhilaration, ‘and some even sparkle!’
Alna had tried to imagine how they looked, bringing to her mind the images of colors she had had when a kid. When she thought about green or red something vague came to her, the memory of colors, hazy from lack of reuse. She didn’t know how sparkles looked, and that made her sad.
‘We should start to count,’ Alna said, her voice shaking from the chill breeze. Kanha took her fingers in his, giving her his warmth.
‘One,’ she said. She could count up to fifty and that made her smarter of the two.
Two.
Three.
‘Kanha?’ Alna said, ‘do you think we will grow up to be rich enough to be able to buy the God lights?’
‘I don’t think I want to buy the lights,’ Kanha answered after a pause.
‘Why not?’ His answer surprised her. She had thought Kanha loved the lights; he was always talking about them.
‘Because I feel sad for them,’ he said. ‘The lights are trapped in tubes until they are set on fire. We shouldn’t do that.’ Kanha shook his head. When he looked at the lights raining from the sky he was always reminded of angels he had heard stories about. Maybe they were angels. He turned to look at Alna. She seemed to be thinking over his answer.
‘Then we must buy them all so that we can set them free!’ Alna spoke, her face lightening up at the thought. Kanha chewed on the inside of his cheek. She was right. They could give freedom to all the trapped God lights in the world. He stared at Alna’s eyes. She had beautiful eyes, he thought. If he released all the light into the world, maybe, just maybe, some light would return to her eyes. For her sake, he would have to become a rich man!
Oblivious to Kanha’s deep thoughts Alna continued with her counting.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty.
No, forty-one.
As though the whole world had found its voice just then, a loud commotion had begun. It took Alna sometime to realize it was the countdown, coming from the food street behind them.
‘Oh oh!’ Kanha’s excited voice made her shiver with excitement too. The God lights! They were going to be here any minute now!
Three, the people said.
Forty-eight.
Two, they continued
Forty-nine.
One! They screamed.
‘Fifty!’ Alna yelled.
And then she could hear a whistling sound and a loud bang. Like a gun shot which was followed by crackle.
‘They are here. The lights!’ Kanha shouted over the noise.
There were more bangs and more crackling as the people continued to welcome the New Year. Alna looked up at the sky, colors bursting behind her closed eye lids. She gazed in awe at the colors in her mind.
‘They look beautiful!’ she whispered. The world was such a wonderful place, she thought. Maybe this year would let her see it too.