My Beautiful 'Red Beauty'

Diwali season was approaching and we had just shifted to a very beautiful new home. So much to settle in so few days; my parents and brother joined us soon enough to help us shove the dresses into the cupboards and March furniture to their places. All were going grand and when almost done, we all decided to go for a small outing to add to the great time we were having. Our little red beauty stood their waiting for us to hop in and run away to anywhere we desired.

Like there isn’t a tomorrow, mom and me chitchatted about everything under the sun as we sat in our red beauty. Around an hour later, heading back home, we noticed a burning smell. Presuming it to be from the neighborhood, we ignored and decided to move on. At that fraction of the second, as a reflex action though, I turned behind for no specific reason, to see some glowing fire sort of particles flying away from underneath our vehicle. Instantly, I shouted, “ STOP THE CAR!!! THERE IS SOMETHING UNDERNEATH… I SAW SOMETHING!!!!”. My shriek did work and my husband decided to have a look. But everything seemed to be perfectly fine and everyone started to complain about my “Imagination”. Very much confused, I sat there recalling what I saw. While getting back to his driver’s seat, my husband noticed a slight smoke from inside the bonnet. A little panicked, he jumped off his seat to inspect the smoke. Noticing something wrong, my dad and my brother got off the car, accompanying my husband. The next thing I heard was my brother shout, “MA! ECHI! GET OUT OF THE CAR! THE CAR IS ON FIRE!” I freaked and got off the car when my mom ran off through the other side with my baby. As I ran away from the car, I saw Fire raging from the car engine; I was speechless, shocked. I felt sudden chills run through my spine as I watched my red beauty burn in front of my eyes. Tears went on pouring in and holding them back never even occurred to me. Many people around me were trying to make me look away but how can I? My red beauty was in front of me burning and I was standing there staring and doing nothing. Suddenly it started to horn, so loudly that it defended me for a second. For the rest of the world it was mere a car horn, but for me, it was a cry for help. I felt helpless. Even though I saw the fire brigades rush in I felt helpless. Slowly after say 5 minutes my Red beauty’s horns started to fade as if it was dying and was in its last stages. Then it stopped. The emotion I felt at that moment was beyond words. Slowly everything settled, and the fire was under control. While my brother, husband and dad stayed back making phone calls and dealing with the situation, one nice man offered us a ride home.

Today here we stand, without even a scratch while God knows where our Red beauty is ……. in scraps. The day I lost my red beauty, was when I realized how much was it a part of us. Now we do have another ride, I call it ‘The Red Dragon’ this time. Hope it would be with us as long as we wish to.