Periplaneta

A few more years had passed by. Young Krishnamrit was now 7 years old. His dad worked an average office job. Usually coming home frustrated from the workload. His mom was a science teacher at a school, the same school he went to. His mother was a kind and caring person. She made all the efforts she could for her son's happiness. Despite spending years with him, in that house, I still hadn't grown attached to him, After all he was a human, despite the care and empathy they showed for each other, deep down they were driven by nothing other than their own self-interests. I had come to understand that after years of observation. Behind the kindness and love of every human, I saw fleeting gaps of selfishness.Young Krishnamrit didn't like going to school much, he usually stayed at home watching television, reading some space encyclopedias or making drawings. Each day, after dinner, young Krishnamrit and his mother would sit outside in their garden to gaze at the stars.

"Mom! Mom! What's that?", young Krishnamrit asks in curiosity, pointing to the stars with his small hands.

His mother smiles at his curiosity and innocence, she puts a hand on his shoulder and speaks.

"That's a Star, a large ball of burning gas in outer space, there are an infinite number of them out there, it's the reason for life on Earth and is the reason for your existence" she says poking his nose.

"The one you're pointing to is a star from the Musca constellation, a giant insect in the night sky."

"Wow really?" Young Krishnamrit looks amazed, he had never heard of something like this before.

I stayed at the back listening to their conversation

"Bullshit", I thought to myself. "Humans find patterns in everything, a giant insect in the sky? It's just several random and disconnected stars with no connectivity whatsoever." I was appalled by the nonsense I was hearing not believing there to be any meaning whatsoever to what they were discussing. His dad returned home, looking exhausted as usual. He had dark spots under his eyes.

"Hey, you kept him up late again? Doesn't he have school tomorrow? Come back inside" his father spoke in irritation. They both turned around, Young Krishnamrit ran back inside to his room out of fear of his father, while his mother walked to his father.

"Honey are you ok? You look tired, did they overwork you again?" She spoke in concern while checking the forehead of her husband.

"Shut up, it's nothing, stay out of it, go to sleep, I have more work" he spoke in annoyance clearly wanting her to not indulge in his matters.

She sighs, knowing how her husband usually acts, "Honey, I think you should be more considerate and keep your anger in check, it will have a bad effect on Krishnamrit."

Young Krishnamrit was standing near the door, keeping it slightly open, seeing what they were doing and listening to their conversation. I was standing near him too, seeing the usual banter of his parents.

His father was now clearly annoyed by her constant pestering and got up in anger. "I told you to shut up already! Just leave me alone for fuck's sake!"

"Are you drunk again?", she asked with a stern expression and her husband was taken aback by the question.

"W-what? No I didn't-

"How many times do I have to tell you to not drink?!!!! You know how badly it will affect our son if he sees you like this, drunk and irritated! I can't let you keep going on like this!

He was now fully annoyed, by her cutting off privileges, he grits his teeth and his hands fidget in anger, he mumbles something in his breath and then slaps her hard across her face. She gets sent back by his slap and looks at him with her eyes widened.

"H-how dare you!", she speaks while keeping a hand on her cheek. Her husband backs down a little, realising what he did.

"H- hey wait I didn't-

She doesn't respond and simply goes inside her room, locking the door so that he can't come in. He just sits on the couch holding his head pathetically.

Young Krishnamrit was watching the scene, his eyes widened in shock, he had never seen his father like this, a tear fell from his eye seeing the abuse of his mother, he closed the door and went back to lie on his bed, crying because of what he witnessed. For me, however, it was a clear lesson that humans are pathetic and violent. The following week his mother divorced his father and they started living separately. I followed them to the new house they were now going to live in. Eager to see how the incident would change Young Krishnamrit.