Old Memory Lane

There are always two ways to reach school in the hills, one which is the main road through which all buses and cars go and the other is the short one, through the fields. Nily and Niah, twin sisters usually went to school through the fields. It was the short and safe way, for little girls of eight years, according to their mother because they didn't have to cross the concrete road.

Nily and Niah had no problem with that as they could play freely in the fields while going to school and on their way back home. There was a big rock between those terrace fields, under the shade of a mango tree. After school both Nily and Niah used to play there with their schoolmates. They enjoyed catching dragonflies and teasing grazing cows, floating paper boats (obviously from their notebooks) in the nearby water stream. They sometimes sang loudly to disturb people who generally enjoy their noon sleep. They ate raw and ripe mangoes in summer and the rain. When they got tired they rest there for some time and then Nily and Niah waved goodbye to their mates.

With the passage of time, they all left that way and headed to the concrete road. 

After so many years Nily and Niah again passed through that road. That rock and the mango tree were still there. It seemed that time has stopped for them in these years. Nily and Niah sat under the shade of a mango tree. The branches of trees were swinging as if saying

"You have come back! 

You have come back! "