It was a fine sunday morning. The street was busy. A small wind brushed past her, caressing her beautiful black curls.

She was wearing that majestic yellow gown, the only one she owned. But her face now didn't have the usual charm that she had when she was in her special dress.

No, It wasn't a gift. Nobody ever gave her gifts. She bought it on her own, and she was very proud of it. Scrubbing all those dirty dishes and toilets, it all seemed worthy.

She was a loner. Her husband had ditched her for a younger girl. The wounds were still fresh, but she had held up pretty tight. She had a house, however small it may be, and enough works in the households nearby, to give herself a decent livelihood.

She didn't mind being a house maid. Every sunday she would wear her prestigious yellow gown and take a walk down the lane to the church. It was mostly to let the prying eyes know that she was all good by herself.

The wind gathered up some dust on the way, it was surely getting feeble but still persistent.

The little child across the street would have remembered her, not like this, of course. He did not understand anything that had happened around him in last 2 days. It all went in a flash.

Papa was surely pissed, so were the aunties and uncles. He heard them shouting at akka, but for what !? He had no idea.

He couldn't see anything, Mummy had made it very clear that he couldn't come out to the street no matter what. Still he tried his best to make sense out of what was happening outside akka's house through his bedroom window.

There it was, the aunty who lived 2 blocks away still had his toy! But he still didn't understand why his parents and neighbors were shouting over it. It was just a harmless balloon. He had found it in papa's room earlier that day when he was searching for the ball. All he wanted was to play. When his tiny little lungs couldn't blow the balloon , he ran to find akka.

Akka was the best. Even though she was just the maid, akka was still his best friend. She lived just opposite to his house.

Akka wasn't home. He stumbled onto a neighborhood aunty while running back. To his surprise she had a strange and fiery look in her eyes, and that's exactly why he blurted out that he had found his balloon near akka's house.

Everything that happend since then was more than what his little mind could comprehend. The night ended rough, people shouting angrily and akka just crying. But that was 2 days ago. He just wanted to apologize to akka, even though he still had no clue about what exactly he did.

The wind finally settled down. It was an old man who first noticed that the wind carried a strange smell.

Soon, everyone was busy complaining. It didn't take much longer to realise that the smell was coming from the maid's house. There was no denying it. The smell of decaying human flesh was surely repulsive.

She had dreams . She had hopes. Her husband had broken her then. But she wasn't just ready to give up. Everything that happened that night was more than what she could take. Society just didn't break her, it crushed the very soul out of her.

And all this, because of one lost condom.

#WritcoAnthology