Mage's Fabled Adventure

The old man stood with his arms crossed over his chest, contemplating the sunset. He looked back at me and asked, “How long have you been here?”

I didn’t know what to say. I was back in my bed, in my room, with the light of morning streaming through the window. It felt like an odd dream. To be standing here with him, I must be crazy.

“You know, how long have you been standing there?” he asked again in his deep voice.

I wanted to scream, but instead I stammered “I…I...don’t know. What time is it?”

“It is eight o-clock in the morning and you are still standing there staring at me as if you are unsure what to do next,” he replied.

I looked around and noticed that my mother was not around yet. She had left early for work after preparing some breakfast for me on the table. Keeping my eyes down, I sat down to eat and heard him walking away from the door towards the kitchen where I could hear him making himself a cup of coffee.

When I finished eating, I asked him if he would like to have some chai with me while we waited for mother to come home. He agreed and we enjoyed a quiet moment together while waiting for her to arrive home from work. After a while she came barging into our house carrying multiple shopping bags and boxes of food under her arms. She gave us both a warm hug and poured herself a cup of chai before she began unpacking all her purchases. Mr Sharma sat quietly next to me as we watched her sighing at all the packing material that used up most of our dining table area. When she had finished she sat across from us and looked expectantly at us both: “Tell me about your day? What did you do? How was school today? Tell me everything!”

As she listened attentively to each one of my answers, Mr Sharma spoke up: “Did Mageshra tell you about last night? Her strange behavior? There is something I need to talk to you about…”

Mother blushed and turned her face away from us both: “Yes…Mageshra told me about your escapades as well…but it was just a dream! This is not right! You should be ashamed of yourself! You are a married man! And even worse…you are old enough to be her father! How could you do this? Have you no shame?”