A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

“Everyone has to cry at some time in life.”

My bleakest hour, thought Dina, has now become the happiest.

They were trusting her with bits of their past, she realized, and nothing could be as precious.

“Everything ends badly. It’s the law of the universe.”

Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl’s hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair.” He sighed and smiled sadly. “But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.”

Next morning the blackened legs were amputated.

This is when I started crying.

I would let them stay even if they weren’t working for me.”

A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life.”