Miracles do happen (502)

Saranya invariably brought her boy Anil of seven years in the evenings to the park. He would play on the slides and swings for some time and after that, on some days they would settle down on the bench adjoining the road outside the park. She would show him the various passing vehicles and things and name them. The boy Anil could not speak since birth though he could hear well.

 She put him in a normal school hoping he would blend with other children over time and regain his speech. But Anil after a few days refused to go as the other children made fun of him. Her complaints to the teacher were of little avail. As the boy was adamant, her husband felt they wait for a year more and coach him at home in the meantime. They went to all temples and donated to noble causes, hoping for God’s grace.

 As they watched one day from the bench on the roadside, the buses and trucks whizzing by, a boy of six years came towards Anil and stood by his side. Saranya turned to see if anyone related to the boy was around and found none. She concluded his mother must be begging somewhere in the park. How careless of her, she thought, to leave the young child alone on the pavement of a busy road,

 Anil gave a toffee from his pocket to the boy who had nestled by his side.  Saranya was restless seeing the boy left alone to fend for himself with his mother nowhere in sight. She repeatedly glanced in vain on all sides to locate her. Saranya wanted to go home but did not have the heart to leave the little boy just like that.

 As she was thus engrossed in tracing the beggar woman, she heard a piercing scream ‘Amma, amma.’ As she turned around in great panic, she saw to her great shock, the little urchin running towards the middle of the road with a a big bus speeding towards the boy a few moments away. Without a second thought and unmindful of the imminent danger, she jumped on the road and pulled the boy in the nick of the moment before what would have certainly been a ghastly accident and instant death of the urchin.

Only after she brought the boy in her arms to the safety of the pavement, did she see Anil in all smiles. Her heart skipped a beat when she realised that her son had uttered the word ‘Amma’ for the first time. Filled with tears in boundless joy at the unexpected recovery of his voice, she hugged Anil and smothered him with kisses even as the boy started speaking broken and halting words, but words nonetheless.

She firmly believed that merciful God had restored his speech, while the doctor felt that it could be the shock of the very near accident that Anil saw did the wonder. Be that as it may, Miracles do happen, isn't it?