EL DORADO

The night she got robbed she dreamed of being bathed in gold.

Since the day she saw the light, her beauty was weighed in terms of the shimmering yellow metal continually mined out by human civilization from the deep dark womb of planet Earth. She hails from the land of golden wheat fields, where the people worship gold-adorned deities and young girls are seated in marriage mandaps all decked up in the glowing glorious gold. She grew up in the neighborhoods where women whisper into each other’s ears how much of the yellow metal they have saved up for their darling daughter’s dowry. “How much are the in-laws demanding? How much do you fall short of?” they inquire.

They took it all. All of the dreams she had chased under the glowing golden sun came crashing down upon her. The sun had set. Digging her nails into her head, she craved to undo it all. The unplanned trip, the forgotten locks and the dreadful hollow silence of the house when she came back.

The warmth of the gold started to singe her arteries. She tried to laugh and choked on the molten pleasure. The metal deadened her ears so that the noise of the world couldn’t reach her anymore. It hardened her eyeballs cutting her off from the feigned beauty outside; she could cry no more.