THE FACE IN THE FIRE Would you mind jumping into the caption? 🤭 #yqbaba #shortstory #faceinthefire #yostowrimo #chitstory 'The festival of spring, of love, of colours' Now, wasn't that my favourite festival holi and hey, it was already on us, calling for the celebrations to begin in full force. Ah! The bonfire incident of ten years ago flashes in my memory at the approach of this festival. I remember how we had rushed at night to the huge bonfire that was lit in our society. My closest friend Suma was with me. I saw Kritika, Sana, Adiya Smriti, Umakshi, Thoibi and so many others from my girl gang already present there. We were dancing watching the huge flames, throwing more coconuts and sticks into it, wanting it to rise higher, enabling us to hear the crackling sounds frequently. Suma took the opportunity to occasionally whack me lightly with the stick before throwing it into the fire. Kriti nicknamed her 'The funny whacker'. They had seen me doing this often with my husband kumar and I was lovingly referred to as 'Slapping Star' by cute Sana. We were all happily enjoying our tapori style dancing and loud singing along with bollywood music blaring in the background. I was staring intensely at the flames when suddenly I saw a face in the fames..it was hazy but nevertheless a face. The fire had morphed into a face that not only looked fascinating but somewhat frightening too. It appeared to be the face of a baby. I moved a little away and the face seemed to grow bigger into a ten year old one. I started circumambulating the fire and the face began to age till it looked like my colony friends. At times I could see the face of Suma,of kriti, of Umakshi, and curious, I started moving faster around the fire. It seemed as if the face of fire was following me everywhere. I was staring in amazement. Finally, I stood rooted to one spot and saw a face that churned my insides. OMG! It's me.