Pihu, my sister who is a self-centred prick by the way, didn't even care to discuss about it with us. Silence swept across when she announced the news of her pregnancy.

​

We were just cooking dinner when it dropped. It was simply me, Pihu, and Mom; All that was left of us.

​

Mom stood quiet at the sink. Holding a second, making it wait, and extracting each and every second from it without uttering a word.

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"Who's it going to be then?" she asked Pihu in the voice she utilizes while she's attempting to control her resentment. "Somebody from your husband’s loved ones?"

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"He doesn't have anybody left" Pihu answered.

​

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Mom turned towards her at once, almost on brisk of breaking. "What were you thinking?"

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Pihu just sighed. Selfish.

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"How could you?" Mom chomped her lip. I could see tears welling in her eyes. She turned around and gazed through the window. "Indeed, it won't be your brother."

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Mom pronounced shaking her head. "It won't be Aryaan, he's just fifteen." She looked at me at once.

​

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"I have submitted the application at public office," Pihu said. "They'll choose if we don't." The meetings are compulsory, in the event a family can't or will not pick.

​

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"It won't be Aryaan," Ma rehashed. Obviously, Pihu had excluded herself and her freshest love-affair, masquerading mom as a hero.

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"Sorry, Mom," Pihu said. "Grandpa and granny did it for us. You always knew this would happen sometime….Don’t you?"

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"They were in their seventies and they came to us, your Pa and me. They let us know they were ready for it. You don't do it like this." Mom took a seat at the table with us. "I thought I raised you better. I thought you loved me."

​

​

She raised us the best. Pihu’s simply self-centered. That is what her identity is.

​

​

"We can purchase a volunteer," I recommended.

Mom heaved. "You know we don't have the cash for that. Furthermore I never preferred Volunteers, it’s exploitation."

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"It's me, then, It’s me," Mom closed. "I get it. It must be me."

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"You'll take care of Aryaan? when I am gone." She asked.

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"Obviously I will." Pihu went in for a hug, but Mom pulled away before she could.

​

​

It's customary to have a festival to pay tribute to the Hero after the decision is made. The decision of whose life will be sacrificed to bring a new life on earth. For the management of limited resources-the authorities call it.

​

So, when the dishes were done I prepared a cake while Mom and Pihu sat in front of the TV.

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I heard them talking and giggling at the program, attempting to accommodate the dramatization of nonexistent lives. I put on bunches of icing; the chocolate one. Mom’s favorite.

I gulp down the tears. Maybe I will let it out when no one's around.

I join them on the couch. My little family last time before the public office agents will my mom to sleep.