BLEEDING AND LONELY HEARTS EPISODE 1.
       It is just another love story gone wrong. Zak closed his eyes in prayer, “Oh Lord, be merciful and gracious to all pram pushing fathers. To little babies, give your love to love when they grow old.” Zak knew full well what it took for a father to push a pram with crying baby in it. It was a December morning. Zak was to go down to the Job Centre to sign for his stipend. He held up a hand and the bus driver stopped but two ladies pushed passed to get in. The driver insisted he could not take three prams. The second bus came it was the same story. Zak had been there for more than an hour now. It was getting freezing cold. In his heart he felt really sad. Why would the Job Centres want to see the baies before allowing the parents to claim their funds? He thought life was not kind to these babies. So many nights Zak cried for Ruby. “Why should she leave behind Zak jnr?” He contemplated. On second thought he knew it was his fault. He went in to this marriage too soon without any plan. Life was so nice during the courting days till little Zak came. They needed to have a place of their own. It meant lot of responsibility. The mixed race problem had complicated matters. People looked at them with scorn in the park, at the Church, even in the shops. Initially, Ruby promised, come rain or sunshine, she was going to stand in it with him. Now even her parents too did not support the union. Mothers can be soft on issues but fathers see things from different perspective. They talked of brighter future for their daughters. These were just wishful thinking.
   Ruby had cried all night. This morning she called on Zak to sit down so they could talk. They had had talks before. Things were actually getting bad. It was always the money that never comes in, in the amount that it ought. Therefore, the parties were never glued together. They fell apart so easily once the pressure became unbearable. Zak called out from the kitchen, “Just a minute, let me fix his food first.” In fact, to keep Ruby happy Zak did all the domestic chores. This rather angered her, she would have loved Zak to go out and get money, lot of it. When he came, he handed over the feeding bottle to Ruby to feed the child. She rose and threw it away in anger. “This is what is making us poor. Allow me to take care of the child and you go out and bring in the money. As you are not able to do just that I am gone.” She wiped tears from her eyes. Zak was speechless. He had never seen her go in to rage at that degree before.
    “Ruby sit down let us talk.” Zak said with lot of respect but all that did not matter any more. He stretched out his hands to take hers. She pushed him aside and went in to the dark cold night. Zak was not sure what to do. He would not want go after her else they created a sad scene out in the street. He thought her love for her baby would bring her back. First thing in the morning he called Ruby’s parents to tell them what had happened. A week later, her parents called in the police. Zak was called upon to produce Ruby dead or alive. Since that day, Zak pushed pram and a crying baby along the streets of Manchester. The case ran for five years. In fact, Zak requested the social services to take little Zak in to custody but the Court refused on the bases that his guilt was not established. Ruby’s father died of broken heart. Her mother went abroad. Zak was left to face his predicament and the cruel treatment of the residents alone. Five years later, Zak was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. Little Zak was taken away. In his little cold prison cell, Zak prayed every now and then. Some of his prayers were, “Oh Lord I know, I shall see Ruby in heaven but it would be too late for me to prove my innocence. If it is possible, Lord, let me see Ruby’s body just once here.” Sometimes, he cried out Ruby’s name. “Ruby I know I love you so much. I do not have money to give but my love for you money could not buy. Wherever you are, if it is possible, set my heart free of the guilt I have to carry for the rest of my life.” He cried all day and night. He could not trust human beings any longer. So he struck friendship with the little cockroaches that came out from under the bed to eat the crumbs of his food. He talked to them as if they could understand him and talk back to him.
Twenty years had passed now, when a premier film of Ruby was screened in Manchester. The whole town woke up in uproar and protest, demanding his release. Zak told the Court, “I do not need freedom, as it would mean leaving behind my little best friends, the little cockroaches, just as Ruby left me. I want to be here for them.”