Continued... Shikha re-read the email five times until the words jumbled into a frothy mix of guilt, fear and shame. "Freedom is not a reaction!" she repeated in monotone, as she pulled herself out the chair. "Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment or reward." She recalled Krishnamurti as she slowly made her way to the bathroom. She watched fascinated as the warm water gurgled into the bathtub. She needed the fluid warmth of the bathwater. Like the amniotic fluid that lulled her baby she desperately craved bubbles fizzing around her heavy body. She sank into the salty bath bubbles and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Shikha?s eyes flew open as a sharp sword of pain jabbed through her abdomen leaving a trail of flutter in her womb. As she clutched at her belly, she watched the big bath bubbles pop unceremoniously one at a time. The thousands of rainbow reflections of her large, hollow eyed face burst rapidly revealing her twisted pink shirt. It was clinging to her belly which looked like a whale caught in a fishing net. As she watched fascinated, thin threads of red floated to the surface. Her blood fanned out in a fine plume; like that of a tropical bird. The water surged over the edge. The crimson water spread out slowly as it seeped into grooves of the floor tiles. "Freedom is the final release of love and life" she smiled at her own twisted logic as she slipped into the void. The End