The Grey Effect

The screen slowly fades into the mist and when the mist clears out. The streets of an overcrowded slum come into view. Streets busy with people walking to get to their destination, children enjoying themselves even when they have nothing. The player assumes the role of a nameless child lying in the mud. The kid gets up and runs to her house with tears rolling down her face. She runs into the arms of her mother and asks her why she’s getting bullied. She then asks her mom why she named her Pari. Her mom explains that when she was born, she smiled like an angel. Her mother tells her about her story, about how her family abused and beat her for being born. Pari then realizes that her problems are insignificant compared to others. She then confronts her fears and tries to get a shut-eye. The next morning, she goes up to her friends. They still tease her for wearing torn clothes and for being so thin. They make fun of her condition and she gets pushed aside again for being the odd one. Pari is shown with tears down her rolling down her cheeks, then she finds something near her feet. She bends down to find an old toy near her feet. Why are you crying? She hears a squeaky voice, and she looks around and sees one thinks she is going crazy, but she feels something tugging at her dress for the bottom. She gets up from her seat to look and finds a small old toy near her feet.

She picks it up and starts looking at it, pulling at the name tag stuck to its leg. Suddenly she hears a tiny little scream. She looks around but finds no one around her. Suddenly, the toy springs up to life and bites her finger to make her understand how much pain it felt. She looks at the toy and, thinking that it’s a ghost, starts screaming and flings the toy into the air and runs home.

The next day, Pari goes to the place where she had found the toy to search for but all her attempts are futile as the toy is nowhere to be found. For the next few days, she tried to find the toy everywhere. Finally, one evening she found it sitting on the same bench where she sat crying. She went up to it and sat near it; the toy told her that every day it sat on the bench crying and waiting for her to come but no one came. The toy tells her that its name is toby they talk till evening and when the sun sets; she takes toby home. On the way home, she asks Toby about his previous owner, but he frowns and tells her that his previous owner was a rich kid who threw him out just because he had a little tear in his hand. Soon before the sunset, the duo reached home but her mother asked her where she got the toy from she told her mom that she got it near the place where she usually goes to sit and that its name is toby. Pari eats her fill and goes to sleep.

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From this part, the player switches to the toy -

Pari’s mom tries not to eat much to give her child more food. Toby cries silently, seeing mom’s care for her child. She still sobs, not knowing that toby is alive and can see everything. Toby then comes near her and tells her not to cry. She turns around and finds nobody near her except Pari sleeping. The toby tugs on her clothes, asking her not to cry. Shocked to see a toy talking mom says that she must dream and goes to sleep with tears rolling down her cheeks. Unable to see her crying, toby tries to wipe her tears with his soft hands. Tired from all this, toby goes up to the window looking at the moonlit sky thinks about all the sadness in this world. It

The next day mom gets up early to find toby sitting near the window, ignoring him she goes up to the kitchen to cook for Pari and after some time wakes Pari up. Toby wakes up before Pari and finds mom working, unable to do anything Toby just sits there pondering about the world. Finally, Part wakes up and gets ready to go to school, and Toby climbs into her mother’s bag. Mom used to work at other houses cleaning dishes and the house to earn a living. Toby observes the work she does from a distance and looking at her dedication, tears start rolling down from his eyes. Finally, when it was time for Pari to come back from school, her mother packs her bag and leaves for the house. When she reaches home, she sees Pari is crying with her clothes all dirty. Her mother asks her what happened, and she gets the same reply from Pari “why me ma, why me?”. Suddenly toby comes out of the bag and starts listening to their conversation, he looks at mom’s face and is left heartbroken as she is trying her best not to shed a single tear in front of her daughter and tells her that everything will be fine. Pari tells her mother that she is going to play, but actually, she goes to the place where she found toby. She has a long talk with toby and decides that complaining about her life will do her no good. She decides to work hard and gain respect rather than sit and cry about it. Soon the sun sets and she returns home with an aim in her life. It surprised her mom to find her smiling today, as most of the days she comes home crying. She tells her mom that she’ll work hard and earn the respect of the surrounding people. Tears start rolling down her mom’s face. This is the first time her mom she cried in front of her, Pari surprised asks her what happened her mom utters these words “I’m proud of you Pari” she hugs her mom and tells her she will not cry for such silly reasons and tells her that toby helped her out of this. Her mom calls out to him. He tries to save himself because he fears Pari’s mother. But what she tells him shocks him. She says “Thank you for taking care of my child when I was not there for her when I could not understand what she was going through”.

Toby then realizes the immense responsibility he has on his shoulders, about taking care of Pari and making sure that she does not deviate from the path she has chosen, from the responsibility she carries with herself to make the world understand.

Anonymously Yours