It was an ordinary day...

I wrote the first line and then just rambled on...

It was an ordinary day and she stretched herself awake. The sun streaked in through the window and made her blink. She tried to rub the residue of sleep away and clear her bleary vision. She stepped down from bed and reached out for her glass of lemon water. She gulped it down with distaste. Then she stood up and moved to the window. Her temples were still throbbing. Her eyes were puffed. She didn't want to think. So she just turned and walked into the rigmarole of her morning chores… the trip to the washroom, skipping breakfast, fumbling through the cupboard for something to wear. Then she stopped. She just slumped down on the bed like a crumpled heap of discarded clothes. She held on to her head as it seemed about to explode. Her cheeks were wet. She had been crying. She surprised herself...

 

 

The music was very loud and she was feeling claustrophobic. She wanted to get away. The sloshed men moved around, their predatory instincts gleaming through the garb of chivalry. Meaningless hollow conversations reverberated everywhere. She felt so stranded. She never had got accustomed to such gatherings. She walked out onto the porch and tried to gulp in the scented night air. There he stood in a corner smoking. She was about to turn and go back realizing that even this getaway was not possible. Suddenly she noticed that he was so different. He was looking rather stricken and lost. He turned around and they met. He gave her a wan smile and moved away into the dark. She could see him strolling in the garden. She sat down on the steps and began to watch him. He looked back and walked up to her. “Do you mind if I sit down?” he asked. “No” she said. He sat down. He offered her a cigarette.  She refused saying she did not smoke. He said…..she said…and they got talking.

 

Since then they spoke about any inane thing they wanted to, laughed together about things that others would not find amusing, He was so gifted. He sang for her and told her amusing stories and read out interesting things to her. She listened and every word he spoke was precious. He had the right answers to every question that arose in her mind. He reached out so selflessly. They both had these unrealized dreams they dreamt aloud with each other. Then they went out together, just pure camaraderie at the beginning. Then one evening after a long drive and a beautiful dinner they had shared, she moved on to become something more than a confidante or so she thought. This time he was not talking about the lost love of his life, this time he reached out to touch her and she blossomed. She had never felt like this before and yet she knew that he would move on one day. However it didn’t matter because she had been transformed by the magic wand. Now in those jaded gatherings she felt wafted away by his thoughts. He had touched her life and no matter how far he moved away she would never be the same. She would never be suffocated by her circumstances because she had another realm to live in and the loud giggling women had no access to that. Their gossip, flaunting their possessions, self-important proclamations about their prowess in home-making and childrearing, their fashion tips didn’t jar her senses any more as they were cocooned in his thoughts.

 

Then those days just flew by and she basked in the warmth of his attention. He always said that it meant a lot that she listened to him and she thought that listening to him was like listening to music.

Then he moved away. This was inevitable and she knew that it would happen. But he went away into his new world and he changed. He frowns and swears these days and that angelic smile has evaporated. He is busy looking for distraction in his leisure. He doesn’t sing with the same passion any more and only sometimes plays to the galleries. They don’t talk.

 

Last night, there she was out on the porch again, trying to let the sound of the loud hollow laughter inside fade away and she saw him again. He had changed a lot except for his eyes. He was talking to a lady and they sat and smoked together. When he saw her he asked her “how are you?” She said “I am ok, what about you” He answered… and she countered...but they didn’t talk. Did he listen? Did he care? He had forgotten to listen beyond words. The hollow “ok” was taken at face value. Then he moved towards that fragile beauty he had been talking to. As she watched him go, she realized she had been wrong. His eyes were not the same any more. They lacked the translucent hazel warmth, they were opaque. She went home sloshed.

 

When she awoke it was an ordinary day...

Reviews

[Helen Woodward]

Hi Raj, this is a very deep story and so true, people are never the same, things, places are never the same and whenever you try to go back to find what you had...it is either gone or undergone complete change.
You seem to jump from early morning to night...I'm not sure if that was deliberate, just thought I would mention it. I loved it for the honesty revealed.
Helen xx

[Madhurima Chakrabarty]

Lovely piece of work!!