by Palvi Sharma
Light in the Dark
Irene hated the dark, and it didn't help out that there was one scheduled for today. She had spent all day worrying about it and now that the darkness was finally here, she wished she had prepared for it. She peeked out the window and saw her neighbor Mr. Jade lighting up candles as his wife chatted with him. They looked happy and Irene wished she wasn't alone tonight. She should have accepted Tyra's invitation and gone to her friend's house. But she had promised herself that she would rid herself of this ridiculous fear.
She tied up her curtains waved when Mrs. Jade came to the window and walked back to the sofa to sulk. It was hot, her T.V. wouldn't work and anything she could think to do, used up electricity. Irene stared at the flickering light of the candle and nestled further into the cushions. Her eyelids started to feel heavier and she closed them, taking deep breaths. It was quiet, too quiet. A dog barked in the distance then and Irene gritted her teeth.
She could hear crickets outside her window and nothing else .Just then she heard three sharp raps on the door. Irene's eyes snapped open and she got up. The light from the candle went out and suddenly it was too dark. The air became heavier and Irene found it harder to breathe. Thud! Thud! Thud! It started again and Irene tried hard to remember if she was expecting someone. It wasn't the plumber, it wasn't Tyra and it was definitely not her family. They lived far away and she had just spoken to them on the phone the other day. The raps suddenly turned into pounds and Irene jumped out of her sofa. Her heart beat faster and sweat trickled down the side of her face. The blackouts had been scheduled and that meant that it was the perfect time for criminals to walk into homes, steal and kill the owners. Irene looked around her quickly. There really wasn't much to steal.
Her sofa was worn out, her table had a broken leg and the only thing worth taking was...Irene instinctively reached for the thin gold necklace around her neck. It had been a gift. But now she wished she had been gifted a weapon of some sort. A knife even. Why didn't she even have a good sharp knife?
"Wh-Who is it?" she asked. Her hands shook as it reached the doorknob.
"Open up!" a voice called.
"Wh-Why?"
"I have something you need." Irene held her breath, said a prayer and opened the door. A flashlight shone on her face and Irene cowered from it.
"Hi, I'm Paul. In this darkness, no one should be without a flashlight. And an ordinary one at that." He said and took out something from his bag. Irene stepped back, thinking it would be a weapon and then felt her mouth drop open.
"This is no ordinary flashlight." Paul explained. "This also has a..."
"Wait. You're a salesman?" Irene asked." Yes, ma'am!" Paul smiled. "At this hour? During a blackout?"
Paul didn't drop his smile even though his eyes had. "Well...er...we're..."
"Taking advantage of the situation?"
"I...uh....""Get out!" Irene said and slammed the door shut and shook her head furiously. He was completely useless. She opened the door again and crossed her arms. Paul stood staring at his feet, the flashlight dangling from his bag.
"That was awful! You scared me half to death! I thought you were a thief trying to break in." Irene scolded him. "And is that really the way you're going to hold a flashlight? How are our buyers going to peruse it if you hold it like that?"
Paul scratched his neck and looked at her meekly. "Try again." Irene said. "And this time also give the name of the company you're working for!" Irene shut the door and Paul knocked again.
"What?"
"Hi, I'm Paul..."
"The pounding on the door was terrible." Irene stated. "And fix your shirt!”
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The Drama
“And you didn’t complete your assignments because?” Mr. Wilbur asked.
Nina squirmed in her chair and looked at her Math teacher defiantly. “I was caught up in some very important...er...work.”
Mr. Wilbur leaned back in his chair and pushed up his glasses. “Do go on.” He said, crossing his arms.
Nina laid her hands on her knees. “It’s a long story.” she said quickly.
“I have time. But you have two minutes to give your excuses before I send you to detention.”
Nina nodded and smiled inwardly. Mr. Wilbur was a new teacher so he probably hadn’t still heard about her. She took a dramatic breath and prepared herself to deliver a great stage-worthy performance.
“It was close to seven, and I had just about managed to complete my homework. I had put it away and was taking out my Math homework when...” Nina paused deliberately, heaving a sigh.
Mr. Wilbur waited but she knew she had piqued his interest.
Nina let her shoulders sag and shook her head slowly. “The lights suddenly went out. I have Achluphobia. It’s...”
“Fear of the Dark.” He answered and Nina could see that she was losing him. She had to change her plans.
“Yes. Except I have these exercises that I work on and they helped me keep calm. I was slowly emerging from my fear, when suddenly I heard my Mother scream.”
Mr. Wilbur toyed with his coffee cup and Nina quickly glanced away.
“I ran to the kitchen and found my Mom in fright. She was trembling as she told me that an intruder had come into the house.” Nina continued. “I decided that since my Dad wasn’t at home, I had to take care of this myself. I reached over the counter and fumbled for the knife. It was dark and my mother warned me to be careful, in case I cut my hand.”
Mr. Wilbur looked at his watch and cocked an eyebrow. To Nina, he seemed apathetic, but his eyes were still focused and although one hand was restless, his right hand was clutching a pencil tight.
She lowered her voice a little and was careful to pronounce each word eloquently. She almost had this. “I grabbed the sharpest knife I could find and told my Mom to stay in the kitchen while I looked around. I was scared and my hands were trembling, but I had to assure my mom that we would be okay, so I lied to her.”
“So there were no flashlights?” Mr. Wilbur asked.
At that point, Nina could have jumped with joy. Mr. Wilbur was buying it or he wouldn’t have asked questions.
“Of course we have flashlights and candles too!” Nina said and put her hands to her face. “But I was afraid that the intruder would notice it and I couldn’t...” Nina paused and shrugged her shoulders. “I had no idea how dangerous he could be.”
“Didn’t you call the police?”
“The lines were cut.” Nina said and widened her eyes. “But I didn’t tell that to my Mom. I needed her not to panic. Anyway, I crept slowly towards the living room where she had said she had seen him and sure enough, there was a shadow there.”
Mr. Wilbur dropped the pencil and clasped his hands. Nina gazed at his watch and saw that her two minutes had been up and her teacher had still not asked her to stop.
She took another deep breath and put her arms around her, looking at the blackboard behind him. “I raised my knife and walked as softly as possible towards him. There was a dark figure near the table and he was rummaging through it, looking for something. But the only things on the table were my Math textbook and a notebook. He didn’t care much for it and flung it aside.”
“What did you do then?” Mr. Wilbur asked calmly.
“I felt my heart in my throat. Literally! I inched closer to him and in the dim light, noticed that he had his back towards me. He still hadn’t noticed me, so I had an advantage. Without another thought I leapt at him and he yowled with pain as he fell on the ground.”
Mr. Wilbur leaned forward and Nina saw his mouth dropped open.
“I started to raise my arm and...I don’t know stab him until I could call for help, when with sudden force he pushed me away and my knife slipped away from my hands. He picked up something and threw it at me. Only when it struck me that I realized that it was my Math textbook. It was heavy and the pages fluttered against my face. I let out a cry and the man started to get up. My adrenaline started to pump then and I got up in
a flash, picked up the textbook and slammed his back with it.”
Mr. Wilbur put a hand on his forehead and rubbed his temples. His eyes were wide with excitement.
“He fell down and grabbed my notebook and threw it at me. I threw it back at him and this went on for a while , I mean, he picked up books from the coffee table and threw them at me and I picked them back up and threw it at him. When he had run out of things to throw at me, he spotted the glistening metal near the shelf and picked it up.
“My eyes were pretty used to the dark till now, so I saw him move and quickly reached for the thickest book I could find and aimed at his head. It struck him near his ear and he fell to the ground.”
Mr. Wilbur put up his hand and shook his head. “That’s enough. Let me guess the book was your Math textbook and it was so worn out after being used as a...ball, that it had to be thrown out?”
“Actually there were considerable amounts of blood stains on them.” Nina added. “I tried to salvage whatever I could after the attack, but...”
“Enough!” Mr. Wilbur said sternly. “I have had enough of this nonsense. I must admit you had me believe you for a while, but after you went on about this ludicrous game of passing that you played with the intruder in the dark...suffice to say, everything I’ve heard about you from the other teachers was true!”
Nina rolled her eyes. “I am not lying.”
“So you claimed to have bashed up an intruder all by yourself, after conquering your fear of the darkness?”
Nina nodded quickly.
Mr. Wilbur narrowed his eyes. “Two weeks detention.” He said and closed an open book.
“I can prove it.” Nina said and smiled widely.
“Then do so.”
Nina picked up her cellphone and quickly typed. “Here you go.” she said clicking on a web page. “It made headlines in the local news.”
Mr. Wilbur grabbed the phone and read the headlines on the local paper.
HIGH SCHOOL GIRL FOILS INTRUDER’S PLANS BY BEATING HIM UP WITH
A MATH TEXTBOOK
“This can’t be true!” Mr. Wilbur said.
“But it is.” Nina said, taking her phone back from his fingers and got up. “I do want to be an actress someday and I rehearse for it at any opportunity I get, but I don’t lie.”
Nina walked towards the door and opened it, wishing she could see the expression on his face. But that would only provoke him and walking out and closing the door behind her was a better dramatic effect.
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Amuses
Roni grinned when she saw more people enter the gate. This was going to be so easy! Parents always paid more attention to their kids rather than their belongings at an amusement park. She leaned closer to the wall and studied the pouches, bags and pockets of every passerby.
There would be cameras, mobile phones, trinkets worn by women and most importantly, fat wallets. She could imagine brushing her fingers against the soft leather and the tiny zips that held change. And then there would be the narrow slits for the credit cards. She loved those too. But what she really loved was the smell of paper money.
Roni shook herself. It was time. She had worn a long wide jacket that had at least five pockets of which three were hidden. She might be able to carry the weight of a few cameras and mobile phones, but what she was really after were the wallets.
She moved quickly. The line to the roller coaster was easy. Her hands moved quickly, going from one pocket to another. Her feet moved faster. It had been a wise lesson she had been taught- to move quickly after a theft.
The fast food stands were the next. She considered a woman’s purse and imagined carrying it herself and then rejected the idea when she looked at it from the side. Much too wide and would definitely not fit into any of her pockets. She eyed the woman’s phone hungrily and as soon as she had slipped it into her purse, moved quickly to swoop in on it.
Within an hour, she had managed to gather a variety of items- cell phones, watches, PDA’s and even a few digital cameras. But what she was most content with were the wallets. She had managed to pickpocket at least thirty of them!
Roni walked towards the gate, a wide smile on her face. It had been a fruitful day and if she could reach her hand out, she would have patted herself. She nodded at the security guard and then paused.
More visitors were pouring in and they looked richer and happier. The women carried smaller expensive clutches while the men had even more costly cell phones. They rushed in with their kids pulling them towards the rides and Roni felt herself getting lost in the crowd. She pushed past them, already planning to come in after putting her loot in her car. One of the kids tugged at her coat and Roni instinctively pulled it closer.
A woman gazed at her shabby coat in disdain and pushed past her and Roni turned to make a mental note about her. She was definitely going to be her first target. She walked quickly out the gate, unmindful of how fast she was walking and reached her car.
With a scowl on her face, she opened her car and reached towards her jacket when her breath caught in her throat. She was no longer wearing the jacket and her hands were now touching her cotton T-shirt.
Roni turned around and sprinted towards the gates and saw her coat lying on the ground on the other side. She was about to enter when the woman she had seen earlier walked towards it and picked it up.
“Hey!” Roni called out, but the woman smiled smugly at her.
“Thanks.” She said, turned and walked away.
Roni frowned and clenched her fists. Lita had done it again. She was a master of disguises and blended so well in the crowd that it was simply impossible to best her. Roni took deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. She had only just begun. One day, she would win against her.
Roni started walking away and paused. She had nothing planned for the rest of the day. She smiled, decided that today might as well be the day she finally best Lita, and headed towards the ticket counter.
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The Party
“I was there. I remember. It was a party at your house. Perhaps your Birthday. ”Peter said calmly. He flexed his palm and wished Rita would believe him already.
“Nope.” Rita said defiantly. “I didn’t even know you then. It was a party for all of my Father’s clients and you...”she paused and pointed a finger at him. “Weren’t one of them.”
Peter smile ruefully. “Ah yes, I was never affluent enough to invest with your Father’s firm.”
Rita scowled at him and pushed up her glasses. “That’s not what I meant.”
Peter took a sip of his coffee and placed the cup gently back on the table even though he rather slam it hard. Rita was driving him crazy with her stubbornness. “We’re going off track yet again.” He said through gritted teeth. “I remember it all too well.”
“Hah! You can barely remember to take a shower.” Rita said and crossed her arms. “I remember what happened. It was...”
“The middle of June.” He replied quickly.
Rita shook her head. “It was September the twenty-seventh. That’s when my father held his parties and that is NOT when and where we met.”
“It was humid, with very little breeze and there was a gentle scent of roses in the air.”
“It was pleasant, and the garden had no roses. But my Father had asked for lilies to be decorated around the room.”
Peter nodded and squinted his eyes. “The food was light, but tasty. The people were talking in soft voices and the pianist was playing very well.”
Rita shook her head. “You’re going to have to stop pretending that you were at that party. My Father had asked for the most exquisite food and the VIOLINIST, was playing rather beautifully.”
Peter grinned. “And that’s when I saw her.” He said, his eyes getting misty. “She looked elegant in her golden dress. Her hair was tied with a bow but some of the curls had let loose and fell softly on her shoulders. She walked confidently, yet carefully, as if...”
&
nbsp; “It was her first time that she had worn heels.” Rita supplied and smiled suddenly.
“It’s her perfume that I could smell, even at a distance. She smiled at everyone who came to greet her, but her hands shook just a little. Her charm bracelet jingled as she shook hands and on her left index finger she had worn a gold flower shaped ring.”
“It was my Grandmother’s.” Rita said.
“When she sat down to dinner, she asked for milk and then hastily changed her order when she met her Father’s gaze and asked for sparkling water.”
Rita put her palm under her chin and leaned forward, her brow had furrowed.
“When her plate was served before her, she looked at it with puzzlement and then glanced at the others. When she saw that none of them had reacted to the fish on the plate, she had picked up her fork and poked at it.”
Rita let out a laugh then. “Nothing of that sort happened.”
Peter ignored her and continued. “She hated fish, but since she was at a party and her Father had requested to behave, she had nibbled on it for a few seconds before making excuses.”
“Oh, really? As a matter of fact I thoroughly enjoy seafood.” Rita said.
Peter cocked an eyebrow at her. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m thinking of this other girl who was a picture of perfection.”
Rita frowned at him and started to get up from her chair when Peter closed his hand over hers. “She had gotten sick. When she left the restroom, she still looked green and her face had lost all color.”
Rita looked at him and gasped. “But one of the servers offered her a handkerchief when he discreetly pointed out to a smudge she had on the side of her face.”
Peter grinned at her. “So it was you.”
Rita slapped at his hand. “That’s some memory. I always thought that the first time we had met...”
“When I had plucked up the courage to speak to this beautiful girl standing all alone in the rain?”
Rita nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. “Fifty years ago! It’s been such a long time.”
“Not long enough.” Peter said and kissed her forehead.
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Forgetting to Remember
As the wind gently touched her face, Rhea realized that she was supposed to remember something. She walked along the lake and stared up at the starlit sky. It was cold, and she was glad that she had worn a heavy jacket, but she shivered in spite of it. She crossed her arms across her chest and hugged her self. It was February but the winds were as cold as December. She gave a quick glance to the couple who were walking behind her. It was cold and dark and she wanted to make sure she wasn’t in the company of potential stalkers and serial killers. She quickened her pace as she heard footsteps behind her and almost gasped when a woman walked right past her. She was being paranoid, but it was a secluded area.
Her thoughts turned back to what she was thinking before. Another gentle brush of wind on her face did remind her that she was forgetting something. She quickly opened her purse, took out a small yellow notebook and flicked through the