Inconvenient Relations

by Simi K. Rao

  Restless, she paced around her room, thoughts of relaxation farthest from her mind.

  How much longer will I be able to hide my feelings from him? He probably knows everything by now. She shivered, recalling the way she had wantonly responded to his touch, acting like an alien inside her own skin.

  If he kisses me again, I’ll surely die and that scares me! But what am I waiting for? What kind of sign or gesture? I want to relent yet at the same time I don’t.

  She collapsed on the dinette, her head sunk on folded arms.

  This is getting way too hard!

  ***

  She walked out of the house aiming to distract herself with sights and sounds of the routine and mundane. The very idea of the approaching evening when he would be back and they’d be alone again was kicking her into a frenzy. Perhaps paying a visit to a dear old friend might be the soother she direly needed?

  “Sunshine has gone to visit her doctor. She hasn’t been feeling very good lately.” An equally ancient neighbor volunteered when she saw Ruhi standing outside her door.

  “Oh no, what happened?” Ruhi asked.

  The bespectacled lady in a motorized wheel chair with wispy purple hair broke into a resigned smile. “When you get this old and lonely, life itself is a burden. You want to know why that damn old ticker doesn’t call it quits!”

  Ruhi nodded in agreement. She too sometimes wished that “damn ticker” would stop doing its damn job so efficiently! How would Shaan react if he saw her mane colored like the leaves of autumn?

  She turned away from the door feeling a terrible unease. Even JJ was unusually quiet. Suddenly, she longed to hear his ridiculously appropriate one-liners. She made a plan to come back later in the evening.

  ***

  Despite having the day off, Ruhi reckoned she’d give the convenience store a try. For all she knew, busying herself or even playing with Surjit would help her see things more clearly.

  Again the front counter was unmanned, but fortunately, there were no angry customers waiting in line. She shook her head in disapproval. This is an open invitation to burglars and that too with a small child at home. I must talk to Sanjana about this.

  Suddenly, she heard voices raised in argument emerging from the back of the store. It appeared like someone was preparing to commit a dreadful crime.

  “Har Roz! Every day you come home like this, drunk senseless. Have you ever thought about how I manage everything on my own?”

  “Shut up you bitch!” thundered a tall hefty man who completely dwarfed Sanjana. She was cowering with a petrified Surjit behind a table. “Don’t you know I am a man and I can do anything I want? Nobody, neither you nor Pratik, can stop me!”

  “But think about our son. What wrong has he done to suffer like this? See how frightened he is!” She attempted to loosen the little boy’s stranglehold from around her neck, but he clung to her even more.

  “Rubbish! He is a sher, and a man just like me. Come, son, let me take you back home. Leave this rotten place and that hussy who you call your mother.” He snatched at his son’s fragile body.

  “Nooo!” Sanjana yelled. “I won’t let you take him from me. He’s my only reason for living!”

  “I will do what I want! I am going to leave and take him with me!” Sanjana’s husband ruthlessly knocked her out of his way; then, tossing the crying boy like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder, he swung around.

  “No, I won’t let you take him away you brute! People like you should be permanently locked up!” said Ruhi, who couldn’t remain a silent spectator anymore. She stepped in, using all her strength to grapple with the man who stared at her baffled.

  “So this is the Indian bitch you have hired behind my back so you’ll be free to sleep with one of your many lovers?”

  “How dare you accuse me of such a thing!” Sanjana retorted, enraged and indignant. “And even if I do have an affair, what difference does it make?”

  “I will strangle you just for saying so!” He turned to his wife, flinging Surjit away, who ran to hug Ruhi’s legs.

  “I’m calling the cops, this has gone too far! Neither you nor Surjit need go through this atrocity anymore!” Ruhi said, picking up the phone.

  “No, Ruhi, don’t do that!” Sanjana pleaded while fending off her husband who lost his balance and crashed to the floor.

  “Why not? You did tell me this so-called husband of yours has been abusing you forever!”

  “Yes, but I can handle it. He gets like this when he’s drunk,” Sanjana said, going to the aid of her spouse who violently pushed her aside.

  “Which happens to be every day. You could get yourself killed,” Ruhi urged. “Think about Surjit.”

  “No, he won’t harm Surjit. He won’t harm his son. Please go,” Sanjana begged her.

  “But I don’t want to risk losing my new friend to a bastard who dares to call himself a man!” Ruhi exclaimed, turning a bold face to the said person as he grimly approached her with a closed fist.

  “You are going too far! How dare you call my husband names!” Sanjana exclaimed while trying to hold back her drunk husband.

  “But that’s the least he deserves. People like him should be in prison!” Ruhi countered, looking aghast at her employer.

  “I don’t think so. Go away. Don’t interfere in my private affairs,” Sanjana retorted, pulling at Surjit who began to wail.

  “But this man will kill you one day, Sanjana,” Ruhi argued, unable to believe she was talking to the same woman who, just the other day, had declared to break free from the shackles that bound her.

  “I believe he won’t. He may threaten but would never do as he says.”

  “That’s how people get murdered all the time. Don’t take any chances. Please, at least for your son’s sake!” Ruhi implored, attempting to persuade her again even though all the signs indicated otherwise.

  “I will be fine. You don’t need to fret. After all, he’s my husband. You’d feel the same if you were married, too, Ruhi.” Sanjana said, locking the door of the shop behind her.

  After all, he is my husband.

  Ruhi walked away slowly. Shaan is also my husband and far, far better than that rogue. Am I in the wrong somewhere?

  You’d know if you were married, too.

  But I am married! She sensed something wet trickle down her cheeks. Maybe I…

  An excruciating throb radiated down her arm before she was knocked to the ground.

  Persuasions

  Something is not all right with that nice young man, the thought passed through Thomas’s mind when he saw Shaan sprint through the main entry of the building and up the stairs without even a wave in his direction.

  He was right. The nice young man in question was in a state of acute distress; he was embroiled in a deep quandary.

  “Hey, what’s up with you, pal?” Eric called out when Shaan pushed past him without as much as a howdy. Apparently, he had skimped his friend’s vision or his mind was occupied elsewhere. Anyhow, he was let off the hook easily as Eric was running late for a rendezvous with his new Italian girlfriend he hoped to turn into something a lot more significant. He was tired of making half-hearted promises.

  Shaan strode over to his work area and turned the PC on but was unable to get rid of the restlessness that had been plaguing him.

  Doubling over, he placed his palms flat on the floor then gradually unfolded his spine vertebra by vertebra following the instructions of one the yoga teachers hired by the company “to help their employees achieve the highest state of mind.” But it didn’t help either, rather made him realize how much he had been neglecting his routine workouts.

  He perched himself on the table, knees drawn up, forehead propped on interlaced fingers, and eyes shut tight. He was smoldering with an animosity directed at his own self.

  I am the reason why Ruhi is i
n such a state today. Instead of being happy and carefree, she is having nightmares and cringes at my slightest touch! I want to go near her, be her friend, her confidant, but I can’t because it’s me who happens to be at the root of all the aggravation!

  How can I make her trust me? How can I assure her that I am her protector and not her enemy, that she can rely on me always? How?

  He couldn’t find a simple answer. Should I let her go? Would that give her relief ?

  No, I can’t! His vitals screamed in protest. She is the only one I see myself spending my future with, the only one who makes me want to get up every morning and look forward to a new day. She is my inspiration, and I can’t let her go…not now, not ever!

  Then he looked up and addressed the high ceiling, Yes, God! I am being selfish, but I’m pretty sure she feels the same way too. I just have to make her believe in me somehow.

  Gaining some succor, he walked into the break room hoping the routine business of work would help ease some of the tumult.

  “Oh…what a wonderful surprise! You didn’t forget, darling?” Spinning on his heels, he saw her—the biggest contributor in his offence, the one he had come to loathe with a singular passion. He moved to charge forward.

  No! I cannot afford to lose my composure. I cannot give her the pleasure of seeing me upset!

  Changing course, he leaned back against the wall, took a casual peek at his steaming cup of java, and said, “Forget what?”

  “That this is where we used to meet, in secret, on the weekends. I thought you’d forgotten but you didn’t!” She looked overjoyed.

  “That’s bull. You’re giving yourself too much credit,” he sneered and felt a glimmer of satisfaction when he saw doubt cloud her features. “I came here to get some work done. That’s all!”

  “So you may say.” She smiled; it took quite a lot to faze her.

  Shaan straightened up, a grim set to his jaw. “If you’re done, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Oh no…I am not done.” Her fingernails drummed an irritating tune on a laminate side table. “How did your rendezvous in wicked Vegas go? Poor Sooj sounded so excited when he told me. Did you and your pretty wife…uh…you know what I mean,” she said, casting a sly glance in his direction.

  Why the hell does she want to know? Did she...? He chanced on a gamble. “Yes, we did…and it was out of this world.”

  Then when he saw the brightness vanish from her face as though someone had turned off the lights, he knew his suspicions were true.

  “Is that all? Is this how you chose to torture my sweet and innocent wife? Calling her less of a woman just because she hadn’t lost her virginity yet?” His entire being seething with fury, he marched up to her, kicking aside a red stackable chair that stood in the way and dug his hands deeper in his pockets as they threatened to develop a mind of their own. “How sick can you get? How much further can you fall?”

  She shrunk back against the wall, sensing the suppressed violence in him. She had never seen him this angry before.

  Eyes blazing as he stopped inches from her, he said, “Let me tell you this, you worthless bitch! Every single atom in my Ruhi’s body is worth a million of you. I love her for how she values her dignity and self-esteem above everything else. I adore her as a person first and only then as my lover, and I won’t tolerate anyone who tries to come between us.”

  Struggling against an intense desire to grab her neck, he continued in a quiet yet menacing tone, “I can finish you very easily now and put an end to all your scheming, but that would rob me of the chance to enjoy a most wonderful future with my lovely wife.”

  Des let out an inward sigh of relief.

  “But if you even attempt to come near her again or try to contact her, you’ll wish you’d never laid eyes on me…and that is guaranteed!”

  “But, Shaan, I never meant to—”

  “For God’s sake, are you deaf?” He lashed out. “Can’t you see—” But his tirade was interrupted when his phone buzzed urgently at his belt.

  “What?!” he said into the phone. “How… Why? Where are you now? I’m coming right away!”

  “But, Shaan, you’ve got to listen to me,” Des said, standing between him and the door.

  He shoved her aside. “I’ve paid a very high price for heeding to your crap. Now it’s time to mend my ways.”

  ***

  “Oh my god! Sweetheart!”

  Shaan burst into the tiny ER room and rushed to take Ruhi in his arms, kissing her on the forehead, hugging her slight figure to his chest.

  Then sensing her wince, he relaxed his hold and looked her over carefully, taking in the multiple abrasions on the side of her face and neck and the bruised angry swelling over her left shoulder and arm.

  “What happened? You look badly injured!” he asked, casting a furious glance at Sanjana who was sitting by the bed watching uneasily. “What did you guys do to my Ruhi?”

  Then he said, turning to his wife again, “Did someone manhandle you? Was it that Pratik? Tell me! If so I will kill him!”

  Her smile was wan and forced. “No… I’ll be fine. It was an accident. I wasn’t looking where I was going, so I tripped and fell on the road.”

  “Are you sure? For some reason, I don’t believe you.”

  “Why?” Ruhi asked.

  “‘Cause you’re not looking me in the eye, that’s why!”

  She countered with a defiant look at his face. “It was an accident. Fine?”

  He still felt reluctant. She is not going to tell me. Who does she want to protect? I’ve got to find out some other way.

  “Did the doctor see you already?”

  Ruhi nodded, relieved he wasn’t chasing after the matter. “Yes. He has taken x-rays, I think I may have broken my arm. I can’t move it at all.”

  “I sure hope not.”

  A tall woman bearing the name tag Joy, though Ruhi didn’t find anything cheerful in her demeanor, walked in announcing that she needed Ruhi’s insurance information.

  “But I don’t have any of my cards with me.”

  “Don’t bother. I’ll take care of it,” Shaan said, giving her knee a gentle squeeze before following the woman out.

  “Thank you for not telling him anything,” Sanjana said, taking Ruhi’s hand in hers.

  “You don’t have to thank me. Indeed, it was an accident.”

  “But I was the one responsible for it. I shouldn’t have spoken that way to you.”

  “No. You were right. It was not in my place to interfere. But you made me realize something I should have a long time ago,” Ruhi responded, her misgivings deeper now, upon observing Shaan’s concern.

  Then seeing Sanjana’s perplexed expression, she elaborated, “I’m married to none other than the wonderful man you just saw, and I’ve failed miserably in not giving him the importance he deserves.”

  ***

  “Is she going to be all right? By the way, I didn’t know they let you add girlfriends to your insurance,” Pratik, who had been hovering nearby, piped in as Shaan handed the card to the woman.

  “I don’t think I need to answer any of your ridiculous questions!” Shaan snapped.

  “And how is the patient related to you, sir?” Joy asked with an almost smile.

  “She is my wife,” Shaan articulated, aiming a hostile glare at Pratik who was clearly taken aback.

  A few minutes later just outside the hospital…

  Grabbing the taller man’s “I am Dumb so What!” T-shirt in his hand, Shaan let it fly. “If you dared to even lay a finger on her, you’ll wish you were dead!”

  Pratik was still in a daze at his discovery. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to hurt her…but it could’ve been much worse if I hadn’t pushed her out of the way.”

  “What do you mean…much worse?” Shaan retorted, bewildered.
>
  “She could have walked right in front of a sixteen-wheeler!” Pratik proclaimed. Then when he saw Shaan’s face turn ashen, he asked, “What did you do to your wife, dude?”

  ***

  “Why, Ruhi?” Finally, Shaan attempted to pose the question that had been plaguing him.

  “Huh?” She raised her head quizzically.

  He had just seated her on the bed with a new ice pack for her shoulder after dissuading her from going into the kitchen to prepare dinner. “You can’t. You are practically handicapped without your left arm.”

  To which she had agreed, albeit reluctantly.

  Fortunately, she had escaped without a fracture and had sustained what the ED doc had called “a partial tear of the rotator cuff,” which was considered a minor injury though it didn’t appear so by the way she had resisted even the slightest motion of her arm.

  “What happened?” He shifted her gently to face him careful to not touch the affected side. “Do you think I’ve made your life so unbearable that you wish to end it? If so, I’m willing to…” His voice faltered, almost choking on the words but he couldn’t bear to see her unhappy.

  “No… It’s not like that at all!” she replied, leaning forward. “You’re mistaken!”

  “Then what is it? Tell me, I need to know. How can we move ahead in our relationship if we don’t share our concerns with each other?” he asked, gently smoothing her hair around her face, noticing all the hidden bruises, which had begun to make their presence felt; she had never seemed so vulnerable before. “And why did you go out in that disturbed state of mind when I had expressly cautioned you not to?”

  She looked away, her eyes welling up. “I… I was too restless, and the empty house was making it worse so I decided to go to Sunshine’s. She has always made me feel better, but she had gone to her doctor’s. Oh, I forgot.” She turned to him all anxious. “I need to call her to make sure she’s fine!”

  His lips curved into a fond smile. “I bet she is, unlike you. Anyhow, she has to have taken good care of herself to have made it this long. Besides, it’s past her bedtime. We shall both call her in the morning. Now stop worrying and tell me the rest.”