Bodacious

(by Brishti Guha)

She thinks of an evening
An evening of spring showers
When they laughed, their faces in the rain,
riding steel –
Black steel on red dust.
Their contours welded together perfectly
Muscle against muscle. Tyres against tar.
Later, their contours merged again
As the thunderstorm outside raged
It seemed created for the
express purpose
Of matching their passion.
And she thinks of his back
The broad back that she loved to hug from behind
The back that bore her nail marks
And that he turned on her one summer day
To walk away.
And she smiles, thinking
Of the rain, the storm-
Of poetry, and of her love
For life and all that it offers
This bodacious babe.

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*Brishti is a dear friend. She is an Associate Professor of Economics at a prestigious university. Apart from her research and writing in Economics, she is an avid reader and a practiced poet as well. You can read some of her papers and articles here.

Image source

I remember you…

“He isn’t ready. I won’t suggest you to meet him.”

“I would like to see him and that is my decision.”

“Love, he doesn’t remember…”

A single drop of tear appeared in her eyes, “I don’t care whether he remembers or not. I want to meet… meet him,” she said in a cracked voice.

“As you wish dear, but do not tell him…”

They walked up the old wooden staircase which creaked at every step. There was a foul smell emerging from the room looming before them.

“I give you ten minutes,” the care taker said and walked back down the stairway.

She was left alone. Hesitatingly, she knocked at the door. There was no reply. She knocked again.

“Uh!” a terrible voice emerged from inside.

She opened up the door and found the wrinkled man sitting on the chair, curiously looking at her.

“I remember you, sweetheart… my daughter.”

* This comes out to be my 400th post. I thank you all for the continuous support. It is a great feeling. This blog has become the most important thing in my life and I am not kidding. 🙂

And to rejoice the moment, I would like to share one of my most favorite songs with you all:-

Haunted

The rusty door creaked open.

“The house seems to be abandoned since forever.”

“It is spooky.”

“I like spooky things,” he held her hands grinning like a fool, which she adored and entered their abode for the summers.

“There will be so much work to do.”

“I have called for the workers. They will come tomorrow and make the place livable for us.”

They had reached the center of the lobby and took a look around at the ancient tapestry and crimson walls in the mid-afternoon light; the floor was bare but for a carpet bathed in dust and a grandfather-chair in a corner.

“This house is not haunted, is it?” she meekly asked.

“Oh yes it is.”

She gasped at the mad look in his eyes and that cruel smile, she had never seen before. She trembled from within as some red fluid appeared on his lips and he snarled.

She ran for the old rusty door but it was somehow locked. She hastily looked back but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh god… oh god…”

A loud banging sound resounded from somewhere. Tears appeared in her eyes, “Please save me… oh please!”
“What has happened to him?”

She crouched down still at that very position and felt a dull ache at her chest.

Some one was coming for her; she could hear the footsteps, soft but not silent on the carpet. They sounded distant. She was in a dream world; sweaty, her entire body numb but for the sharp pain at her chest and her ribs.

“Are you okay, darling?”
“I was just joking with some help from…”

She felt a soft touch on her face and she looked up at him, into his eyes, now completely normal, gazing at her with fear or was it love, she did not know. She closed her own eyes shut, never to open them ever again.

 *Written for the Trifecta Challenge.

“Baby…”

Under the star light, he silently moved towards her.

She was sitting on the pier, gazing at the ripples of water, appearing on the sea surface. They were on a vacation and he was in a weird mood all the time.

“Baby”

She heard his voice and looked back. He had a sharp knife, clenched in his left hand with a mad look in his eyes. She was speechless, her mouth gasped open. Coming back to her senses, she shrieked.

“Listen, baby”

She wailed a long cry for help.

Lights switched on and people came pouring out, some spreading torchlight to brighten the night in front of them.

“What?”
“What happened?”
“Who was that?”
“Did you hear…?”
“Mom, I am afraid.”
“Hey, do you know?”

Rushing towards the location, they saw the entire scene; a mad man with a knife going to kill a young woman.

“Hey…,” a brave man moved ahead, talking to the man with the knife, “Throw that away. You can’t do anything to her now.”

“But…”

“Throw it away.”

He threw it away.

“And what is in you right hand. What are you hiding?”

He brought his hand forward to show a chocolate cake, resting on his palm.

A wave of shock fell across the peering crowd and the muttering started again.

“It is for my wife. It is her birthday; so I brought across a cake for her to cut down under the celestial light. It was a surprise,” he meekly said and started to cry.

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* Written in response of the Trifecta Challenge: Light

Three Simple Words- A Simple Story

“So you are not going to apologize,” she finally voiced her opinion after hours of silence.

He just looked glumly at her.

“You know it was your fault. So what is the problem in saying those three simple words,” she continued preaching him, ” Just say I am sorry and the matter is solved.”

He wasn’t even looking at her anymore.

“You are impossible,” she concluded and was leaving when he responded, “I ain’t sorry; there, you get your three simple words.”

“But I have got three other simple words for you as well which are I love you,” he continued, “And if it takes me to apologize for something which is not my fault to make you talk to me lovingly once again and laugh at the silliest of my jokes, I would do so. So here are your three simple words darling, I am sorry.”