Saturday, November 08, 2008

Fiction

The door clicked open, and yellow light from the hallway flooded in. With a start, she realized that she had been sitting in the dark for the past couple of hours, staring at the hypnotic starlight outside. The moon's rays slanted in through the French windows. Had she moved from the sofa all day? She couldn't remember.

His dark shape blocked out the light. She saw his arm reaching for the switch, and instantly put up her arms to block out the harsh light. She heard a click. And then another, a moment later. Cautiously peering past her arm, she saw that he had switched off the light again. The door clicked shut behind him. The renewed darkness felt cool and welcome on her eyes.

His footsteps sounded in the dark emptiness of the huge room - cautious steps, navigating the furniture. Soon, he was visible by the moonlight. Light coloured trousers and a blue-grey shirt. He went to the window and stared outside silently for a while. She kept her eyes on him, dispassionately taking in his slim form.

He turned and came back to her. Sat beside her on the sofa. Put his arm around her. Caressed her hair. She turned to him, and crushed her face against the crisp blue cotton of his shirt. Breathing in, she smelled the coolness of expensive airconditioning. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I forgot again." Once again, she had left the food untouched. Once again, she had forgotten to switch on the lights at dusk. Once again, she had not stepped outside.

"It's alright," he said. "It'll take time." She sighed, and snuggled closer to him. He hugged her tighter, as if he wanted her to melt into him. And so they sat there in the darkness, the woman who had forgotten how to live, and the man who was waiting for her to remember again.
• • •

5 comments:

naween said...

and memories will be there
ink blots variously shaped
and you'll be surprised when
every time you want to draw
you'll find a reluctant yourself
dipping into one of them
...

geo# said...

hey jade/jasmine..

i used to read ur blogs whn it was under jasminegurl.. somehow over the yrs i lost touch n later found jasminegirl doesnt exist anymore..

somehow by chance lastweek.. i came across ur blog under this url.. spent the last few days reading it..

carry on the good work..

the fiction is interesting... waiting for u to add more to it jade..

R said...

Built a descriptive scene for me. Awesome. The man, I hope, is going to stay high on his expectations.

Jade said...

Naween: Perceptive, aren't you?

geo#: Hey.. I do remember you, as a matter of fact! But how on earth did you realize that I was the erstwhile Jasmine?

Rohit: Thanks.. The scene sort of just came to me, and I had to write it down, even though I'm not very into writing fiction.

Personally, I hope the guy's expectations get fulfilled.

geo# said...

It had some clues. The mallu references, MBA - you were the only blogger i knew was a mallu MBA graduate to be. The archives told the rest.