மனம் ஒரு குரங்கு

Author's annoying interruption: I could not think of a title for this short story that is more apt than "Manam oru Kurangu" (The mind is a monkey). I also wanted to touch upon unspoken assumptions of Indian marriage, fidelity and a few other things...but did not want to overload the title!

She woke up because she felt that something was wrong, even as she slept. She stared blankly into the darkness. Her eyes focused on the framed picture in front of her bed with the small heart-shaped night-lamp casting a cone of light on it. A boy and a girl walking hand in hand and scrawled below it the word Love and his signature.

Tonight, the picture did not reassure her. She gulped down some cold water and tried to will herself to sleep. It eluded her. She struggled not to remember the scene that had just woken her up from her dreams. The terribly inappropriate scene. She gave up the futile attempt of trying to distract herself with happy thoughts, thoughts of her honeymoon, their pleasant married life and tried to sleep again.

A few seconds of blissful darkness and then the same scene. There he was, laughing comfortably with her, both hands draped around her shoulder, leaning his head forward to touch hers. She woke up again with a start this time, more tensed than before. She picked up her cell phone to call her husband and dialed the numbers.

"He..llo", a groggy voice replied. She realizes her mistake and without thinking ends the call. Five anxious minutes pass and the cell phone rings. She flips it open even before the first ring is complete.
"Sunil, I am sorry...Ganesh is away and I could not sleep, had nightmares...", she lied, as she was expected to. She cannot believe how thrilled she feels that he had called, yet hoping for the sake of hoping that he would not.

"Shalu? I just called to say I reached safely...cannot hear you clearly...love you, will call you in the morning, bye". The call ended abruptly and once again, she was surrounded by silence.