Second Hand

My entry for the Tumbhi short story writing competition.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain, Sirdi Rao, speaking. We are about to begin our descent to the Chathrapathi Sivaji Airport. The weather outside is pretty warm at thirty degree Celsius and the local time is three-twenty p.m. We have certainly enjoyed flying you today and hope to see you soon." the pilot’s voice reverberated through the airplane’s speaker system.

This was it! I was back to India after three long years. And the best part of this return? My sweetie pie, my darling wife has no clue of my return. I have planned to make this comeback a real surprise for her.

I still remember the day Shruthi came to drop me at the airport, when I had to go abroad for my job. I remember her fragrance, her touch, the wetness of our parting kiss, just as though it all happened yesterday. And here I am now, to get back things that I have been missing for the last three years.

---

I paid the cab fare and walked to the door of my house, rang the bell and waited. There was no answer; I rang again. No answer this time too!‘Why is she taking so much time?’ I thought to myself.
I rang the bell again. How I wanted to see her face when she sees me!

I was too tempted to call her and ask where she was. But that would just spoil the suspense that I have been planning over the past two months. I went and stood at the corner of the street and waited. She must not have been back from office, I believed. Putting down the two bags I had carried, my wait began. It wouldn’t be more than an hour, I assumed.

Some fifteen minutes later, a car skidded to a halt, right in front of my house door. It was our car. The driver seat door opened, and out stepped my Shruthi!

I picked up my bag and took a couple of steps towards the car, when the front passenger seat door opened, and out came a guy; tall, bearded and heavily built. I have never seen this person ever, nor did she ever mention about such a person at office.

Both of them walked into the house and closed the door. My jaw dropped; I stood there, shocked!

‘Probably they just had some office work left to finish’, I thought to myself trying to put down the suspicions that were building inside me. I decided to wait.

I waited a long time for the guy to come out of the house. My plans of giving her a surprise were still on, but now it turned out that she is the one who is surprising me!

The time was now 8:00 pm, and he was not out of my house yet! I had half a mind to burst into my house and punch him right on his face. But then I didn’t want to believe that she could do such a thing to me. Hence, I decided to wait, until I get to know that there is nothing awful happening.

It was getting late, and I don’t like the way things are turning out. I need a shelter for the night. No, not my house! I need to investigate on what is going on, without their knowledge.

I walked to a nearby hotel and booked a room, placed my bags in there and left the place, not 

wasting much time. I was back to my surveillance spot. He could have left my house in this short time. Whilst my heart was hoping he left, my intellect said he had not.

The streets were pretty empty by now; it was just the occasional one or two people walking by and a car passing by once in a while. Once or twice a cop car came patrolling around and I would hide myself in a dark corner.

I was all tired by the flight journey and was sleep-deprived. The time was now 9:30 pm. Sleep began to dawn on me. Just then my house door opened, and he came out, dressed up in casual home clothes! He was carrying something. It was a big black plastic bag, almost full. He carried the plastic bag to the community waste disposal bin, dumped it there, walked back towards the house and closed the door behind him!

‘What on Earth is going on inside my house?’ I wondered, my suspicions now increased 

exponentially!

‘Was my sweetie pie cheating on me all these years?’ I couldn’t come to a conclusion!

I waited there, lost in thoughts, about her, about the lovely memories we shared, and then this 

son of a bitch!

At 10:00 pm the lights went off!

"Damn it!" I shouted out and walked to my hotel room; filled with rage.

I need to sneak into the house; my own house! Having had a feeling that I had a spare key to my house, I frantically opened my bags and pulled out a pouch that I don’t use much. I emptied its contents and found what I was looking for, the spare key to my house.

I thought of a plan and decided to go to sleep, but was not able to drift my thoughts away 

from all the weird things that happened today.

---

It was 10:00 am when I woke up. I quickly got to my senses, got ready for the day and left the hotel after having a light breakfast. I had taken my gloves along so as to not leave any signs of housebreaking. On reaching my house, I rang the door bell. No answer.

I rang it again just to be sure and waited; no answer.

I put on my gloves and pulled out the spare key from my pocket and inserted it into the key hole. Though the key took its time to push itself inward, it finally unlocked the door. I was inside my own house, like a thief!

I did expect a lot many things would surprise me here, but never to such an extent. There was a photograph of Shruthi and him in our showcase!

‘That’s it! This has very well crossed the limits’; I thought and had a revenge plan in place.

Just then I heard the noise of the door clicking. I ran into the bedroom and hid on the underside of the bed. There were noises of footsteps, and then I heard the noise of a broomstick.

Crap! It was their housemaid. This was, in the least expected. Hoping that she would not discover me, I lay there, still and put my mobile phone on silent mode.

Now, she was cleaning the bedroom. She made the bed and started sweeping the floor. My heart was beating fast and hard. Just three to four sweeps and she left the room. So much for the dedicated housemaids!

She left in a short while. Never have I felt such a relief.

---

It was 4:00 pm when Shruthi and he had entered the house, and I was under the bed inside their bedroom. They were in some sort of a quarrel; both of them were talking in raised voices. All I could make out was that it was regarding some plot he had sold, without her knowledge.

I felt happy that they were fighting.

During the high voltage talks I learnt that his name was Manu – yet another surprise! That is because my name is Manu too!

‘This is turning out to be something very strange’, I thought.

For a long time there was pin drop silence inside the house. She came into the bedroom, closed the door and fell onto the bed.

A few minutes later, my phone started vibrating. I took out the phone to discover that it was Shruthi who was calling. Without a second thought, I cancelled the call and sent her a message saying that I was in a meeting and would talk to her tomorrow.

I heard her phone beep, indicating the arrival of my message.

"What meeting does that ass have at this time?" I heard her murmur.

And that confirmed things. It was a go ahead signal for the plan I had in mind. I don’t know what I was to her. Was I being used for her need? Or was it their need?

The door clicked open as Manu entered the room.

"Listen", he started.

"Manu, I don’t want to hear any damn pathetic excuses. You should not have sold it!" she 

burst out.

"I’m so sorry honey. I never thought you would" he said and got on the bed. Then there were only whispers and I heard her weeping soon after.

And there was the sound that totally shattered me; sounds of kissing, wet slurpy kisses! Soon, the sounds turned into moans of ecstasy.

‘Slut!’ I thought to myself.

I felt as though I was being stabbed right through my heart, over and over again. I heard a sigh, indicating that it was over. Pin drop silence, again!

It was not less than ten minutes when Manu broke the silence.

"Baby, I need to leave early tomorrow", he said.

"You carry on. I need to leave only at the normal time", Shruthi replied.

"OK dear. Good night" Manu wished her.

"Good night" she returned his wish.

I waited under the bed, hunger-stricken, like a snake waiting for the right time to strike its prey.

I did not sleep all night, waited there, thinking and improvising on my plan.

---

Manu was ready to leave for office. He came into the bedroom and said, "Darling, I’m leaving. See you later".

"Bye", Shruthi replied.

I heard the door close as Manu left the house. Shruthi yawned.

This was my chance. I got out from under the bed and there she was lying in front of me, under the blanket.

I slowly pulled the blanket off her, revealing her naked body.

"Manu, you haven’t left yet?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

"I just left you forever, yesterday night", I replied.

She was startled on hearing my voice, jumped up to sit on the bed and wrapped herself in the blanket. She was simply bewildered.

‘At least, my plan worked’, I thought. But it worked out in dimensions I never imagined.

She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t utter a word. Voice failed to escape her.

"How…?" she managed to ask feebly.

"Why is the question to be asked. Why? Why did you have to do this to me?" I asked.

"Listen Manu…" she said shivering from head to toe.

"Oh yeah? Now this ass has to listen to you? " I said, pointing to myself, and climbed onto the bed and cornered her.

I lifted a pillow.

"I’m sorry Manu. I am so so sorry" she mumbled, words hardly escaping her, tears flowing down her cheek.

I pressed the pillow on her face, suffocating her. She beat her hands and legs frantically, trying to hold on to her breath and dear life. And when she showed no signs of life, I pulled the pillow.

I saw her face, in front of me, expressionless, tear-stricken and life-less.

"Fucking bitch", I murmured and walked out of the house.

---

Manu was accused for the murder of Shruthi as there was evidence to prove that they both were not in very good of terms. He was sentenced to life-time imprisonment.

I did not want to know anything that had happened between Shruthi and Manu. I did not want to remember anything. I started living a new life.

Yet, curiosity haunted me and it drove me to the prison to meet Manu.

"So, you are the one who killed Shruthi, eh? I have been expecting you for a long long time" 

Manu’s words surprised me.

I stood there, emotionless.

"Why did you have to kill her? Why did you have to send me to prison?" he asked.

"If you hadn’t slept with my wife, if at all you hadn’t stole her away from me, none of this would have happened", I returned.

"Your wife? How long had she been married to you?" he asked, raising his right eye-brow.

"Four years!" I replied.

Manu chuckled and smiled.

‘What the heck was going on? Why is he smiling?’ I thought.

From the confused look on my face, Manu shrugged and said, "I don’t know".

He continued, "She and I have been married for seven years bro; seven damn years! To you she was second hand!"

- THE END -