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ISSN: 0974-892X

VOL. X
ISSUE II

July, 2016

 

 

Short Story

An angel from Allahabad

J. Kaval
Post Box.No.9705, Vidhyaranyapura Post, Bangalore -97, Karnataka

In Wednesday Night
Relentless ringing of the calling bell with intermittent knocks at the door finally woke up Tomboy.
“Who's that” He asked angrily through intercom.
“Sir, I'm Abhirah, your neighbor, just opposite to your flat”
“What can I do for you?” He turned soft and straight.
“Sir,”
He heard no further words but listened to the sobbing of a woman in distress. He looked through the peephole. He saw the face in the zero light. The face looked pale and pallid, and eyeballs still. They beckoned him that she needed help. Soon he got up, put on the lights, opened the door, and let her come in.
“Hai Abhirah, please sit down.”
She didn't sit either out of fear or respect.
“Tell me, what can I do for you?”
“Sir, I am hungry. I haven't eaten anything since this morning.”
“What? Why?”
“I've no food at home.”
“Why?”
“I don't have money to buy.” She lamented loudly beating her chest. Quickly he closed the door. Grabbing her he held her close to his chest tightly till she calmed down. He made sure that her heartbeat and breathing were normal. He felt her body was weak. Quietly he made her sit on the single sofa. Quickly he offered her a can of 'Red Bull' and said, “It's an energizer. Drink. Be calm and at peace. Fortunately for you, I haven't taken dinner, we shall eat together. Food will be ready within fifteen minutes. In the meantime remove your chador and freshen up your face. Bathroom is next to you and it has everything in it. Okay?”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
He entered the kitchen. Image of Abhirah flashed in his mind. It was a month ago that he saw her for the first time. She was leaning onto the wall near the door facing him along with a middle aged man who was opening the door to their flat across his flat. In pink salwar and flower decked blue khamez, with an orange veil covering her head she looked very pretty and young. He never saw her again, even by chance, but often he noticed the man entering and exiting the flat. He never met him face to face, at least once. Nevertheless he felt something fishy and strange about the couple. Why should he bother about them? He dismissed them... Then out of blue she appeared in a sordid state seeking his help.

'Grab the opportunity when it knocks at you. Here is a young woman in distress at hand seeking your help. Be a Romeo, she will fall for you. Enjoy her…’
'If she is sick with bugs or is shrewd with a pepper spray! No. Beware of stray bitches!!'

Mean ideas haunted him. To ward off indecent thoughts and feelings from his head he tossed down one peg of 'John Daniel' and took another peg of tonic 'Elixir' in one shot. Quietly he prepared Maggie tomato soup and chicken noodles. He carried them warm and steamy in four bowls on a platter to the living room. He got the shock of his life. He saw her in blue, pink dress with orange shawl around her neck, doling out a weak smile. He couldn't believe his eyes! Was she a hourie from heaven? Or was he dreaming? No. He saw the chador near her neatly folded. Perhaps she might not have a spare dress…
“Sir, I am very sorry to trouble you. You are very generous to me even in this odd hour.” She spoke softly
He placed the tray on tea-table and shoved it towards her.
“You must be very hungry. Eat leisurely.”
Snatching the noodles and leaning onto the settee she began to eat slowly and meticulously. With a bowl of soup he sat across her. Through the corner of his eyes he watched her. Against the neon light she looked eyeful and graceful. After a short while he quietly opened up, “Who is that man with you, your husband?”
Without looking at him she said, “No. He's not. His name is Wazir, an errand boy to our family. I'm unmarried but not a virgin.”
He felt her very candid and bold.
“I have seen him often exiting and entering at odd times. Why?”
She responded to him each time only after few seconds while eating.
“Honestly I did not know what he was doing. I did not cook food. He purchased food parcels and ready-made packets. He might be rectifying his travel documents or my legal papers. Or he might have been trying for a job for me. Yesterday abruptly he left for Karachi, never to return.”
“Why?”
“Now I realized. That was the plan of my parents, to dump me in Bahrain. He did just that. I've no idea about Bahrain. Till date I haven't seen even the outside of our flat. They abandoned me to mend for myself.”
“That's abominable, atrocious and unbelievable!” He blasted and blinked at her.
“Sir, can I have some more noodles?”
She must be really hungry.
“Yes. Please, have it. I'm not very hungry. Call me, Tom, just Tom.”
She self served from the other bowl. After having taken several spoonfuls she wiped her mouth. Looking at him she whispered, “Tom, what my family did to me was neither atrocious nor unbelievable…”
“Why?” he cut in
“That was certainly better than I kill me like my elder sister did six months ago. Isn't that fair enough?”
“What did you say?”
Her eyes were full. Drops of warm tears fell onto the bowl in her hand. She stopped eating. She bit her cherry lips. He felt sad and confused.
“Abhirah, I'm sorry.” he apologized.
“It's okay. Thank you. I'm almost full. Pangs of hunger overpowered my love for dying. Now you knew why I knocked at your door. Tom, electricity is cut, water tap is closed. Tomorrow house owner might throw me out. I'm at my dead end. I've no idea about you.” She stared at him.
“Abhirah, you'll learn more about me in a couple of days.”
“I studied up to PUC, then went for cooking classes and got certificate. I secured diploma in the course on ‘Hygiene and Beauty.”
“No wonder. You look so beautiful that I fear I may fall for you. Your dress suits to your physique perfectly”  
“Thank you.” Her face shined. Dimples appeared on her cheeks. They made her more charming and amiable
“Abhirah, we met at 11 pm. It’s Thursday 2 am. Your stomach is full. Don't you want to sleep for a while?”
Casting her face down, she sat still and silent.
Minutes tickled by
“Yea, I understood. Abhirah, you're my guest. Stay here as long as you want to. Go. Bring in your baggage.”
He got up, collected the tray, put the waste in the bin, and dumped the bowls in the sink.
She returned after a few minutes.
He suggested, “Keep the suitcase in the bedroom. You may sleep with me in the same bed or on the sofa as you liked.”
“Thank you. Tom, you're very kind and considerate. Allah -u- Akbar! I feel it's safer for me to be closer to you.”
Her words hit him at where it was most vulnerable, at his heart, and made him stronger.
Locking and bolting the door he walked into the bedroom. She was already off her salwar - kameez and was quietly getting into single piece lingerie.

Thursday night
Abhirah, fresh and fragrant in black lingerie, lay close to him. Aroma of her body whiffed his face. He glanced at her. She looked alluring and bewitching. The attar she used was musky and exciting.
'Hi Casanova, you never enjoyed Pakistani woman. Remember, life is a chess game. You lost her in first the round. Here is the second one. I remind you chances never return. She's wine and divine in a golden chalice at your finger tip, a kiss away from your lips. Drink her to your fill!' He heard the devil murmuring’
Turning to her he pulled her closer to him. He spoke softly, “Abhirah, I enjoyed your breakfast, lunch and dinner. You cooked better than me. You are a culinary expert. God bless you!”
“Thank you, Tom, I'm very happy today. I feel as if I am born again. Now your words thrill me up to fill.”
“Did you enjoy shopping? Didn't you get everything you liked and wanted?”
“I thoroughly enjoyed walking in Manama and shopping with you on your account. I’ve dress materials enough for months. You spent a lot of money. Thanks a lot. I wonder how I would repay you!”
“That's very simple. You will repay me as and when you have money. With your current credits you will soon get good job and earn money. Listen, baby, I talked to the house owner. He is a very considerate man. You can stay in the flat. Pay advance, one month’s rent and stay in the flat or you shall stay with me. You're absolutely free. What do you prefer?”
“I feel to stay with you.”
“Right. You have now roti, kappada, and makhan. So you've no worry, and no hurry burry. Once you get bored with me, or you can stand on your leg, you shall move out. Abhi, I'm still in dark. Why did your family dump you here?”
After a long while she slowly opened up
“We're one of the elite families in Allahabad. One day, out of curiosity, my sister and her two friends and I visited one of the Night Capping Clubs that were mushrooming underground in the city to cater the whims and fancies of youth with free love and sex under the full moon. The youngsters meet, drink, eat, mingle, and dance. During drinking, I think, we might have been quietly and skillfully drugged, disrobed, and were made part and parcel of sexual orgy. By dawn we realized we made a serious mistake. We soon dashed out. We thought that was the end of it. After a week we received copies of video tape of the orgy with close-up pictures of the participants. We soon learnt cassettes were available in video shops under the table. News spread like wild fire in our community. Our pictures also appeared in newspapers and TV channels. We disgraced our parents, the honor of the family, and pride of our country. Learning that Night Capping Clubs were producing and selling pornography using the youth of high and rich families, Government banned NCCs, searched and raided them. My sister could not face my parents and relations. She and her friend committed suicide. Two more adults killed them in our locality. Her other friend disappeared from the public eye. Till I left, nothing was heard of her. I wanted to live but I could not live with my family and in the community. Mama planned. Father conspired. Wazir executed. By fate I knocked at your door and stumbled at your feet.”
She sobbed uncontrollably. He let her. After a while she whispered, “I saw a silver line on your face. You're paving my way forward. Tom, I had few gold ornaments, 4 bangles, 2 two earrings, a long chain, and a nose ring. Wazir took them away except one…”
“Why?”
“He never knew that I had a large belly chain.”
Rolling up her lingerie and placing his hand on her flat flaxen navel she asked, “Tom, please feel it.”  
He felt it over her G-spot. Suddenly his hand got burnt. He immediately withdrew it from the area.
“You must know. Wazir wanted to fuck me. I feared that he would disgrace me further. I was sure he would invade my gold mine and would snatch away my belly chain as well. I told him that I had AIDS and was HIV positive. That kept him away from me. Tom, you shall take away my gold chain and goldmine as well. Consider me your wife, an ad hoc woman. Will you accept me?”
He was stunned and numbed. After a long while he opened up, “To be frank and fair, since my tenth year I never used gold on me, and never invaded any girl's gold mine. Abhi, listen, to work legally in Bahrain you need health-fitness certificate. Today morning we met Dr. Sumathy. She examined you. In the evening she gave me the certificate, clean chit. You are physically fit, still virgin, free of venereal diseases, and mentally sound. To stay on legally here you need work visa and a sponsor. I will find out one for you within a couple of days.”
“Allah-u-Akbar!” She exclaimed, and said firmly. “Tom, you need not marry me before Allah or Khasi or as per any rule book. I promise I'll be your wife and domestic maid as well until you throw me out.”
“Abhi, don't be a silly girl! Do you really understand what the fuck you are saying?”
Placing his palm on her heaving bosom she muttered, “I do. I've no boy friend. I am not an expert on love and sex. I never enjoyed love and sex. Orgy was my first and the last blunder. I learnt human anatomy in hygiene classes. I have read Kamasurtra. Your Aquarian figure, kind words, gentle touch and decent conduct opened up and unleashed energy of love and sex dammed up in me.”
She quietly climbed on him. Holding his head in her palms and looking straight into his eyes she intoned, “Tom, am I a silly, simple, stupid, and idiotic woman?”
“No. Abhi, no, you are strong and heroic, God's own daughter, an angel of Allah.”
“Every human being has in him or her elements of angel and devil as well. Why should I look for the devil in you?”
“Abhi, you are disarming and defeating me as well.” 
“Tom, you are great and did great things for me. You could have made me a milk pack of 'Use and Throw.' Instead you respected me and cared for me. I am offering you most willingly my gold chain and gold mine.”
Gently placing her effulgent face on his wide hairy chest she mused:
“I can't be your lover; for I will be gone away from you sooner than I think of.
I can't demand for your love as you are not within my reach but far away up in the sky.
I can offer you my love liberally and lavishly at my will.
I can leave off you at any time in peace and joy with no string.
Tom, that's my soul wish.”
“Abhi, you chanted so beautifully, mellifluously and wonderfully that I am simply overwhelmed. You are really a romantic poet. I tell you truly. I have dealt with several women from Pakistan. But till-date I haven't encountered a Pakistani blonde. I have never slept with one. I never knew the taste of her bread, butter and jam, and the uniqueness of her essence.”
“Tom, let me have that privilege. Let me be the first Pakistani woman in your life. Let me be the first and the best for you from my land of birth. Will you let me? You will experience the difference. During the studies once I heard from my teacher. A true Muslim woman prays to Allah for the welfare of her husband or boyfriend even while she makes love and sex to him. For her, lovemaking is not only enjoying carnal fun and frolic but is also a religious offering of divine bounty. I believe in that.”
She pulled off her lingerie. He saw a live Venus sculpted in sandalwood. His eyes feasted on the sheer beauty and contour of her supple body.
“Abhi, you are a marvelous woman, and an enchanting one. You are a hourie, not in heaven but on earth, on my lap.”
Slowly curving on him she whispered to him
“God is great. He has done wonderful things for me, His humble maid, through this young man who rescued me from hunger and death. I offer him what I have, your love incarnated in my body and soul.”
She kissed him passionately. She carried him on her wings into virgin's paradise up in the seventh heaven, the abode heavenly houries.

Friday night
In her angelic birth suite Abhirah lay on her back blinking at the ceiling. Her face looked sad, her bosom heaved unevenly, her mind sobbed in silence, but her clean body turned aphrodisiac.
“Abhi,” pulling her closest to him Tomboy quietly asked, “Till we entered the bedroom you were happier and chirpier. Now you're moody and pensive. You are colorless. What happened to you?”
“Tom, I was just recalling. How fast my 'first night' flipped away from my fingers just like a twinkle of an eye! How fast my dream of living with you in peace shattered! Was Allah fooling me? Now I fear you want to drive me away from you. I am afraid that you are selling me to your friend. Didn't you say that you would let me live with you until I got fed up with you? Didn't I marry you? Why should I stay with Abdul Razak? Is he another ‘Wazir’? Or Is he alter Tomboy? How do I know for sure? Please don’t throw me away from you?”  She moaned and sighed.
Tomboy climbed on her. Holding her head in his palms, kissing her passionately on her pouted lips he whispered, “Abhi dear, okay… okay…, calm down. Please…”
After a long while he intoned, “Abdul Razak, a good friend of mine, a gentleman, married with a British lady, father of three children, working in Labor department is the owner of three tailoring shops and two beauty clinics, and a cosmetic shop. I’ve already briefed him”
He paused for a minute and continued.
“He will legally sponsor you; he will provide you with roti, kapada, and makhan; he will pay you good salary. You will be staying with other women working for him in a flat. He will appoint you as beautician. If he felt that you are worth for him he would make you the chief of his enterprises, offer you perks, perhaps a single room. He wouldn't bother about you what you would do with your life as long you would discharge your job and duty superbly. Abhi, do you understand what those things mean to you, the girl exported, abandoned and dumped in a dust bin in Bahrain?”
She stared at him.
“I know of several couples in Bahrain who are unmarried but live like living partners. I am very friendly with them. They know me very well. They nicknamed me Casanova. That you live with me is no problem for me, for my land owner and for my company I work with but for you. My friends and visitors will smile at you but as days fly by they will laugh behind you, and even will sneer at you. Perhaps, even some of my Arab friends may secretly ask me for your company. Do you want that happen to you? Do you get that into your head?”
She got petrified.
He shook her as if she were a doll. “Do you hear me?”
She nodded her head.
“Thank God, your Allah is great. You got an opportunity without paying anything. That's a God-given golden chance. Your co-workers will be envious of you. You prove yourself worthy of such an offer. If anything unpleasant happens, inshallah nothing unpleasant will happen to you, my door is opened to you.”
Naked truth hit her. Suddenly she sobbed uncontrollably. He held her closely to his heart. She murmured.
“Tom, I am sorry. May Allah forgive me! I got it. I understand. I'll do what you say. I will prove myself worthy of you both.”
“You report to Abdul Razak on Saturday and start working. I’ll take you to him.”
He paused for a minute, and into her ears he murmured, “You will stay with me till your accommodation is fixed. I am your friend in need.”
Her eyes were welled up with joy, cheeks reddened, lips vibrated and heart beat faster. Instinctively her hands clasped over his back, and her legs clutched over his. They let loose their emotion and passion in freedom and love.
Tomboy carried her through the labyrinths of Kama sutra till the early hours of Saturday.