madhavi deshpande

Drama Horror Thriller

3.3  

madhavi deshpande

Drama Horror Thriller

Future In The Mirror?

Future In The Mirror?

10 mins
161


DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and unintentional.

It was a hot May afternoon.


I had been away from my hometown for the past three years. Life in my hometown Nagpur appeared to be the same. The same dust, the same terrible scorching and punishing May heat.

Even my home appeared the same, despite the fresh coat of paint that had been applied. Even my room on the top floor, looked as it looked the day I had left it, three years back. My parents did not seem to have touched or moved anything.

Only a new bathroom had been built for me, attached to my bedroom. And a new mirror had been added.

“The mirror is from Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar, supposed to have been owned by a rich man" My fifteen-year-old sister Manisha was quick to blurt out. "He fell into bad times, because of his gambling addiction, lost all his wealth, and had no choice but to sell everything, including this".

Trust Manisha to tell you everything about anything.

I smiled. It was typical of Manisha. She was always interested in anything remotely scandalous and loved gossiping away.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Manisha asked.

I smiled. She was right.

The mirror was awesome. It was full-length, around 6 feet x 3 feet, enclosed in an exquisite gold-coloured carved case.

‘A mirror befitting a King’ announced Manisha.

Trust Manisha to be pompous at the slightest pretence. "The shopkeeper surely said so” Manisha kept on gushing.

“All shopkeepers say so!” I reminded her.

Manisha was not listening. Or she was definitely in no mood to listen. For she had a lot more to tell. So she went on “It is said that the owner of the mirror was reluctant to part away with it even in his worst days and used to say ‘Take my life but please spare this mirror. This mirror is my only friend. I can see a different reflection whenever I look into the mirror. In this mirror, I don’t see the present me-broke, poor and ridiculed, but me in the future-handsome, rich, successful, happy- I see my wonderful future in this mirror.’ He used to tell his wife, who used to his wayward ways, used to seer at him with contempt and disgust.

"It is said that he used to regularly talk to the mirror, preferred to be alone with it for hours together, would disappear for hours in the bathroom and emerge from it at times content and happy and at times worried and tense. His wife would dismiss it as a typical phase which one goes through when he is going broke and has no friends or money for comfort or company.’

“I can see what you will look like in the near future” He used to tell his wife. “A content old lady, draped in expensive clothes and that small gold mangalsutra of yours is going to be replaced by a long and huge diamond one, I know it, I have seen it in the future. You sitting like a queen in our granite-floored new house, smiling your dimples away at the various celebrities whom we are going to entertain royally in the future. The best is yet to come, dear wife, just be patient, the best is yet to come.


His wife knew that he needed psychiatric treatment and that too fast, but with the debt of crores of rupees looming over them, there was not much that she could do. His prophecy did come true to a certain extent for he did flourish eventually, but that was for a short period, after that he again lost heavily, took to drinking heavily, and died soon after. His wife, left with no choice sold off the mirror at whatever price that was offered and as per rumours remarried some years back…..to a rich man" Manisha was going on. She seemed to have extracted the entire story behind this mirror and was taking immense pleasure at her discovery.

“Bhaiya! Do you really think that he saw the future?” Manisha’s eyes had all popped out, almost jumping out of their sockets.

“Ridiculous!” I muttered.

She knew my answer to her question, but still kept on. “Bhaiya! If it is so, maybe we can also see our future! What do you see in the near future for me? My future husband?” She giggled.

“Ridiculous!” I muttered, with more force this time, both rational and physical, as I closed my room’s door.

I badly needed to sleep for a while before I could get ready for the evening.

This evening was going to be very special for me. I was going to meet Swati, a girl to whom I was going to get married. My parents had fixed everything. The horoscope etc. had been matched. The respective families had met in my absence and my parents had approved of the girl. Now the only thing that remained was that I meet the girl and well, say the pre-functional and customary ‘Yes’.

'Yes,' it had to be from me because my parents had already said 'Yes', even given their precious word for my marriage and I was merely completing a formality.

I slept well, dreamed about her or maybe I did not dream.

Anyway, how was I to see her in my dreams, I had never seen her in my life, not even in a photograph!

‘Such things are not necessary Rakesh!’ My father had announced confidently when I had asked them to send me a coloured photo of Swati "I had not seen your mother before our marriage and see, it just did not affect anything!’ my father had justified solemnly and my mother had agreed equally solemnly.


So I had no choice but to leave it at that……..

Now, as I got up from my bed, my jaw hurt. It always did, especially while getting up. I had skidded off my bike a fortnight ago and my jaw had got hurt. So a white bandage was still present on my jaw. “You can remove it after fifteen days” Doctor Batra had told me. Those fifteen days was over today. Thank God for that! Today I could finally remove the bandage, anyway I had to remove it today since my future wife Swati was going to see me today for the first time and I wanted to make a good impression on her.

To freshen up, I went to my newly constructed bathroom. It smelled and looked new. Especially smelled. Thanks to the new paint.

I combed my hair exactly the way I liked it, a bit like the hero I admired these days, and looked into the mirror to satisfy myself. Yes! I was satisfied! I was looking good.

‘Good? Or was it plain average?’ I asked myself.

I felt a ‘bride-like’ nervousness creep into me.

‘Wonder what Swati must be going through?’ I mused to myself.

I tried to change my hairstyle. ‘It might give me a more decent look’ I said to myself.

And looked at me in the mirror.

When it really happened!

I could feel a flash of something in front of my eyes and then I saw something!

It might have been an image or a reflection or an ‘I-really-don’t-know-what’.

But I really saw it!

I saw a man, middle-aged, greying at the sides, bending on a bed, bending over a woman of about forty.

No! It was not what you think!

The expression on the man’s face, I could not make out, for he was not facing me, his back was. But the expression on the woman’s face was far from blissful!

It was of terror and unspeakable horror!

What was the horror about?

I looked hard.

The man was wearing a brown coloured jacket. I could not see much of his face, save his side face, the left side of his face.

He seemed to be concentrating a lot on the woman, his entire body language said so.

Now I could understand the expression of horror on the woman’s face.

She was been strangulated! And the man facing her was doing it!

His hands were trying to choke her with all his force.

The woman was gasping painfully, her eyes looked as if they already knew the result of such an unequal fight. She was obviously no match for the man’s physical strength and moreover his profound anger.

The fight, mostly one-sided of course, lasted for a few seconds, after which it was all over and the woman lay dead on the bed. The muscles of the man in the jacket relaxed. He knew that his job was over. Satisfied, he got up and turned around to face me.

It was me!

YES! IT WAS ME!

The man in the brown jacket was me!

That is exactly what I saw!

I saw MYSELF!

Or rather, a reflection of myself in the mirror!

There was no mistaking me!

It was me alright! Only a little older, in my early forties, with a little grey hair, a bit bald too, and a prominent scar on the left side of the cheek.

And then the vision vanished!

‘Had I seen myself? In the future?’ I was sweating profusely as I asked myself that question.

Suddenly all the stories that Manisha had related about the owner of the mirror seeing his future in this mirror started swarming in my head…………..like bees around a pot of honey………..trying to make sense……….

‘Can this mirror really show one’s future?’ I found myself asking this question, again and again, despite having a very logical sense of reasoning.

‘Am I going to murder someone in the near future? If so, why? And whom?

Who is that lady?

I could barely think clearly when I heard my sister shout aloud excitedly “Bhaiya! They have come! Swati and her parents”


At once, I removed my bandage and found that it had left me with a scar.

A scar on the left side of the cheek!

Just like I had seen in the mirror!

My heart pounding wildly, I dressed quickly and came downstairs to the drawing-room.

And came face to face with the Swati, my wife-to-be, who was behaving every inch the coy girl that my parents expected her to be, her pretty eyes downcast, smiling shyly.

And then she mustered the courage to look up, at me.

And I saw her. For the first time.

And froze with unimaginable horror!

For she was the woman I had just seen in the mirror minutes ago!

The woman getting strangulated by me!

Imagine my horror and terror! And I stood transfixed, looking at her, mouth wide open, eyes rounded.

Swati saw my reaction and blushed.

Swati, my–would-be wife, was facing me, looking at me.

And I was looking at the woman whom I might strangulate in the future!


Was I going to strangulate my wife in the future?

If so, for what? And when?

My legs began to shake uncontrollably.

“It’s okay, Beta! Everyone gets nervous at the first meeting” my father was soothing me, after he saw my reaction on seeing Swati, for the first time.

I could see that my parents were already treating Swati as their future daughter-in-law, showering her with blessings, jewellery, and silk sarees.

“We know it is all fixed. After all, it is destiny” Swati’s flushed father was saying to me proudly.

“But we would like to hear it from your mouth, Beta” Swati’s father continued, while my parents and sister continued to beam at me.

And Swati continued to look at me with her trademark shy smile, as was the need of the hour.

“So what do you say, Beta?” Swati’s father said in a mischievous tone, and with a twinkle in his eyes. “Did you like my daughter? Are you formally going to say ‘YES’ to her?”

All eyes were on me now.

Especially Swati’s.

‘What should I say?’ I asked myself, my heart beating rapidly.

Say ‘Yes’ now only to murder her in the near future? Or refuse this marriage proposal outright and save her? Will that change the future or my destiny or Swati’s destiny?

Can I escape my destiny? Or Swati her’s?

‘Should I say- YES or NO?’ I trembled with horror, all eyes now on ME.

Especially Swati’s!

Again no sound came out of my shocked mouth and I was afraid everyone present would take that to be another sign of nervousness as I continued to stare at Swati open-mouthed, too stunned to react……a million terrible thoughts swirling in my mind, and not one of them about love or romance!

"I told you Swati, he will be tongue-tied by your beauty!" I heard my father say lovingly to Swati.

“Now do you believe in love at first sight?” I heard my mother tease Swati lovingly.


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