STORYMIRROR

Bharath Kumar

Abstract Drama Others

4.0  

Bharath Kumar

Abstract Drama Others

Suspicion - The Relationship Eater

Suspicion - The Relationship Eater

8 mins
455


Manu and Becky tied a knot during a hush-hush ceremony. They moved into a bungalow in Juhu. The tall and gracious bungalow had all modern amenities and looked stunning from the front view, especially when it was soaked in the sunlight. In the backdrop, a huge ground sprawled several kilometers. Small kids thronged to the place every Sunday to play a cricket match. Becky was a selfish lady who didn’t care about others’ happiness. She wanted to have control over every situation and expected everyone to be the way she wanted them to be. One day, the couple got an invitation to attend a wedding ceremony. Becky looked excited at the prospect of depicting her beauty in front of the gathering. Manu wasn’t interested at all to attend the wedding but, at his wife’s behest, had no other option. An enormous mirror hung to the wall, reflecting Becky’s face. She entwined her curly hairs and planted a kiss to the reflection of hers in the mirror, adoring her beauty. She spent an hour in front of the mirror trying to enhance her beauty with makeup products. She intended to look stunning in the marriage hall so that the guests would focus on her more than the bride. 

The grand conventional hall, festooned with flowers, balloons, lights, enhanced the grandeur of the hall. Becky’s countenance transformed into a huge smile the moment she glimpsed at the hordes of guests in the hall. Her mind had concluded that she was the center of attraction in the hall. Her gaze swept around to investigate if anyone was admiring her beauty. The whole gathering was only interested in admiring the bride and groom. Her smile evaporated as the reality sank in and anger surged through her body. She nudged her husband, who was sitting beside her. Manu looked puzzled as his wife had convened anger on her face.

“What’s bothering you?” he asked.

“Why are you not looking at me?” she said.

Manu broke into laughter. “This is not your wedding, madam!”

Becky got pissed off, and she immediately retreated the place without uttering a single word. Manu couldn’t fathom his wife’s behavior. After all, they had come here to attend the wedding ceremony of someone else and there was no need for his wife to behave in a surreal manner. He wished the couple wholeheartedly and presented them with a gift as a token of respect before returning home. Becky vented her anger on a poor child who had come to her home to beg for alms. She whipped the poor girl with a stick, exhibiting her sadist persona. Tears rolled out of the poor girl who ceaselessly begged for mercy, but to no avail. Manu couldn’t believe his eyes as he witnessed the incident. Just in a nick of time, he saved the poor girl who otherwise would have been killed by the wrath of Becky. He grieved for the innocent girl who had developed red marks over her body, thanks to Becky. He not only took her to the hospital but also provided some money and asked for forgiveness on his wife’s behalf. 

Becky sat authoritatively on a sofa, turning into a horror movie. 

“Have you gone out of your minds?” Manu asked. “How could you muster the courage to bash that poor girl?”

“I don’t need you to certify my courage. If anyone tries to check my patience when am in a terrible mood, they are bound to get punished,” she said. “You seem to her lackey.”


“I just can’t understand your behavior.”

Becky hurled the remote controller of the television to the sidewall and walked back to her room. Manu stared at her as she disappeared into the room.

On a Sunday evening, Manu’s college-mate Riya appeared in his house. Both of them had no words to exchange for some time as they were meeting after a long time. They hugged each other in sheer joy. Becky couldn’t take her eyes off. Manu took his friend to his room, as they had a lot to discuss. Becky stealthily followed them and peeked through the crevices of the room door. Her heartbeat rose to a crescendo with envy. After a dose of envy got injected, her stomach juices turned abnormal, rendering a tingling sensation. A sense of foreboding invited dread in her mind. Her mind had now become a breeding ground for doubts. Why are they laughing? What is the relationship between them? Why did my husband never tell me about this girl? Is she trying to replace me? She believed there was a hidden story beneath the cloaks of their smile. She racked her brain, ushering in negative thoughts until she could take no more. Becky knocked on the door repeatedly. Manu opened the door.

“Are you flirting with your paramour?” she asked.

“What the hell? She is my college-mate.”

“I am not in a position to accept your excuses,” she said. “How dare you trap my husband in your love cage?”

“We are just friends.”

Unable to control herself, Becky slapped Riya. “How much do you earn for seducing men?”

Becky launched an attack at hapless Riya by using expletives and demeaning words. Riya couldn’t control tears that seemed to flow ceaselessly. Manu got snapped and launched a slap at his wife’s cheek. Riya realized the gravity of the situation and left immediately. Her staying there would on

ly rub salts to the wounds. Becky glared at her husband, who quickly apologized for his mistake. 

“How dare you slap me for the sake of your girlfriend?”

Manu sensed that the issue was turning contentious. He neither had patience nor energy to embroil himself in a dispute with his wife. She glowered at him suspiciously as he left. She believed her husband had an illicit affair with Riya as he dodged from getting into an argument with her. 

Manu was hooked on his poetry book. Becky slammed a plate of pancakes in front of him. Many ran his fingers over the plate and brought the pancake towards his mouth. It took little time for him to determine the contaminated state of the pancake. It smelled awful. The rancid blast assaulted his nose. His stomach juices couldn’t control the foul smell. He was about to vomit but somehow controlled.

“Why are you serving me contaminated food?”

“You are a contaminated guy after joining with your lady girl,” she said. 

“What do you mean?” he bawled.

“You are subservient to her wishes,” she said. “Who knows, you might have surreptitiously started a family with her?” her brows furrowed.

Becky’s harsh words pierced his heart. “How dare you?” he lifted his hand to slap but at the last moment abstained. 

“I have detected your true colors. I used to wonder to whom you would send messages late at night. Now, the reality has slithered into the surface,” she said. “If you drool so much for her, why did you marry me?”

“You have planted a seed of doubt in your mind. You make your own foolish assumptions which are bootless and have no meaning.” Manu left.

I know how to counter your deception game. You worked assiduously with your Riya to outfox me. I will wield my own game to make you suffer in pain. From now onwards, your life must boil in misery and tears.

The couple had been invited to one of the important functions of their family. They had no choice but to attend the event. Becky thought it was the right time for her to start her own deceitful game. She deliberately plopped beside a handsome young man and started a conversation. She purposely touched him whenever her husband’s eyes hovered over them. Her flirtatious behavior with a young man was perceptible to others as well. Many started murmuring about her behavior. Some of them concluded that her relationship with her husband had turned sour. Every second felt like a nightmare for Manu because of the negative energy that was seeping around the place. On one end people were talking shit about their relationship and on the other end, his wife was behaving unabashedly in front of her husband. Manu had become immaterial in her eyes. He quickly left the hostile place that pricked him with pain. A smile conjured on Becky’s face as she relished her husband’s pain.

The night converted into a beautiful, bright morning. Clouds dispersed to unveil the rays of sunlight onto the earth. Birds worked in cahoots with animals to breach the silence that reigned in the morning. Acrid smoke ejected from a nearby industry conspired to spoil the beautiful morning sweetness. Manu’s gaze swept around the bungalow, drinking in the warmth generated by the outside world. He heard a burst of cackling laughter emerging from the room. He strode into the room only to see his wife ensconced on a bed, sharing laughter with a stranger he had never seen before. Becky nudged the shoulders of the stranger as she was aware of her husband’s presence.

“Who is he?” Manu asked.

“What is your problem, Manu?” she said. “You can flirt with your gorgeous paramour. Why can’t I do the same.”

“Riya is just my friend.”

“Cool down! Just now, love has brewed between us. We don’t want you to disrupt our sweet moment.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“You started the game and I will complete it. I hold the strings and I know what step to take.”

Manu got miffed and scurried back to the balcony. Peace had eluded him since the marriage. His wife’s behavior overrode other thoughts and penetrated pain through his body. He glared at his poem sheet, quickly tore and crumpled it before depositing it into the bin. The discord between his wife and him only magnified with no solution to calm down things. And now she was taking a bold step to flirt with someone else at the expense of her husband’s sadness. Wrinkles rimmed on his face the moment his wife’s thought evoked. Her behavior nettled him day by day and he lost interest in confronting the unpleasant situations which only breached his peace. He realized the only solution to the problem was divorce. When there is no sacred connection between the two, then it makes little sense to live together. He felt there was no hope of renewing this relationship anymore. Before the situation exacerbates to steal happiness and joy from both, they had to put a full stop. The divorce happened, and the couple parted ways, putting an end to the forgettable relationship that always met a dead end. A drop of lemon is enough to turn the milk into curd. Likewise, a small doubt is enough to contaminate the relationship.


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