The Key and the secrets it unlocked!

                                                 

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this Story are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Sonal never felt that her cheap-heeled sandals could lead to such an important discovery!

She was all for brands, for she felt that they delivered the best of quality and comfort.

So when her husband, Sameer, insisted that she try out the first copy of the designer labels, she was totally against it. But it was getting late, and she was in no mood for long arguments which she knew would ensue if she told Sameer about the plus points of wearing brands, so she just let him win and even promised to wear these sandals to the office. Which she was never going to fulfill, of course!

And had it not been for the fact that she had overslept today and that she had to attend an important ‘face-to-face’ meeting at exactly 9:00 am today, that she grabbed whatever sandals she could first set her eyes on and had dashed off to her office…………..without another thought.

It was in this urgency, and frenzy that she almost ran to the bus stop, in her cheap-imitation heels, waving frantically at every bus and taxi to stop………..when someone told her that it was a ‘hadtal or a bandh today’.

‘Shit! Why did they have to do it today of all the days, especially when there was an important meeting in her office?‘ she found herself fuming as she started walking, almost running trying to stop any vehicle that she could think of that could take her to her office.

But today she was just not lucky!

There were no public transportations either, and her husband who usually dropped her at the office in their only car had gone to the office early today. Sonal just had time to tell him that she will be out of town for the next two days and her husband had just nodded his head absent-mindedly, and said goodbye and rushed out, for his hurry and urgency seemed to be more than hers!

So Sonal had no choice but to depend on public transport and today ………..there was this band…………which was not even planned!

Naturally, Sonal had no choice but to walk and walk at least three to four kilometers until she got a taxi to the office.

The ‘face-to-face’ meeting with the foreign delegates went off well, but the training program that had been planned for the next few days had to be canceled due to this unprecedented bandh and Sonal’s boss even gave everyone a half-day off that Monday.

Sonal was more than relieved!

The unusual walk and travel plus the meeting had exhausted her, so when she came home around 2 pm and it happened……….she was very irritated.

Her sandals, worn and over-exhausted by all the rushing and running that she had done today, gave way, and no sooner had she put her foot on the doormat placed in front of her flat, than the heel of one of her sandals broke and it got entangled in the net and jute of the doormat.

'I told Sameer these imitation sandals are not durable enough!' Sonal cursed her husband under her breath, lifting the doormat from its position, and trying to remove the heel from it, when she saw it!

The key!

The key to their door’s lock!

Sameer’s key!

Which was underneath the doormat which Sonal had just removed.

The sight of the key made a chill go over Sonal's body as she realized the significance of her husband's key under the doormat.

Sameer kept his key under the doormat only when he wanted to give access to their house to someone close to him…………………..otherwise the key always used to be with him…at all times.

It was Sameer who had come up with the idea of hiding his key below the doormat and told only Sonal about it ………….when they were dating and meeting secretly………..in this flat ………….other than Sonal, he had not confided in another soul about this key.

In those days, Sonal used to remove Sameer’s key from underneath the doormat, unlock his flat and wait for him in the flat.

After their marriage, of course, everything had changed, she had officially become Mrs. Sameer Verma and the legal owner of this flat, so Sameer had given her a separate spare key to this flat, while he kept his original key with him.

As she held the key which Sameer had once again placed secretly under the doormat, a lot of thoughts went through her mind. ‘What is this key doing here now? I have to find out’ she said to herself, for she knew that she can never relax unless she finds out the truth behind it, so she called up Sameer who picked up her call in the second ring (a strange occurrence and a rarity these days, she noted).

She spoke to him for a few minutes casually about everything like the weather, cricket score, grocery list that they were to shop for this weekend, etc. and said to him in a tone as normal as possible “Sameer, I just wanted to remind you that I will be going out of town for the next two days for some official work. I told you in the morning, but you were too busy, I am not sure if you heard me or not. I hope you have your key with you?”

Sonal could hear Sameer’s breath quicken and then he even appeared a bit relieved.

“Of course, Sonal………..It’s with me………… my key is with me………..here…it’s here …...in my …err….wallet” Sameer answered quickly and after a few more words, put down the phone.

And Sonal continued looking at Sameer’s key, which was supposed to be with him, in his wallet…………… but was now slowly but surely becoming a solid proof of his infidelity.

Looking at the key, Sonal remembered all the times, when Sameer would secretly place his key under the doormat for her and she would secretly find it and unlock the door and enter his flat and would wait for him and wait for their nights of passion to unfold………………

Today too, Sameer had secretly placed the key under the doormat and she had secretly found it and unlocked the door and entered the flat…………..but who had he hid the key for, it was certainly not for her, his wife, for she already had a key and anyway who would want to meet his wife in secrecy now?

Now that he knew that his wife was away for at least two more days, as per his habit, Sameer had placed his key under the doormat, for his secret lover, who would find it and walk in any moment and would wait for him as Sonal used to wait for him.

So, today Sonal was waiting in the flat………….., not for Sameer…………but for his lover………and with each passing moment, her heartbeat would quicken and she would think ‘Who will turn up? Who is his secret lover?’ and she could sense a feeling of excitement coupled with dread, build up inside her, something which did not exist when she used to wait for Sameer…………….