Mobstruck

The morning star was already up and shining. The road that usually would be jam packed by now, seemed deserted. I love to sit by the table’s corner and watch this view all day. I have three others staying with me in my room, factually it is not ‘my room’ but I love referring to it that way. In this one year of my stay with my friends it has always been me who sleeps late at night and wakes early in the morning! I have never had a continuous sleep all my life, I wake up several times. One of my friends, Max Turbo, always wanted me to consult a doctor. He was more worried that I might turn into an insomniac. While I was enjoying the morning view it just struck me, this is an important day to Jessie. Oh my God! Just one second to seven o'clock and I…

“I'm back!  Get up off that thing, and dance 'till you feel better…”

“Whoa! Wake up Jessie, come on!” When the whole world waits for that moment where they can forget all their miseries and just rest until morning, that’s when I panic more. It is definitely not the sleep that worries me; it is the sound of the alarm that literally stops my breath. It instantly hauls me to hell in less than a second. The vibrations tickled every part of me and nauseated me to death.

“Ah! I wish you never existed, I hate you.” It was Jessie.

I am bored of hearing this everyday. She wouldn’t start her day without cursing me.

“Good morning Jessie.” I said.

“Zee, she hasn’t responded to you in months!” It was Max Turbo.

Max Turbo is nine months younger to me and has always been my best buddy since he stepped into ‘my’ house. He is from Gurgaon, India and his full name is Max Canvas Turbo, such a long name to call. I perhaps shouldn’t be teasing him for his long name because I own a drawn-out one myself! Yes, I am Soni Experia Z and I love the way Max calls me “Zee”.

“Rekha is still sleeping and she sleeps all day.” Max frowned.

Rekha is his boss and Jessie is mine.

“That’s how humans spend most of their Sundays. Haven’t your parents taught you this before packing you to the showroom?”

“She leaves me on charge before going to bed and never unplugs me till she is awake. It’s less than eight months and my stomach looks blown up man.”

“Aren’t you aware of the modern science? We can easily have a battery transplantation.”

“You fool! We both have non-removable batteries.”

“Oh yeah!” When the last word fell out of me I felt butterflies in my stomach. Ah man, the signals were fast approaching.

“We found love in a hopeless place….” It was Jessie’s dad calling her. Jessie loves this song so much that she hasn’t changed this ringtone past a year.

“Zee, I wonder how humans named this as ringtone. We are screaming our batteries out.” He giggled.

Jessie came running towards me in her favorite jean and a purple tee. She had a grin as she lifted me up swiftly with her soft fingers and as she dragged the green button to the right, she had her fingers crossed. She appeared excited and nervous the same time.

“Hello Dad, when will you be starting?” A hush honeyed voice hit my microphone.

“I am already at the airport and will reach there in an hour. I need to return here before twelve noon.” He said.

“Dad, that is too early. I have asked Jack to come over by six in the evening.” Her hushed voice was turning shrill second after second.

“I have to attend an important meeting in the evening. Just inform Jack that we are meeting in the morning.” The line went dead.

I was worried looking at Jessie, all the excitement that she had when she picked the call started fading. I could see dampness on her forehead. “Jessie, everything is going to be alright.” I wished that she heard me. 

She and Jack were in love for past two years. Though I came into her life a year back none other than me would have known how much they needed each other. Last week Jessie told her dad about her love and he promised that he would meet Jack the coming weekend, which is today. Her parents live in a town that is around 450 Km from here.

I was desperately waiting for her to dial Jack’s number. No, I am not fond of jack but I am crazy about the black lady that he has with him. She is the love of my life. She is nine months younger to me. She is a dazzling black angel who would probably come till my shoulders. She just swept me off my feet with her 8 MP eye during our first meeting. In short she is a 130g Taj Mahal born in Americas yet brought up in the southern part of Korea. Her parents named her Nexus the fifth. I am Japanese, she is an American. I am white, she is black. We belong to different religion, cast, community and what not. Love united us.

She called Jack several times and all her calls went unanswered. After sometime, I felt the signals approaching. I wanted to scream, “my black lady is calling.” unfortunately I screamed,

“We found love in a hopeless place…”

Jessie picked the call and made me feel the warmth of my lady’s hand. Yes, we were now connected heart to heart. Oops! I actually meant SIM to SIM.

“I will be there in the evening. I am at the stadium now,” he said.

“Damn! I totally forgot about your match today. How is it going?”

“Not bad.”

“Jack, my dad will be here in an hour.”

 “What?? Jessie, are you out of your senses? You know cricket has always been my passion. I wanted to get into the Indian cricket team someday. I am playing for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy. I should prove myself today.”

“I know it. Please Jack, can you rethink?”

The conversation prolonged for a while. Both were not able to give up on their point. Gradually they broke into arguments and it got intense every minute. They were hurting each other out of angst. They were shouting, screaming and calling names. I just wanted to shut me down and end this fight. I really don’t understand why humans hurt each other so easily with words and let their anger take control over them.

“Beep”, Jack disconnected the call abruptly. Jessie looked awfully broken. I prayed that she shouldn’t get that water in her eyes, it hurts me even more to see her so. Humans call it ‘tears’.

 “For God’s sake, stop it,” I cried out of pain. She held me too tight and started bumping me on and off her forehead. I would rather prefer her lips to forehead. Come on, don’t take it in a nasty way. I meant it would hurt me less, a soft landing!

“Jessie, it physically hurts me. Did you hear that? I am in pain.” She just threw me on the table that I hit the wall hard and bounced back to the corner of the table.

“Zee, are you okay man?” It was Max.

“Were you not seeing what she did to me? I guess I got a scratch on my shoulder.”

“Okay, let me cool you down. Can you believe that I was the only reason for Rekha still being single?”

“Really?”

“She was dating a guy two months back. She texted him one morning ‘Dear, I am dining with you tonight!’  And they broke up with this message.”

“Come on, why would they break up for this?”

Ha-ha! I auto-corrected the message and sent it as ‘Dear, I am dumping you tonight!’” He started laughing.

I couldn’t control my laughter either. But if Jessie hadn’t met Jack, I wouldn’t have met my black lady. Jessie was sitting on her bed confused not knowing how to handle the situation. She was holding her head tight and staring at me relentlessly.

Oh no, I see her eyes twinkling like a star, shining like a diamond. In a second, a tear rolled down her cheek and to my shock it started rushing down continuously wetting her beautiful cheeks.

“I feel so lonely!” She changed her WhatsApp status and went to the phone settings and quickly changed the ringtone and went back to her bed. “What has happened to this generation?” I thought.

“I am here for you. You can have my shoulders. I am made water-resistant, I can wipe your tears” I know she will not hear me but I couldn’t see my best friend crying.

“Hey Max, I am feeling hungry. My battery is draining and she isn’t taking care of me.”

“Zee will tap you hard. I am so bloated.”

“Her dad will be here any minute. I want to grab her attention by doing something. Even if she takes a look at the wallpaper it will cool her down. She should contact Jack again.” The wallpaper that she has kept now is of her within Jack’s arms, sitting in a park with a huge grin on their faces.

“What’s your battery status?” Max asked.

“15%”

“Awesome, just 1 more percent down and you will have the battery notification popping up. Come on, heat up your battery.”

He said that very easily but humans are brilliant that they designed me brainless. I cannot do anything without the help of my boss. I was lying down helpless. Like a bolt from the blue someone sent a message in one of her WhatsApp groups. Yes, I gained on my confidence. Within a minute there were lots of messages flooding in the group chat. I kept beeping to each of the messages and I was waiting for one last beep that would bring my battery down. It finally happened. I wanted to shout “I am starving” But I shouted “Battery Low”. As expected she looked at me and got up from her bed. She neared me and lifted me. She slowly leaned and unplugged Max from his charger and plugged the same into mine.

“Have you gone nuts? Use my charger. He is a Li-Po 2300 mAh battery and I am a Li-ion 2330 mAh battery. You can’t do this to me. JESSIE. My battery is getting heated up.”

Max having a nice time watching me suffer. Amidst this chaos I just realized that she is still holding me in her hand and staring at the wallpaper. She did not run back to her bed and sit still like a statue.

“Our plan worked out Max,” I wanted to give him a hi-five.

She started brushing me so passionately. I should probably rephrase it as she was brushing the wallpaper so passionately. She lifted me and kissed Jack on the wallpaper. She wiped her tears off and started typing a message speedily. It read, “Jack, I am sorry for behaving so. I shouldn’t have been so rude at you. I will make my dad stay back till evening. Love you Jack.” The smile that she gave once she hit the ‘Send’ button looked priceless.

This time she made sure she placed me carefully on the table and went to freshen herself before her dad arrived. “Awe” Again I had that tickling feeling in my stomach and it was a call from her dad. I screamed,

“Show me the meaning of being lonely…” She was in the adjacent room that she missed to hear me scream.

“Ting-Tong!” someone chinked the calling bell continuously. She ran to the door correcting her dress and hair. Before opening it she ran to me and took me with her, hastily unlocking the screen. May be, she wanted to check if Jack had replied her. But that fellow didn’t bother about her message. She frowned for a second looking at me and opened the door with a smile.

“Hey dad!” She hugged him instantly. But within a second she just bounced back. My goodness, I couldn’t feel my batteries for a second. It was my black lady. I know this wouldn’t amuse anyone of you. It was Jack who was standing alongside her dad with a gentle smile on his face.

“You never told me that Jack was going to pick me from the airport. It was a surprise.”

She was not able to hold back her emotions. She looked at Jack and gave him a loving smile. Oh No! Jack put my black lady in his pocket. As Rekha was sleeping in this room they moved to the dining hall.

“I am all worn out. Let me refresh quickly.” Saying thus her dad walked away.

Jessie placed me on the table and relaxed herself on her chair. But Jack just broke my heart, he behaved so cruel to us. He had my black lady in his pocket. “Hey Jack, don’t you know that sitting on the mobile is not much different than walking around with one shoe on and one shoe off? It hurts you substantially man.” No one hears me. I just felt like jumping off the table and killing myself.

“What happened to your match?” Jessie asked him.

“I opted for batting first, I lifted my bat. My goodness, the ball hit the stumps and I walked out.” He laughed.

“What? Did you just throw your dream for me?” she felt miserable.

“This is not the end, I will play again. You are more important to me in this world.” He said.

She held his hand tight and struggled to bring out those words, “I love you Jack.”

“We found love in a hopeless place….”

No, it wasn’t me. Jessie changed my ringtone minutes back. Wow, it should be my black lady and wait a minute, he has the same ringtone? Goodness, I am not able to understand this ‘love’, it makes people crazy. He took my black lady out of his pocket. He disconnected the call and placed her beside me. “Hey Zee!” Ah man, her voice just boosted up my battery from 20% to 100%.

Her dad joined us in sometime. He was impressed with Jack the moment he saw him in the airport. After chatting for an hour her dad left to the airport, Jack accompanied him.

This was an unforgettable day in Jessie’s life. Rekha was still asleep. Max was bored to death while I was enjoying my day with my black lady. Yes, Jack left her here with me. He left her here because he wanted a reason to visit Jessie again but according to me, my black lady stayed back for me.