Falling for you – One last time | Short Story

Why be angry, when love can solve all your problems? Why be a mute witness to injustice? Does death solve it all? How many scars did we allow, only because we loved the person holding the knife?

I think these are questions we must take a moment to reflect on. Here’s a story of “Him & Her”, and a wrong decision taken in one gloomy moment.

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Theirs was a classic example of a love marriage gone wrong. His ego was the size of a mountain and she had no idea what could provoke him when. Within 3 months of marriage, she had seen her entire courtship period do a backflip.

They had met 3 years back, when her grandmother who she was very close to, lost battle to cancer. The strength and emotional support that he gave was unmatched. She always said, “Had he not been there in those hours, I would have never made it out of the grief.”

They started meeting more often. Started spending more time together. Understood each other in ways more than one, or so she liked to believe.

Eventually, she had fallen for him.

She fought with her parents for what she believed was Love. She fought with the society which looked down upon inter caste marriages. She even left her job as an IT consultant, because “Night shifts weren’t safe”, he said.

Not knowing much about his upbringing and family’s lifestyle, her parents weren’t the happiest of all with this proposal. They were sceptical whether their beloved daughter would be accepted with pride in the new family. But like most daughters, she was the apple of their eye.

So they did attend the marriage to bless the couple.  

Things started going down the hill the day after she was “welcomed” to her new house. He would yell at her on petty issues. He would hold her shoulders tightly and rattle her in anger. She would be left dumbstruck. Her in-laws never stepped in to her rescue.

Was he really the man she had fallen in love with? Was she blind all this time to have not noticed his temper? Were all those years, a lie?

During those moments of rage, she always choose silence. She remembered her father once say, “If one partner is angry, the other should remain calm. That’s how you sail through a rough patch in marriage.” The only part of her that dared speak her emotions was the thin trail of tears that came oozing out when he was busy screaming.

But now it was getting worse by the day. She couldn’t sleep at night. If she ever did, she would wake up panting to nightmares. She was perpetually anxious and worried. Dark circles had taken permanent residence under her helpless innocent eyes. She had stopped talking to her parents. 

She didn’t want to tell them the truth of her marriage, and couldn’t lie either.

It had not even been 12 hours to last night’s incident, and she was back in the kitchen doing the dishes. Looking as weary as she could.   

Today morning, he woke up at his usual hour, got ready for work and left. Left without looking back at her. Without saying a word. Without any hint of apology. As if the woman he had beaten blue with his belt last night, never existed. As if she lived in his house only for his sexual needs.

She felt hopeless to the core. She wanted to run into the safe arms of her father and cry her heart out. Tell him that he was right. Marrying this man was probably not her best decision. She couldn’t come to terms with the fact that the night that went by, was for real.

She still remembered how he threw her on the bed and removed his belt. She kept saying “Baby please. Listen to me. Don’t do this. Please listen to me.” He did listen but only to respond with a whack on her chest. Then her slender arms, abdomen and back. She couldn’t feel her body anymore. She didn’t know if he was still whacking or not, for she had squeezed her eyes shut.

Her mother in law’s words brought her back to reality, “What special do we have for lunch today?” asking cheerily as if she couldn’t see her blue-black marks all over the exposed parts of her body.

She could feel a lump in her throat. She wanted to puke.    

Ignoring her mother-in laws words, she went straight to her room. Locked the door. Standing in her balcony and hoping for answers, she looked down. Down at the traffic, thousands of people walking by, overloaded trucks and buses. In that hazy moment she got her answer.

She tore a piece of paper from the notepad lying in the balcony and scribbled something. She looked towards the sky and closed her eyes. “I am sorry papa”, she said and jumped off the railing holding the paper that said, “Falling for you, one last time”.