Fabrics of Fantasy – I

The hour was late.Thunderclouds were passing over head.The air was heavy with humidity, just then a shrill voice filled the noiseless atmosphere…

I sighed. Just like my doggy to bring attention to himself  when all I wanted was to be solitary. The whine got on to my nerves. I wanted to go stare at him and shout back, order him to shut up. But, I was tired stiff in my bones. It would take me a great effort to try to get out of the recliner and walk around, and I was anyway fascinated by the cloud patterns to go over anywhere and miss the celestial catch-me-if-you-can.

I felt the wet lick on my hand. Just like him to also try and get me into a better mood when he sensed I was gloomy. “Keep down, Tiger. Lie down and gaze at the skies”. All he did was gaze at me. I tried to avoid those molten chocolate eyes and the emotion in them and instead concentrate on the stupidity of having named a raven black dog as Tiger. One of the lightening strikes of my brother. I sighed again. The clouds were shifting, gathering.

My mobile beeped. It was a call from God. No, nothing wayward about it, I had just worded that as a substitute for the name of my cousin. It stopped before I could answer. I did not bother calling back. It must be about the loan he had helped me get, and it was this reason because of which, in a moment of dry humor, I had christened him God. But like God, he kept reminding that he had extended a favor that I had to repay, and repay as and when he likened.

It was not going to rain, was it? I could enjoy a shower of those pure droplets of water, but not now. The clouds were anyway clearing.  I took up the letter next to me, up from the antique rosewood table against which my hand brushed and remained so for a time, and reread it. I could accept the offer, and trans-locate myself or I could stay back. Staying back meant slogging through life, a mere accountant with a pay not meaning much. Moving on meant accepting to be the finance head of a newly established concern at London, though a small enterprise, I was clever enough to see the potential and the latent scope for expansion.

It was easy to decide now, somehow with Tiger warming my feet with his head against it. It meant a lot to me, like the security that I would have got but had lost. Lost without any sane reason, just a wrongly timed whim of Fate. I chose to stay back.

I got up. At 30, it felt like I had lost my life, my verve, my smile. I motioned to Tiger to get up and come with me. He hesitated, knowing my sudden wish to go, to reach the place I had been reaching the past month. I waved a wrist at him and climbed down from the terrace. He made a sudden decision and followed, as dutifully as he had in the past.

Down the street and around the left. And down the long winding road to the county cemetery. And on to the grave of the man who had been a swift storm, a gentle breeze and a loving companion in my life. And then, he had departed with the gale of time. A very very short time. A friend, and so much more. I knelt down and stayed that way for a long time. After what seemed an eon, I started back home. It was raining by then, cold drops that warmed against my skin, that made me comfortable. A lonely girl and a faithful old dog, we walked on home, memories within, and the promise of comfort and life at the one town in the world that had been home through it all.

As I reached the house, I stopped. I saw someone at the gate. An old small woman. Standing at the other side and waving at me. A dog by her side, wrinkled and very old, but grinning. And controlling the urge to whine as she waved at me. They seemed ethereal. I shook my head.

I stopped again. There was no one there. Strange the way rain and thunder, night and nostalgia can make you see future, future as future would be. I nodded to Tiger. He understood and rubbed against my leg.

We will be safe, Tiger. Safe in the world of ourselves where I found love and lost it, and where you stayed on to be a friend. We will be safe.

[A story continued on the lines loaned by Vivek. Thanks Vivek. Hope it was not that disappointing. ]