Pacing back and forth the room, she felt her cheeks flush while recollecting the events of that forenoon. Never in her twenty-eight years of life had she felt so awfully thwarted as today. Until her scalp pricked with pain, she did not realise the vehemence with which she was brushing her hair. No amount of spray was able to hold her stubborn brown locks in place, exasperating her further, like her obssessive compulsion for cleanliness aggravated everyone she cared for. Her mania's omnipotence nullified all her efforts to overcome it.


"Either change yourself or leave me alone for good", his words reverberated in her brain, striking her head on the inside like hammer. She felt herself being asphyxiated and wrenched before being enveloped by an air of despondence, threatening to saturate her spirit. She couldn't change even if she wanted to. It was not a choice.


The air seemed to hurtle her towards the storm and she still wanted to reach the calm of its eye. Her hazel eyes could no longer inhibit the deluge from spilling over. Placing the brush on her queen-sized bed, she broke down and sobbed hysterically, like an infant who has materialized into the world and knows nothing of its vicious ways.

***

So deeply disturbed and lost was he that he could not hear an obscure voice calling him. The voice called again, nearer this time, and again there was no response. The third time was no charm either. As the footsteps inched closer to his cabin, a feeling of impending misfortune impressed upon him. The door clicked open and a voice filed in, followed closely by dusky evening air, an ethos of commiseration and the sight of a human. It was clad in a woman's overalls and it was aged seventeen. It was laconic in its speech as it voiced, "Sir, ma'am left you". After the message sank in the room, the voice left in a haste, precisely as it had arrived, riding on a halo of indifference or numbness, he knew not.

He heard the voice distinctly this time, still he did not twitch. He remained frozen to his leather seat, arms dangling heavily on the sides. Then his face contorted, tears welled up in his eyes but he restrained them from overflowing, exactly as she was trying to; but, akin to her, he failed in his attempt. Few moments hence, he was crying in commensuration with such an adolescent who has stepped out of his domain of safety, his home, into the real world beyond and has encountered such treachery which is typical of the world, for the very first time.

***

" I'd never leave you, come what may", her words echoed through the silent stillness of his cold cabin, as he flashed on the day of their engagement. The words, which meant nothing anymore and only imbued a void in the chest, bounced back and forth the cold cabinets and cold chairs of his cold room, amplifying each second, until finally they reached the stratum of a wail, assailing him so he could hear nothing except the cold syllables and feel nothing but the rhythms of her dulcet voice.

The tears continued trickling down his stubble, tumbling to the ground upon hitting the periphery of his lower jaw, inches away from a nick on his cleft chin. On the marble floor, the tears reflected back the lights on the ceiling, manifesting a mien of diamonds.

The sight of a man crying is not for the faint-hearted, especially when his tears taste of penance.

***

She yearned for a respite. The water felt cool and soothing against the dusky evening air as she plunged herself in, soaking her to the core in an ambience of freedom. Her tears diluted the water, turning it saline.

The air about her turned envious for he got his wish and a moan escaped her mouth alongside a legion of bubbles.

***

"Sir's hands were on her neck, that's all I could espy through the crevice in the balcony door in the dewy morning air. Then he just walked off with an air of invincibility, his shoes leaving a trail of mudprints all over the clean, polished floor. He had the guts of the world, but not the heart to do it", alleged the maid before the inspector as the air of the witching hour permeated the words throughout the heavens.