Skip to main content

Anniversary



She is tired of walking all day. Her feet hurt. She wriggles them out of her sneakers and tries to massage them a little. It is a little hard to do because her whole body hurts from the hours on the trek. It had been fun, but tiring. He holds her feet then, and massages them slowly.

"Hey!!" She protests, not really used to having someone touch her feet. 

It is two weeks after their wedding. 

"Hmm" he says with a smile in his voice, "never heard of a husband massaging his wife's feet? See, I am a catch." 

"More like - Not used to people touching my feet - mister." She laughs.

She is still not comfortable with it, so she pulls her feet away.

----

Two months later

----

She crashes down on the bed. He follows and sits on the edge.

"What's up?"  He asks. 

"I am not used to so much walking around anymore." She puts her feet in his lap. He looks at them and back at her questioningly. 

"Massage please" she says.

"I thought you didn't like your feet being touched." He smiles.

"I didn't either. But I guess walking around one of the world's largest cities for hours would make one want that. You know, I didn't know you had never seen my city in your entire life. When you said you hadn't been here in a long time I thought you meant you had visited before. Not that you had only ever passed it in a train. Why would you lead me to think that?" She tries to sit up to see his face but he pushes her back down.

"What can I say, big city girl...I was afraid you'd think I am not well-traveled enough."

"Really?" She kicks him a little with her right foot. "You are crazy,  country boy."

"Yeah, for you."

Both laugh.

----

Three years later

----

*Looks around the room.*

"I live here. Wow. This is my room. My 'effects'. There is too much putting-down-roots material here. I need to get rid of it. But I like those paintings. Hmm, that's the latest one. Over to the left is the one I made when I first moved to this house. That one there is the first one I made after the divorce. Hmm, my audience seems to really like it. If only they saw it the way I see it. If only I had the courage to do to it what I had started out with a plan to do...but then, I mean, I am not at that phase anymore. Why ruin a beautiful work of art? Forget it."

*Looks around the room again*

"Hmm, this room sure looks beautiful. And romantic."

 *laughs* 

"I'd really like to be in the arms of my man right now."

*shakes her head* 

"My man. Oh boy, was he ever mine."

*smiles and dims the light from the lamp on the nightstand*

"Well, it is kind of good, I can focus on more important things now."

"Like what?" Someone asks inside her.

"Like my education"

"That you don't want" The same someone chides.

"Well, okay, okay I'll try harder. I know, I know I have to work in the morning. Its getting late in the night. But you know, it would have been my third anniversary tonight."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PRINCESS ALERT!

An African American male who looked slightly older than me was shooting daggers at me with his eyes. I figured it out because of the burning feeling you get when somebody has been staring at you too long. I looked up at him questioningly as I usually do when somebody is being that rude. In response, he left his seat and came and stood next to me still looking murderous. I have to admit that made me really nervous in my heart as I thought why on earth did I have to confront him etc etc. A minute passed. Him: You an African princess or somethin’? Me: Excuse me? Him: Nah, you too white for that. You are not Arab, are you? Me: No, I am not. But why does it matter? Him: Where you coming from? Me: Why? Him: No, Ah mean where you from? You looking like a princess or somethin’. Me: Is that a bad thing? Him: Are you a princess? Me: No. *trying to suppress my amused smile by this point - he looked like he wanted to choke me to death because I looked like a princess...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anas

  I run outside my breath, a gasp. My feet stop, in shock. The moon is full tonight. A breeze slides over my skin. The tide… still crashes on the shore. I try to breathe. I can’t. How has the time not stopped… tonight? I go to the sea. We sit. We wonder. We reminisce. We wonder how many school lunches they spent to fell… a man of his might. The sea takes me in her arms, whispers words of comfort just as meaningless tonight as they have been, for years. He was a man I never met, but with all the pride, and ferocity, of a sister I call him my brother. He was a man I mourn tonight, as the sea’s waves lap at my feet. Blanketed by the dark, there is no one around. I wish I could drown, that the sea will swallow me whole. I feel helpless. The weight of the world… is heavy tonight. I give charity in his name. I pray for him. I hold him in my heart. Every tear that falls from my eyes carries his name, like a cherished pearl. Morning takes me by surprise. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

24

When I was fourteen, we learnt about five-year administrative plans in social studies. They are the plans that governments make to keep the countries on track short-term. I thought if it can work for a nations life, it can also work for an individual's life. I was a big fan of one=many, individual=nation philosophy at that time. My journals from that phase are full of such theories. So in the summer of 2005, I wrote my first five-year plan. I then divided it into yearly goals, then monthly goals and then weekly and so on. I achieved most of the things. The plan had worked. On my 20th birthday, I wrote my second five-year plan. Having seen results the first time, I was more motivated this time and better at setting goals (all that about language and achievability...the whole shebang). Tomorrow is my twenty-fourth birthday. And I am nowhere close achieving anything I had planned to. Basically I have nothing to how for all the investment (of time, effort and money) made fo...
Post a Comment
Read more