Hey Dad! Meet My Mom (10 page)

He was lying down on the sofa in front of the television set in the living room. Mom had gone out to shop for groceries, so there was no disturbance between the father and son duo. He was playing ‘Tekken 3’ on my old gaming console. The TV screen was flashing the two letters ‘K.O.’. Rishi was not restarting the game as he was lost in some other thoughts. I occupied the little space on his left and initiated our talks.

“What happened?”

“King lost to Nina.” He said.

“You lost to a girl?” I laughed to pick up the tempo in our chat but he gave me a cold stare. I stopped laughing.

“Never underestimate the power of a girl and that too a beautiful girl.” Rishi quoted and pushed the restart button on his console. I picked up the other console and chose ‘Lee’. So now it was Lee vs. King.

‘Fight.’
Rishi started aggressively with his King and my Lee was just holding on to its position, blocking the deadly blows of the King.

“Why have you not been talking to me over the past few days?” I asked as I let Lee open up his three kick move. King fell.

“You were busy with someone else.” King grabbed Lee by his neck and threw him on the floor.

“That someone else has a name. She is your future mom.” Lee blocked a powerful punch from King.

“She is not my mother.” King picked up Lee by his neck and threw him away. That was his winning move. Lee lost.

“What do you mean?” I kept the console aside and faced Rishi but he was not looking at me, he was still busy playing the game.

“I didn’t like her.”

“And why so?” I folded one of my legs and put it under my butt and faced him directly over the sofa.

“She didn’t like the watch I gave you.” Rishi said. I remembered the scene with the watch on the day of the date; Myra had said that she didn’t like my watch as it was old, she told me to wear the new one. But that didn’t make any sense.
The watch I gave you?
That old watch was my friend’s gift to me. How could Rishi have gifted it to me?

“What? How could...... ” Rishi cut me in between, he didn’t let me complete my sentence.

“I don’t like her attitude. The way she talks to you, how she thinks of you...... I can’t let her be my future mom.” Rishi said it all in a rage. I sensed jealousy in his words. I don’t know why but jealousy could only be the reason for it all.

“Okay, so tell me where I could find your mom?” I asked feeling relaxed.

“I can’t tell you that now.” He said and I felt that Rishi disappeared for a second and then came back. I rubbed my eyes. He saw me doing that. “What happened?” He asked in anxiety.

“Nothing. I think my eyesight is getting affected.”

“Wear glasses then, it will suit your appearance.” He said and then yelled, “NO!” He had lost again. He finally stopped playing the game.

‘But Myra says that I will look like a nerd if I wear glasses.’ I thought and Rishi picked that up.

“Oh my God! That girl’s taste is so bad. She doesn’t know today’s fashion, ‘Nerd is the new cool!’” Rishi exclaimed. “Tell your Myra that....... ” Rishi again disappeared. What was going on? I rubbed my eyes again but nothing happened. He was lost. I called his name. I searched each room but Rishi was nowhere.

“I think my objective is now fulfilled. It’s time to go.” He said, standing near the main door of the house. He was leaving but why?

“What objective, why are you leaving?” I asked him urgently. I didn’t want him to go back.

“I was here to help you meet my mom and it seems that my choice doesn’t matter at all. You still love her.” He said smiling at me. “So that means that my objective is now fulfilled, and so I have to leave.”

“Wait Rishi, you can’t leave your job undone. I promise that I’ll find the perfect mother for you.” I said but didn’t mean it. I knew that Myra was that ‘perfect one’ I was talking about.

“You forgot that I could read your mind. No issue dad, I’ll meet you again soon.” He turned and started to walk away. I wanted to stop him but couldn’t. He turned again. “But if you still want to find my mom; just follow your dreams.” He said and disappeared.

I felt devastated for a moment but had little assurance that I would meet him again and then I’d never let him go anywhere.
My sweet little Rishi!

I was smiling with tears in my eyes when my mother saw me standing at the main door.

“What happened, Puneet?” she asked.

“I just lost a loved one to meet him again, in the future.” I said and came back to my room.

I picked up my phone and messaged Myra.

‘Please come back into my life, I am feeling very lonely. ’

She took some time to reply, but did reply finally.

‘How can I come back when I never went anywhere?
I am still there with you. ’ That brought a big smile to my face.

Chapter 12

A hand whips when I am faulty,
And pats when I do charity.
I wonder if it’s the mind’s laxity
Or some messenger of divinity?

T
ime is the best healer. Slowly I accepted Rishi’s disappearance from my life and welcomed Myra back into my life. She was like the ray of light in my dark life. She did ask me about the weird incident in the park once when we met but when she saw that I was unable to explain it to her, she never again approached the topic in our talks. She understood me and accepted me the way I was.

We started to meet more often than before. The intimacy between us was getting stronger day after day. I was the shy one amongst us and she was the bolder one. Yes, I know that sounds pretty odd but I liked the way she carried me. I gave her total control of myself. She did try to break the barrier between us quite a few times but that haunting experience at the park was stopping me from going with her flow. That girl of my dream was stopping me from taking my relationship with Myra to another level. But I knew that someday, these barriers had to be broken.

‘Yes!.........Oh! Puneet....” She moaned louder at every next stroke. I was out of control, she was abusing me and I was punishing herfor being a bad girl. I loved the way she was evoking the negative Puneet in me.

Faded and smoked away.......

I could see 3 children playing in a field. They were happy and laughing before they saw me observing them from a distance. I smiled at them but they didn’t respond. They started running away from me. I chased them. I saw them entering the graveyard. I followed them. They disappeared like smoke in open air. That day was a bit foggy. I could see someone sitting over a grave. I could see the blurred image of someone. A girl? Who was she? And what was she doing here? And where had the children disappeared? I didn’t know why but I went closer to her. I wanted to see her. The fog started to clear and so did her image. I was standing just behind her. I leaned a bit forward to see herface. Blood drained out from my face when I found that she had no face. I screamed. I turned back and wanted to rush back to where I had come from. But before I could turn back, she grabbed my hand. I looked at her again, at her faceless face. But this time she had her face back, she was that girl, that same girl.

“Please save me, Puneet.” She pleaded and then screamed.........

“Puneet wake up.... ” I woke up and found the girl of my nightmares again. She was trying to wake me up. I pushed her away and left the bed in an instant. I was dead scared and so was my mom. She was my mom. I was day dreaming.

“What is happening with you these days, Puneet?” She picked up the towel and wiped the sweat off my face. She was worried. “You should talk to your uncle about these nightmares. I think you need a change in medication.” I ignored her. I didn’t need anything except some rest. That’s it. I rushed to take a bath.

I took a long shower to erase every bit of the nightmare from my mind. I came out and checked my phone. There were 16 messages from her on my Whatsapp.

‘Happywala friendship day. ’

‘I have a great plan to celebrate it. ’

‘Let’s watch Salman’s movie ‘Kick’first. ’

‘Then we will go to a restaurant. ’

‘After that, a quiet evening at Hauz Khas Village. ’

‘And then finally a surprise for you. Maybe the best one you will ever have. ’

‘Now reply fast. ’

‘I am waiting. ’

Then there were 8 ‘question marks’. I replied quickly that I would be picking her up in 30 minutes. I was excited about the day.

I reached her residence in 20 minutes and then waited for 30 minutes to see her but the wait was totally worth it. She was looking fabulous in her low waist tight blue jeans and a white
kurta.
She loved fancy jewelry. She was wearing some kind of necklace with blue beads and her hands had blue bangles that were abnormally large sized. Her fragrance had an amazing mood refreshing and nostril attracting magic.

“Well, you can pay me a compliment, if you want.” She said when she caught me staring at her.

“You are looking stunning.” I said looking into her eyes.

“I know. Your eyes say it all.” She loved to play with her hair. She picked the hair from one side and put them on the other side of her head. I loved the way she carried herself.

“Now come on, I don’t want to miss Sallu’s entry in the movie. I want him to hear me whistle at him.” She said with a twinkle in her eyes. I smiled and we left for the movie.

My interest was not in the movie but in Myra. She whistled, she hooted, shouted Salman’s name, she danced, she clapped, she laughed, she cried; she enjoyed her time.

After the movie, we decided to go to the nearest
dhaba
instead of a restaurant. She said that it felt like home. She missed the love of a family. Her parents had got separated when she was only 8 years old. After the divorce, her father had taken possession of her and her mother got married to someone else. Her father took good care of her. He never abused or talked badly about her mother ever. Whenever Myra asked about her mother, he told her the truth and the truth was that her mother loved someone else. Their marriage had been a forced one. Her father always taught Myra that, ‘Life is nothing but a place to enjoy the feeling called love. When you are in love, there’s nothing right and there’s nothing wrong, there’s just one thing and that is love itself.’

Her father was diagnosed with cancer at its final stage when she was 17 years old. He had died the next year. Since then she had been living alone. For the sake of calling someone her family, she had a
mausi
and her daughter who also lived in Delhi.

Myra always seemed to be happy but whenever she spoke about her father, her eyes would get moist. The same thing happened in Hauj Khas Village. The silence of nature pulls out our deepest emotions and relieves our burdened soul. This time when she missed her father, I gave her tight hug. She cried. For the first time I saw her crying. She was as loud while crying as she was when laughing. I kissed her forehead to calm her down. That did help. She never disclosed anything about her family to anyone. She told me all this for the first time. I was shocked to hear about her background and that raised her respect in my eyes much higher.

She started to stare back into my eyes. I was clueless. Then she smiled and hugged me back. I decided to talk about my nightmares with her.

“Myra that day, in the park when we first kissed, I saw a girl.” I said.

“So you ran away because of embarrassment?” She felt strange to hear that.

“No. I mean, since a few months I have been seeing a girl in my dreams and she is........ ” She cut me in between.

“Oh! So it’s the case of a dream girl. You don’t want to make love to me because you want to wait for your dream girl. Is that so?” She said sounding sarcastic.

“Will you please listen to me?” I said in a firm voice. She sensed the seriousness and started paying full attention to the conversation.

“From the day we first met, almost every night, I have been seeing a girl in my dreams. It feels like as though I know her; that I have seen her before but I can’t remember. Sometimes I see flashes of her getting intimate with someone, sometimes she screams out my name, sometimes she tries to talk to me; I don’t know what is happening with me and who this girl is. But then I thought it’s just a nightmare, nothing more but then when we first kissed, the moment I closed my eyes, I saw her again. She frightens me. I don’t know why but it seems like she wants us to stay away from each other.” I tried to explain my feelings in the best way possible.

“So the myths are correct.” She said.

“What? What myths?”

“I read somewhere that men are the weakest living creatures when it comes to taking responsibilities.” That’s the only thing I hated about her and that was that she read too much. All the creepy things ever written have been read at least once by Myra.

I didn’t interrupt and let her carry on.