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A Story by Haritha Sivakumar l Monday Blossoms l
CHAPTER 03
The next day as the sun beamed through her clinic room, Priya could hardly repress the anger and irritation building up as Siddanth refused to call or text her back even though he has seen her messages. “Oh, Shefu! I wish to kill you. You could have easily given the wallet to him, he is your boss, (slowly realizing ) and mine too. But, I don’t work for him!” Priya spoke aloud to her room.
“Sorry?”
Suddenly startled by the response Priya stared toward the door and saw Nikhita, Priya’s ten-year-old patient walking in along with her mother.
“How are you Nikhita? Hai Ma’am!” Priya blushed slightly in embarrassment as Nikhita settled herself on the stool near Priya, like a routine. “Are you still feeling fatigued while walking?” Priya enquired with a smile that touched her eyes with concern, and the girl nodded in affirmation. “Let’s see,” Priya said placing the stethoscope on the little girl’s heart and continuing with her diagnosis and check-up.
The entire day went by with a busy schedule making Priya a bit exhausted. Though there wasn’t any usual rush yet lack of sleep and the internal stress potentially due to the chance of meeting ‘Siddanth’ all made her weary. It was not until 4:30 pm that she finally got time to have her lunch. She just had one morsel of food inside her stomach, when her whole face turned into a disgusting scowl as she read a single text from Siddanth, “ I will meet you before the hospital back entrance, at 4: 30 pm. SHARP. Sharp! What does he think of himself? Napoleon Bonaparte, I will meet you before the hospital- what the How dare he order me? Look at the tone,” Priya was furious “No hi. No sorry. No apologies for not replying to my twenty messages. Oh my gawd! What did he mean by 4:30 SHARP, as if I will be late- of it almost 4:20.” Priya muttered to herself, before exiting the canteen without having her lunch. She ran through the corridors in frantic to retrieve the wallet and reach their meeting spot before Siddanth reaches.
Priya was a bit out of breath as she stood before the fountain and scanned the entrance for Siddanth, and found none. She sighed slightly and wiped the sweat forming over her upper lip while letting the drizzle from the fountain cool her. She still had two minutes until Siddanth’s scornful meeting time got over, and she looked haughty as she peeped into the fountain and wondered.
“This might easily drown a child of ten. I wonder why they haven’t raised any railings around it? Isn’t it perilous to have an open fountain like this?” Priya was busy with her worries for the future kids when a shrill sound of a racing car caught her attention. The sleek silver Audi stopped fifteen feet away under a tree, and Priya saw Siddanth walk out of his car.
“Can’t say Hi, but can walk out of the car in this scorching summer evening, wearing all black ensembles like a ramp walk model.” Priya sneered. She stared at his thick black hair bouncing slightly in the momentum and under the evening breeze, while he removed the black shades and placed them inside his suit, and stared back at her- directly with his small Asian eyes. But Priya’s thick lashed-doe-eyes of Priya were already studying him- his small, round nose on the oval face with sharp jawline that accentuated his swimmer's body while he walked with powerful strides of confidence, the more he came closer, she guessed him to be six –feet, almost four inches taller than herself. Slowly their eyes locked again, this time she sighed loudly promisingly placing before her opponent the intensity of her dislike towards him, but he seemed unaffected as he stopped before her and cocked his head sideways, lips curled into yelling, “Thief. Thief. Thief!”
Priya’s first instinct was to call out ‘where’ but she stopped herself from screaming when she realized he was sarcastically calling her out with a peevish smile curled up on his lips.
“HAHAHAA! Very funny,” Priya smirked with an unenthusiastic laugh.
“Oh dear, that is the most fake-ridiculous-dry laugh of the century,” Siddanth answered.
“To the man who keeps calling me chingu and keeps on making gibberish jokes, this laugh should be a standing ovation.”
“You do know that I don’t need your fake sympathy or laugh. Because your embarrassment is my standing ovation,” Siddanth replied.
That’s it, Priya’s alter-ego was hurt now, and it was ready to pounce through her soul as she stammered, “ My embarrassment! Excuse me-"
“Twenty-seven missed calls. 30+ text messages and your inability to meet my eyes, and that my Chingu is my victory. Also, how desperate were you to meet me, Chinguuu?!” Siddanth teased Priya, and the final touch was his wink.
“WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT, I AM NOT YOUR CHINGU!” Priya stomped her foot defensively.
“Then who is your Chingu? Oh! I remember. You have no chingu.” Siddanth impersonated Priya’s drunken expression exceptionally as he brought his face down on his right elbow.
“I did not do that.” Priya protested.
“Oh, you did exactly this,” Siddanth answered while completely enjoying Priya in complete distress.
“ Pff. See I am a busy person, and I do not have time to entertain these kinds of childish behaviours. So, if you will please take this wallet and be on your way, it will be easier for me to erase you from my memory.” Priya spoke with urgency and her nose flared in anger.
“Oh without an apology accepting this wallet will seem to be a taint to my soul?” Siddanth spoke while placing his right palm on his heart.
‘Did he dare to ask for an apology after calling us a thief in front of these many people? Did he dare to ask for an apology even after gaining pleasure from mocking us in all instances? NO! No way. Sorry..my foot! You don’t have to apologize Priya.’ Priya’s alter ego was on flame.
“Why should I apologize to you? Considering all the mental torture and the time you excruciated from my hip-happening life, you should be apologizing to me.” Priya spoke with an edge.
“I thought you were reckless only when you were drunk but you seem to be more brazen even in your sombre state.” Siddanth answered coldly.
“Reckless? Brazen? Argh... Siddanth Nurugu, you must be kidding.” Priya spoke appalled by his response.
“Who was the person who stormed into my room, and without any prior introduction began chattering and exhausted me with their boring yet painful narration of heartbreak? Who was the person who had my wallet with them for weeks, but wasn’t mature enough to check on the matter even after me pressing and requesting to do so? Who was the person who raged on me through a voice call and called me a low-key pervert, and threatened to put me behind the bars?” Siddanth hollered as he partially hovered over Priya, who stood with her hip leaning on the fountain.
Priya’s eyes squirmed while she waited for her alter-ego to respond with a strong come-back, but nothing- no voice at all. She was cheated by herself, like, the time when your best-friend scores 85 % and you score 50 % when you both declared to each other that neither studied a bit while entering the exam hall- Priya felt that kind of betrayal.
“A-Ah! People should not trust the memories of people when they are just walking bodies of two bottles of hard alcohol.” Priya spoke after two seconds, which appeared like an eternity.
“You had two bottles?” Siddanth enquired with amusement and disbelief. “Priya, you do know that drinking is never a solution for heartbreak or any problems. They are just a medium of ignorance that procrastinate your pain and consciousness.”
“I know-"
“As a doctor, I expected much from you. You should have self-control. It might have been a painful phase in your life, but you can never overcome it through intoxication. Giving yourself the space to remorse and acceptance of the life that, every good thing leaves our life to make room for greater things can help-”
“You know what is more painful than having heartbreak or drinking tasteless-sour alcohol? Right now- listening to you giving me lectures clearly on a summer evening is the most excruciating pain I have ever felt, when all I wanted to do was to get rid of this wallet and get back to my work.” Priya fumed out.
Priya stretched the wallet again to Siddanth and neither batted away from glaring at each other. With a heaving chest and blazing body with fury, Siddanth slowly raised his hand, but through the corner of her eyes, Priya saw that. A bull was raging towards them in fury, Priya squealed in horror, and in panic, Siddanth turned around toppling Priya to the ground while the bull raged past them to the opposite side while a few people chased after it. ‘Where the hell did that come from? Uff!’ Priya thought to herself when she heard a yelp from Siddanth, “MY WALLET!”
Priya scurried, as the wallet wasn’t in her hands, and saw Siddanth staring into the fountain. “Oh!” Priya stared into the fountain, and through the frothing water and bubbles, the green leather wallet was sinking deeper and deeper into the fountain. Priya gulped while she felt the fumes emitting from Siddanth’s body.
“You moron, you threw the wallet into the pool. Are you crazy?” Siddanth bellowed.
“Excuse me, you bloody moron! Did you expect me to stand still and spike the raging bull by yelling, ‘Come fight me, now!’ I am not Bhalladeva!” Priya hollered back now completely losing her temper, while two onlookers watched them with curiosity.
“Who?” Siddanth roared.
“Bhalladeva, the villain from the movie, Baahubali.” Priya shouted the reply.
In irritation, Siddanth stomped his foot before shouting, “You threw my wallet into the water!”
“Not intentionally will you please calm down-”
“Yes, nothing you do is intentional. You didn’t intentionally walk into my hotel room or kept my wallet, and now throwing away my wallet-”
“OH MY GOD! Will you stop whining like a baby! You and I are both mature enough to understand that all of this happened unintentionally but coincidentally.” Priya replied while taking a provocative step forward, “Moreover it is just a wallet. Nothing would have happened to it. You can fetch it out of the fountain. ( Siddanth shook his head in admonishment, which spiked Priya) It is just a wallet Siddanth, you can ge-”
“IT IS NOT JUST A WALLET!” Siddanth roared, and for a second it felt like the D-Day of the world has occurred, and it was the silence before the apocalypse. “It is not just a wallet!” Siddanth repeated now with a much lower tone but with the same intense rage.
With clenching jaws and anger bursting through every ounce of their existence, they looked like one enigma of fury baking in golden rays of dusk while a beautiful rainbow from the fountain hovered over them.
Slowly breaking the silence Priya muttered through her gritting teeth, “ What do you want me to do?” She paused then her decibel increased with each word, “Do you want me to get it for you, from the fountain?”
“Yes.” Siddanth replied with equal furry as he pranced.
“You really want me to get it from the pool?” Priya was practically yelling.
“Yes!” Siddanth yelled back, but before he could take back the response with his ‘NO’ which was still stuck in his throat, he saw Priya jump into the pool in anger, and he stood there perplexed.
Priya’s earlier calculations were wrong and the pool was much deeper than she anticipated. It took her more than a few seconds to trace the green wallet among the murky shallow chlorinated blue water before she re-surfaced with dead leaves stuck to her head. However, before she could complain about the concern over being drowned in the murky dirty water, there was huge a concern prancing before her in living form- Siddanth.
It took a second for Priya to understand whether he was jumping in the happiness of getting her drowned or he was actually panicking, until she heard her name come out as a choke through his red face smeared with stress.
“Siddanth! What are you doing? Priya asked.
“Calling out for help,” Siddanth replied absentmindedly before he turned back again to see Priya getting out of the fountain. He ran towards her with a cry of relief still stuck in his throat while he held her hand and helped her out, “Are you alright? What were you thinking? Priya, oh my goodness, what madness was that? Never do that- It was a dangerous act!” Siddanth yelled at Priya.
But as Priya opened her mouth to speak, she was caught in surprise as his eyes were just glinting with unshed tears of turmoil…
(to be continued)