by Harpreet Bhagrath | Feb 21, 2022 | Novella
The next morning Jack came and found Rose in the bedroom.
‘Here’s your car key, sweetie. How did you get here?’
‘Peter drove me down.’
‘Who? That wimp?’ Just the mention of Peter was enough for Jack to lose his temper. Lately, he had grown unusually intolerant of Peter.
‘He’s not a wim…’
‘Shut-up and listen to me first, you stupid bitch. Once I am finished you can blurt out your filth. You are putting some wimp in a superior position to me here. For me, you can call it quits anytime you like. From now on, I don’t want any mention of him. Get it? You better get it. You were saying?’
‘I just wante…’
‘Whatever…,’ said he with the brush of hand and stormed out, banging the door behind him. He shouldn’t have. At least not today, of all days.
………………………………..
‘Don’t you dare…,’ Peter said, appearing a bit agitated with Rose.
His visit this evening was not one of his usual. Today was something special to him. He had been waiting for nearly a couple of months now for this day. Rose with her hair open was looking absolutely ravishing in her red top and grey slacks.
She looked puzzled and a little exasperated since this was the first time she had seen Peter in an angry mood, ‘Dare what Peter? What have I d…?’
‘Don’t you dare look so cute in front of me, young lady. I am warning you.’
Rose burst out laughing.
‘Gosh, you look cute enough to eat! I am your regular nice guy but who knows? If you continue looking this delicious, I might pounce on you. Seriously!’
‘You will do nothing of the sort, Peter. I know you well enough to know that.’
‘Don’t be so sure. Anyway, these are for you.’
‘Why the Roses, Peter?’
‘You know the date today – 11th day of July. I wish you many happy returns. And may the best of your past be the worst of your future.’
Rose blushed and lowered her eyes, ‘Oh! That’s so thoughtful of you, Peter. Even I forgot it’s my birthday today.’
‘Um…I would love to take you out this evening, Rose. If you don’t have any plans for the evening, could…’
‘I do, Peter…Jack wants to take me out. I’ll put these away,’ cut in Rose, feeling embarrassed.
Rose put the Roses in her bedroom and looked lovingly at them, obviously deeply moved. She then went back into the living room.
‘Where’s Linda? I thought she would be here to wish you as well. And Jack? Has he rung? I wonder if he knows it’s your birthday today.’
‘Jack hasn’t called yet. He’s probably coming in the evening’
‘Probably? But you said a moment ago that you have plans with Jack. To go out…’
‘Oh, I must’ve been somewhere else,’ said Rose annoyingly.
Peter looked embarrassed and had that proverbial sinking feeling.
by Harpreet Bhagrath | Feb 21, 2022 | Novella
Patience was not one of Jack’s virtues. He didn’t have many to begin with. And he just revolted when somebody tried to pin him down. Lately he’d been a bit upset because they wanted him to shift base to another city. Cops were beginning to smell something fishy. It’s best to bail out at this point, his associate had said.
‘‘Prove? Prove what? To whom? Nobody is that important to me,’ bellowed Jack on his end of the line.
‘You don’t understand the gravity of the situation, Mr. Thorn. The workers need to be compensated to settle the matter,’ said his associate on the other end.
‘Listen fella, I’ve been behaving very nicely with these people,’ replied Jack. When Jack got angry he threw reason out of the window. ‘All I need to do to settle the matter is’, continued Jack, ‘take the mask off and get the knife out.’
‘All they need to do is inform the cops. And when cops come to know of it, it will not be possible for us to fight them.’
‘I don’t fight, I punish. And if I get it in my brains to finish them off…’
‘Now listen, Mr. Thorn, You can’t do th…’
‘…no cops, no mafia, no luck and no God will save them from me. You can tell them that.’
‘I know they are nothing. But at the moment they seem to be having all the power.’
‘You are forgetting one thing, fella. I need to refresh your memory before I hang up. Power… That’s my game.’
With this Jack slammed the receiver down hard. He hated opposition, especially when it came from virtual nobodies like those minions. He poured whisky in his glass. He loved its smell and the taste. He hated beer though; just couldn’t stand the taste of it. That would be his third drink. In the couple of drinks that preceded it, he had bothered to dilute them with coke. He didn’t this time. It all went down in a couple of swigs.
‘How dare they!’ The glass breaks in his hand and cuts into the inside of his fierce fist, making the blood seep out.
Jack was virtually untouched by the virtue of sensitivity. He looked upon sensitive people as weak. Some women are more masculine than others, and some men are more feminine than others. It seemed nature had not bestowed Jack Thorn with even a shred of femininity. He may have had some sensitivity, but it sure needed a catastrophic event to bring it out in him.
‘Bloody nobodies!’ fumed Jack with broken glass clenched even tighter in his bloodied fist.
………………………………….
Bitch monk never probed into people’s lives, yet people gave him such undeserving name; because he was helpless, because he didn’t hurt anybody. That’s probably why local people never wanted him put in some sort of asylum in the first place; because he was harmless.
‘Why, bitch, why… because you wanted me, bitch, wanted me… to… to wear like him. Why? why? why? To…to…to talk like him?’ stuttered the monk. ‘Get it? Get it? Bitch…’ he continued.
He wasn’t a very old man, unlike his lifestyle would suggest. Thirty three at the most, if that. But his beard and long graying hair hid his real age. He appeared forty-fiveish to the superficial observers. And nobody observed him closely. They didn’t need to. They knew him as the old monk from that hut up the top who used too many why’s in his speech whenever he spoke and that was it for them.
by Harpreet Bhagrath | Feb 21, 2022 | Novella
Jack entered Rose’s home, obviously in a pretty bad mood. He was swearing and constantly hitting left palm with right fist, like was his habit when excited or angry at something. He went straight to Rose’s bedroom. Getting up from the living room window sill, Rose followed him.
‘For God’s sake, why are you so angry? And what happened to your h…?’
‘There’s no fuckin’ God. There’s only me. Get it? You better get it, you stupid b… what are these roses doing here?’
‘Oh these? Peter came.’
‘You dumb bitch!’ Jack slapped Rose with his good hand, kicked the roses, and trampled on them. Rose fell on the bed face down. Jack turned her over and started to give her another smack.
‘Please Jack! Don’t hit me. Please… It hurts…,’ pled Rose and tried to shield her face from another hit.
‘How many times,’ yelled Jack, ‘do I have to fuckin’ hammer this simple thing through your thick head!’ and again slapped Rose across her face real hard. ‘Keep that wimp away from us or get the fuck…,’ bellowed Jack twisting Rose’s arm and raising his wounded hand for yet another smack.
‘It’s my birthday today, Jack,’ said Rose and started to cry. Jack could see the look of absolute helplessness in her pleading face; pleading to stop hitting her. This was when Jack could be seen melting. Something in Rose’s beseeching face seemed to appeal to the dormant sensitivity in Jack. It must also have been the fact that it was Rose’s birthday.
He took Rose in his lap, ‘Rose… Rose, my beautiful! I… I didn’t mean to do that. You know that, don’t you? It’s like I can’t help hurting you back when you hurt me. I have to get back.’
Rose started crying like a child now with tears rolling down her rosy cheeks. They knew no bound… like some dam had been taken off them. This unseen facet of Jack’s personality seemed to have touched her deeply. She manages to speak among spasmodic sobs ‘I… love… love you… Jack. I love you.’
‘Sorry, Rose. I’m sorry, beautiful. I just so forgot it was…’ Jack hugged her even tighter, like a child in his lap.
‘I’d…I’d…di…’ Rose couldn’t get the words out.
She was weeping violently now and shaking with heaving spasmodic sobs convulsed out of her. Her nose was running and her face feverish with overcharge of emotions. She wasn’t saying anything because she physically couldn’t get the words out. But she wanted to tell Jack how deeply she loved him. That she would die if he were to leave her now.
by Harpreet Bhagrath | Feb 21, 2022 | Novella
Jack’s gone and Linda entered Rose’s bedroom and saw her lying face down.
‘Hey beautiful, happy b… Rose… Are you crying? What’s the matter?’
She turned her face up and saw the slap mark. Linda went ballistic instantly, ‘It’s your birthday today, for crying out loud. And look what present you got. And these’, She points at roses on the ground, ‘I can tell the story just by looking at them. Peter gave these to you and that Jack crushed them. Correct me if I am wrong.’
She sat on the bed beside her and yelled, ‘On your birthday!’
……………………………………
The day following Rose’s birthday, sitting in his rocking chair staring at the ceiling, Peter was still musing over Rose’s coldness the day before.
‘O Rose! Must you be so cruel to me? Do you not want to be happy, to be loved? The more I want you, the more you… seem to… to get away from me. My life is so… empty without you. When you are not around, it’s like…nobody’s home…’
‘That Jack…’ He sounded angry and got up from the chair, his eyes red with resolve. Something had been building up in him for months, and apparently it all came to a head now.
Peter’s entered the room. Linda was already there. She didn’t appear very happy.
‘Hey Linda, I thought Jack was going to be here.’
‘Jack’s gone, Peter. For good.’
‘Gone? For good? Gone where?’
‘They didn’t tell me anything.’
‘They?’ Peter’s heart skipped a beat.
‘Rose has gone with him…’
‘What…? Rose… Why…? Why…? ….Why…? …Why…?’
