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Humdrum? No more - contd

by Hetal Joshi
(Vadodara,Gujarat, India)

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Reena felt numb...was her greatest fear coming true? Did even Samir feel the change in their life in the last few weeks..was he fed up with her tantrums..was he too..

“Reena? I am talking to you..where were you lost?
Are you ok?”

“Hmm..ya sorry..you were saying?

“Reena I have been observing since the last few weeks you are distracted..disturbed..
I feel things are changing between us..you are changing..we used to fight before we still fight but in the last few days I have seen you pick up reasons to fight with me..you are becoming irate.." What I mean to tell you is, rather ask you..what is going on? I cancelled our anniversary party at the last minute and I am leaving you for a business meet and your reaction is okay fine? I know you have never created a big issue about such things but you have always, in the past, insisted on celebrating all special occasions together even without a party it had to be us at the least, so there has to be something wrong! I am sure of it so don't even bother denying it!”

Reena had never seen Samir this intense; she didn't know how to react. What could she say? She herself didn't understand, why she was feeling all this? She was just so hopelessly confused!

“Sam, I don't know what to tell you? Really, there's nothing wrong and there's everything wrong..I just can't understand, I have tried to make sense of it but haven’t been able to, I am so confused! I feel restless all the time and angry, I..i.." she stopped at a loss of words, her eyes shining suspiciously with tears.

"Hold on, hold on, here, before you say anything more I think you should see this" saying so he handed her an envelope.
Reena took the envelope with a shaking hand.
Dear god! What was in it?
She opened it gingerly,

"Congratulations sweetheart!”

P.S. We are expecting! "
Encl: medical reports ;-)

Reena was shocked! Dumbstruck was more like it..
"Expec..Expecting..? We are expecting? I m pregnant? WE ARE PREGNANT ? " she exploded.

Samir started laughing,

"And you knew! This report is almost a week old and you didn't tell me!” she said almost screaming now because Samir was chortling with laughter...
"I don't know Sam..I am so confused! It doesn't make sense" he mimicked.
“Your expression! I was so afraid you were going to start blubbering any minute " he broke off laughing.

“Blubbering! I will have you blubbering in a minute! You dog! You let me go crazy with worry that I was spoiling things between us! How could you? You jerk! "

“Such language! tsk tsk!” He continued to laugh, while she looked around for something.
"Wait! You..."she picked up the paper weight.
"No, not the paper weight..no reen..haha..I will have a concussion! Haha..reeeenaa"
"Concussion will be too good for you! I m going to kill you! You just wait...i actually googled it! I
was so upset I thought we were going through mid-life crisis or something that people say happens after a few years in marriage and you.."
“You what? Mid-life crisis? Hahaha.. This is epic!.. only you can think of something like that!”
He ran around the desk..trying to hide behind it..still laughing dodging the pencils, as she rained them on him.

“Hahaha...god ! Do you have any idea how difficult it was for me to keep quiet ..I was bursting to tell you..but Shreya your dear friend and doctor had threatened me with dire consequences...listen..aare. Not the pencil-stand! No..ouch ouch" he hid behind the chair as she hit him with pencils followed by the stand.

“Why? Why would you people hide it from me?”
“I could tell you but for that you need to stop throwing things..and listen to me, take the pillow instead, no not that pen!, here the pillow...” he handed her a pillow.
“You have two minutes to explain yourself, it better be good.” She said waving the pillow threateningly,
“Come here, sit down for a minute” he requested pulling up a chair.
“ phew!, “ he said joining her , “ the thing is I have known it for little more than a week, 10 days to be exact”
“10 days!, I am going to kill you” she muttered.
Still grinning he continued, “I didn’t tell you before because I wanted to be sure, as you already had a regular appointment scheduled with Shreya I called her up directly, “
“But 10 days!, you let me wallow in misery” she asked affronted.
“Not misery dear, 10 days for me to love you ten times more, you see I wanted to wait for today, our 10th anniversary, the day we started a new journey as life-partners, to start another chapter as parents, I wanted to make today special, so you see..I did it out of love, and honey we are not ever going to go through mid-life crisis as you so eloquently put,” he finished his eyes twinkling with laughter.
Reena was too overwhelmed, a baby!

All the days anxiety and the realisation of the wonderful news just settling, feeling so absolutely loved by the most exasperating human on earth, she was at a loss of words, she looked around the room looking for a cue trying to find the words and saw the debris lying around in the aftermath of her ATTACK on Samir.

“My God!” she exclaimed,

Saying that the room was a mess, was an understatement, papers were lying around on the floor, pencils, couch pillows strewn across the floor the pen-stand tethering on the brink of the desk, surveying the mess Reena looked up at Samir, to find him looking at her in turn, lips twisted in a wayward smile and she couldn’t help herself as an answering smile played along her lips followed by rollicking laughter joined in by her husband, her companion, the father of their unborn child!

“Ha ha ha ha ha haa ha hha.....”


***

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Mar 11, 2015
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Clued
by: Devanshi

Reading these stories is like watching a movie.. It's gripping and as a reader I just want to read and read more.. Very well put.. You leave the reader into a world of imagination because now for days I'll b thinking about Reena and Samir and their unborn :)

Mar 02, 2015
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Humdrum
by: Aneri

I found this story to be more gripping than the first one..but i felt it to be incomplete..as a reader i wanted to know what happened next..or maybe an exciting ending. Although, it was very well written. Good Job Hetal !

Mar 02, 2015
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Congratulations hetal....
by: Kshama

I highly appreciate your way of emphasizing and describing emotions in the story....
Indeed, the anxiety was aptly potrayed and kept us wondering till the end....

Well done !!
Looking forward for some real good write ups.!!
Keep the good work going on...!!

Now surely a fan of ur writing...
Kshama...

Mar 02, 2015
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Humdrum'd
by: Dr Shwe

Hello
I loved the way you have described the anxiety and apprehensiveness of the woman and contrasting calmness and assurance of her husband
It was really short though and i wanted to read more of it.
It was gripping till then end with an anticipation of what might happen next

Keep it up
Want to read more
Always a wellwisher

Shweta

Feb 27, 2015
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humdrum.....
by: Khanjan

Congratulations once again
Although this I ur second short story yet but still, I think this one is not as good as the first one. The story line is short and sweet but its time to up a notch. The heart of the story lies in its narration ....which is beautiful, but the sole of a story is beyond the layer of obvious and below the hype of words......its in the seed of thought that u would like to provoke in the readers mind.
Hope to see more sole in ur writings that are coming up.
A gracious admirer,
Khanjan

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