Broken Hug

En Route

 Rohan blew the candles out and came and sat next to Fai, leaning against the pillow behind him. A Muai-Thai was in progress. The boxer with the red shorts and red head gear struck some punches and kicks at his opponent in blue. The other one cowered. As she watched, she slipped her arm around his and snuggled closer. The contest continued in the screen.

“Can we switch it off?” he asked.

“Of course, Raw-han,” and she immediately pressed the remote button.

“Since you like music, here goes,” and he switched on the music in his cell phone. It was some instrumental of Sunny Rogers of India who played in concerts.

The soft music of the piano filled the room. He noticed her slim and fair fingers resting on his arm. He slowly caressed the back of her hand and then ran his fingers over her fingers and felt a feeling arise in him. The soft music continued playing in a low volume.

She snuggled close, leaning on him and resting her head on his left shoulder. His chin was on her head and his arms around her. She could feel his warm breath gently falling on her hair. She once looked up at him, smiled a soft smile, her eyes soft and tender. 

His arms around her, he ran his hand over her waist. Warmth, slow but sure, began flooding his senses. With the same feeling he brought his face close to hers; and his mouth close to her ears, he whispered:

            Sometimes I’d like to take a walk with you

in the quietness of rains

and share thoughts I do in my dreams

in the quietness of a winter night

            when petals bleed      

from a dying rose.

Or sometimes take you to a peaceful countryside

where you can give births to sunrises and sunsets

with maidens sun-shading you

as you walk down the banks of the reed-filled Nile

when I order my sculptor to carve me

a sphinx of The Bayoke Tower

and the last jackdaw that never returned home…

sometimes then

I’d like to take a walk with you…

The soft piano music enhanced the candlelight glow on the two lovers.

She looked up at him. “Beautiful lines, Rawhan.”

He found her eyes washy, and when he looked closer he found tear drops had formed at the two corners and just before he wanted to say something, the drops rolled down her cheeks.

“Are you okay, my honey?” and he held her more warmly, his voice a whisper that perhaps she, he and the glow of the room could hear.

She shook her head. “When shall we see each other again, Raw-han,” her voice sounded half choked, “after you are gone?”

He pressed his face close to hers. “Everything here is right, Fai. This soft sound of the piano floating into our ears; the glow touching us with a soft hand; and you and me here together.” He looked deep into her eyes. “If all this is true, our love is also true.” He kissed her on her eyelids. “And as these are true, we will meet once again.”

She ran her fingers over his chest. “Till the time we don’t meet, we will keep in touch over emails.”

“Yes,” he whispered.

A surge of warmth gently hit his senses once again and he put his hand inside her tee and tenderly rubbed his hand on her skin, feeling the ribs. He rested his hand there, and when she realized that, she put her hand over his and rested it over her breast. His senses seemed to wake up more at the touch of the rounded form. And out of a natural demand, as he caressed it, passion exploded in her senses. She turned and put her hand inside his tee and wrapped her arms around him.

He lifted her tee and she put up her hands, helping him to remove it. She now pulled his tee and he removed it. She lay on the bed and he rained her with kisses. He nibbled her ear, he kissed her on the cheek. And as he rested his lips on her mouth, she could feel his breath hot on her face.

He held the two sides of her shorts and gently pulled. She too helped him, pulling at the elastic. Very soon she was in her panty. She held the clasp of his trouser, pulled the zipper and as she pulled his trousers he knelt and helped the trouser to be brought down. Then he sat and pulled it away from him. She removed his brief. By now he had removed her panty.

While he kissed her on the lips, he felt her breasts. He opened his eyes and was struck by her beauty. Her jet black hair glistened in the soft glow, the edge of the head showing the trapped light. She held him by his back and pulled him with all gentleness. He rubbed his face on her face and his chest on hers. She moaned as he lightly rested himself over hers. She could feel the scent of his body touching her skin, touching her senses as she lifted her face and kissed him on the neck.

She pulled him closer and closer, her moans blending with the sound of the piano. She arched her back, filling the bed with whimpers one after the other reaching to a slow crescendo. Then, from the summit, she glided down with all gentleness to plain five. Plain four. Three. Two. One. At last she opened her eyes as if in a dream. His body glistened with perspiration. Drops had fallen on her body too, and she ran her fingers over them, enjoying the feeling of achievement of his body’s wetness on her. With closed eyes, she continued running her fingers over his perspiration on her body, imagining herself travelling.

He rested his face on her right neck. She ran her fingers in his hair, smiling at the lingering bliss. It was after several minutes he seemed to wake up from a dream-induced sleep and stirring, lifted his head and rested his lips on hers. After sometime, he put his weight on his left elbow and lay down next to her, burying his face in the mass of her hair and with his arm around her. The music had stopped by then. He switched off the cell phone and looked at the window behind them above the bed. Moonlight fell in a slant on the centre of the bed. As if she understood his mind, she reached to her side of the bed and switched off the lamp. The silvery glow made her feel they were inside a cave.

They lay down side by side again. They spent the night holding each other, caressing and very soon making love again. Once when they opened their eyes for the fourth time, the moonlight had shifted its position and was resting on the corner of the wall close to the cupboard.

The faint sound of a cuckoo opened her eyes. It took her sometime to realize where she was and with whom, and what had taken place. She looked at Rohan. His eyes were closed, and he was curled up close to her, his head on the pillow, his arm over her. His chest moved with his breath and she smiled an inward smile at the thought of the love this person had given her. He had brought some different colour into her life.

As if her words were audible and he could comprehend all that she was thinking, he stirred and slowly opened his eyes. One look at her, and he smiled and pulled her closer to him, snuggling his face into the hollow between her shoulder and face. 

She smiled. “Coffee,” she whispered in tune with the cuckoo’s call. It was more of a suggestion than a question.

He held her tighter. “Yea,” he whispered back, kissing her on the neck. “And what about your dad?”

“I’ll make him a cup also. He’ll leave for his shop in an hour from now, so once he’s gone, we’ll leave for the condo.”

She sat up in bed, got down and picked her shorts up from the floor and got into them. Her tee was hanging half-way down from the beanbag, and she sliding into it.

“And dad won’t come up.” She smiled at the last bit as she opened the door.

The sky was an oversized quilt with white patchy designs of clouds under which two human beings – let us discard the rest of the mortals for a while – Rohan and Fai, moved about enacting their next move.

They took a taxi and headed for the Asia Guest House. On the way, traffic seemed to have been getting diverted. She asked the driver. After some exchange of words, she turned to Rohan.

“Some demonstrations are going on in some areas,” she said. “People want the present prime minister to step down, I believe.”

“Que sera sera, My sweetie pie. My kuchy-kuchy,” and Rohan couldn’t help but cuddle close to the girl next to him. “All the world’s a stage, Shakespeare’s Antonio had said, and we are merely actors in it. And so…; and so ours, that is yours and mine, is a love story of countless acts; and scenes…”

“Um, hmm…” and Fai, with her arms loosely locked over her chest, smiled at the antics of her mad fellow.

“…episodes of a web series...”

“And what’s a web series?” she said, still caught up in Rohan’s fancy.

“Very soon people won’t have the attention span of long drawn out movies; to sit for hours and hours observing scene after scene unfolding in front of their eyes at a tortoise pace…”

“Umm…”

“…Take for instance our story, from the time we came to Bangkok till this present time and what’s going to take place till I fly back. If this whole thing is movied, it might not hold the concentration of viewers even though they sit with popcorn and cola. But, let me tell you, if this whole story is sectioned off into 30-minute per episode of let’s say ten episodes, viewers will not leave their seats till they have completed the ten episodes.”

“I understand my movie director. Now look there. Most of the vehicles have begun to take a diverted route via Petchaburi Road and touching the Ekamai bus terminus.” She craned her neck to the left. “Something’s amiss in your fav city, my poet.”

*

After about forty minutes, the cab stopped outside the guest house.

Rohan got down first.

            “Khop kun ka,” Fai told the driver as she prepared to slide out from the vehicle.

“Khap,” the driver said and turned back.

“Sithichai.” A surprised look appeared on Fai’s face and the colour faded from her cheeks.

“I’m not a cabbie. I work in the police department. You know we were married. And you can’t escape me.”

“Sorry. Please leave me alone.”

"I've been shadowing you."