Tremor

Tremor, 3rd Episode

Vikku received a call on his cell phone. A female voice said, "Do you want an insurance, Vik? My brother is an insurance agent but his target is not over. He is two short of his quota". Vikku didn't understand why the hell, the girl had called and been talking to him when she herself was not an insurance-policy seller. Later, Vikku recognised her who was the niece of his maternal aunt. Vikku had happened to see the girl a few times earlier though he forgot everything about her. He said, "Ask your brother to call me". Just after three days, on a Sunday afternoon, the middle aged man arrived with his sister, a plump figured, round headed, smiling face with stains on the front teeth. She giggled and handed a packet of biscuits and a plastic bag containing something inside seemingly a piece of cloth. Vikku didn't open the bag to see. There was no requirement as the smiling girl told him giggling, "Open the bag and see what I've brought for you from the most posh retail counter in our home town. Tell me if you don't like the colour of the formal shirt and if it doesn't fit you properly". Vikku felt awkward. He had never expected that first of all, the girl who was nobody to his family would pay a visit and bring a sweet but macho looking shirt for him only. Secondly, why did she come when his brother came to sell a policy. The man, black in colour and little prudish more than ones necessity had made a call and spoken to him. The girl only accompanied her elder brother to visit their house. Vikku's mother offered them lemon juice mixed with salt, sugar and pinch of fennel seeds that tasted awesome if dissolved into cold water. Mid April, the sun was excesssively strong that was enough to burn the skin. Vikku sat next to them on the cot and chatted with them relaxedly. He observed, the girl named Polly was laughing, giggling, chuckling, guffawing really excessively more than one should do.

Her eyes glittering with eyeshadows were fixed on Vikku's face and as if waiting for his acknowledgement over whatever she had remarked each time. Vikku was always observant and discerning enough to understand whatever was fathomable around him. Round ear-rings dangling from her ears made him feel good as he stared. While getting ready to leave in the evening, Polly gave him an iron ring and said, "Always wear this in the index finger of your right hand and never lose this one". She went away with her brother. Vikku wore that ring in his finger and later didn't keep enough heed on that. After few months one day, Vikku felt little uneasiness and tightness in the finger and unwore the ring to cleanse the same, thinking it would give him a feel of lightness in his finger. He forgot to wear that ring again.

At 11 p.m, he lay flat and soon slept. Around 2 a.m, he heard some whispers that were coming out of the room where his mother slept. Vikku knew that after the stroke, she had dreamed every night and as a result, sometimes she had groaned and once had shrieked loudly. Vikku fell asleep again. The next morning, he asked his mother, "Whom were you talking to last night"? She answered, "Nothing". Vikku didn't elongate the conversation as she was predominantly reserved and not fond of chatting. That night, Vikku felt uncomfortable as he seemed to have heard the sound of water falling from the tap of their bathroom. Suddenly, he heard whispers coming out of the bathroom and his mother replying to those whispers in normal voice. Vikku kept his breathe suppressed and listened to the conversations though all words were not comprehensible to him. He opened his eyes and found two red bulging eyes peeping through the transparent glasses of the window on the northern side of his room. The eyeballs looked red and stared at him grimly. As, he was to say something with full force of the movement of his lips and throat, the eyes glared at him and this intimidated him so acrimoniously that he couldn't put his question. The eyes disappeared and again he heard his mother whispering from the next room. Immediately after, he heard a bang that came out of the wooden almirah placed just outside his room.

Someone was knocking at the door of the almirah repeatedly. His mother also shouted and screeched to oppose the intruder. The unexpected trespasser seemed to be wrathful and pushed his mother forcefully that made her swoon. Vikku couldn't control and remain in his room. What nonsense had started at home! He felt irritated, nervous and opened the door. He found his mother trembling, glaring, murmuring and trying to say something. Vikku soothed her to sleep. After that she had to be made swallow a tranquiliser-tablet. She calmed down and fell asleep.

The next morning, Vikku woke up late. It was Sunday and he found his mother in the kitchen boiling water to prepare coffee. He came silently and embraced her from the back. She sighed and said, "Black coffee or milk coffee"? Vikku said, "Whatever you are going to drink, the same I will prefer". He asked tactfully to his mother, Neelima, "Who had created the nuisance and what it had said"? First, she remained mum and then said slowly, "Your father, as he wants to get the flat-ownership documents out of the almirah. He was almost through but I opposed to him". Vikku gaped in utter disbelief. He said, "But why"? His mother replied that her husband wanted to extort money by blackmailing her. It sounded weird. Vikku remembered, his father had been quite responsible and empathetic to him when he was a kid. Now, why the hell his father's voracious soul wanted to banish them from their house? He must have to c***k the mystery as he had no answer then.