Adultery The Old Toothbrush by Trambak

[Ramesh_Rocky]

It was time for me to speak. After a little hesitation, I started speaking. Initially, my voice seemed alien to myself. Suhasini looked up and tried to say something. I raised my hands and said firmly, "Suhas! Let me speak and you please listen! What happens at the spur of a moment is never the complete truth. What happened yesterday was just a bad moment in our life and nothing else. For me, you are too precious, too important to be judged by a single incident or even multiple ones. For me, I alone know what you are and what you mean to me. So, stop thinking about what I think. I think nothing. It's a nightmare, that's all. The night is gone and a day has begun. Nothing's changed."

Suhasini sat stooped. For me, who has always seen her upright, her downcast eyes and that pathetic body language were more painful than her deeds. I was not even sure whether she had heard me at all?

Dismayed, I repeated myself, "Did you hear what I said? Forget it! Nothing's changed!"

She stood up, still looking down, muttered carelessly, "Nothing's changed?" And left the room.

I had thought that I could set things right but was I wrong? I sat silently, stumped.

My mind insisted that I keep trying. Somewhere, some sixth sense alerted me to quickly restore normalcy lest things go completely out of hand, forever. Explanations and displeasure could wait. They were not the priority. There would be time for that too.

I found her sitting on the edge of the bed, looking nowhere. I caressed her hair fondly. Not for a moment did I feel that some punishment was due. She kept sitting, emotionless, blank.

A living dead.

I thought it prudent to leave her to herself, to her own devices.

I retrieved the bag that I had so carefully hid in the store. Had I left it in the living room, the story would have been different. Indeed, an act of omission. There was a surprise gift for her, an iPad suggested and procured by our daughter Ranjana.

Nothing else to do, I emptied the bag and spent some time in the bathroom. I took a long bath.

I found a breakfast ready comprising of my favourite things. I ate in silence because it was becoming difficult for me to breach the wall of silence pervading the house.

The household work progressed like clockwork without a word being spoken. I tried a little more to break the ice.

I suggested tentatively, "Let's go for dinner tonight!"

She looked blankly at me and then said, "Where?"

I said enthusiastically, "Let's go to Mainland!"

I said that on purpose. Suhasini always opposed my interest in that restaurant saying that in addition to other flaws, it was too expensive and we usually went to someplace else. I wanted to evoke that response in her.

She looked up and said nothing.

I changed track and said, "Of course, it's too expensive for the fare that it doles out.

What do you suggest?"

She thought for some time and said without enthusiasm, "No, you like Mainland, let's go there."

The evening was a disaster. The arrival of dishes was interspersed with my monologue. She nibbled at the food. I took the opportunity to present her the iPad for which she had only one drab comment, "What will I do with such advanced gadget?" Somehow, we managed to trudge through the agony and reached home.

The night, the bed, the sleep and the eventual Sunday morning came in its own routine. Somehow, contrary to my habit, I overslept. I found her sitting on the in the dining room engrossed in her thoughts. The tea was already done and I joined her with my cup.