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Looks Like Rain

Posted on May 15, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

He looked out the window and thought, it smells like rain.

It’s only May.

May was struggling to hold on, one half was already in the shredder but still, it was only May! What the hell was the air doing, smelling like rain in the middle of May?

He knew how it would play out.

A week or so of overcast skies and humidity so heavy everybody would look like they were participants in a wet t-shirt contest. And then…the skies would open up and drown the city. The smell of shit on the street mixing with dirt, that green smell of leaves getting hydrated, that cloying cool of suspended water particles in the air would be everywhere.

For about a day and a half.

And then, clear blue skies and sweltering heat for another three to four weeks. June would come and threaten to go without a drop of rain in sight. The met department would pretend like they hadn’t seen anything like it before while scraping through the pages of old reports to check the last time the rain was this late coming. Television channels would show people staring at passing cameras while some incompetent reporter babbled on about the heat using long forgotten adjectives before the imagery changed to document the rip-roaring business ice-cream vendors, soft drink vendors and air-conditioning salesmen were doing.

He just sat there and stared out the window at early morning Mumbai. Every fucking year it gets worse.

He had seen it nearly thirty times. He remembered maybe twenty-five. Wax and wane, rise and fall, day, night, day again.

As a child he had been greedy. Every single exciting thing he had wanted to do over and over again. Every single time he repeated an exercise he realised that it was never as fun or exciting as the first time. The older he got, the less he was interested in doing the same thing another time.

He realised that the first time was the charm.

The fear of the unknown but the promise also. The excitement, the drama, the tension and when it was all good - the sweet, sweet joy. It’s probably why people went out of their way to get laid so much. They were trying to recapture the excitement of that first time. The more things changed the more they stayed the same.

He thought about the things he had to do that day.

Breakfast. He did feel a mild rumbling in his stomach. The beast had to be fed.

Bills to be paid. Fuck that!

A six page target. Yeah highly unlikely. More like four or maybe three.

Lunch. Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Smokin’ Lee, pizza, Chinese, Udipi…

More work. Maybe I’ll nap…

Make a couple of phone calls.

Yeah that sounded like a good way to pass some time. He checked his phone and frowned.

1 new message. When the hell did this come?

He pushed the relevant buttons and found, ‘Hey sexy! Had a good time last night. Call Me. XO’

Just swiveling in his chair allowed him an unobstructed view of his bed. It’s what he loved about his life as a comic book artist. His office and his bed were within walking distance of each other. He could drink at work or sketch in bed. No problem. Hell, if he so desired, he could have sex at his workplace.

The sheets were rumpled but he was experienced enough to know what his bed looked like when the sheets had been rumpled by two people and when only one person had tossed and turned through the night. What he was looking at was one-person bed chaos.

He checked the dustbin. No used condoms. He checked his desk drawer. The pack was undisturbed. He had picked up a new pack on Monday and there it was, sort of gloating at the fact that he hadn’t had reason to reach for them.

How drunk was I last night?

He checked the fridge. The beers were undisturbed.

He checked the phone again and noticed that it wasn’t a familiar number.

On impulse he decided to ring it. She sounded happy.

“Hey! I didn’t expect you to call so soon…you wake up early.”

“So do you.”

“Your voice sounds different.”

“It’s the morning, the humidity or whatever…I don’t know.”

“So what’s happening?”

“You want to catch up? Get a coffee or something?”

“Today?”

“Is that a problem?”

“No…wow! I thought you’d play it all cool and stuff. Not call me for days…”

“Surprised?”’

“Yeah.”

“Pleasantly?”

“Very.”

“So coffee?”

“Okay. What time?”

“I’m easy. What about you?”

“I have work…so seven? Barista near Regal?”

“Sure. Why not? What will you be wearing?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know…maybe I’ll carry the image with me through the day.”

“Wow! You’re not at all like the guy I imagined.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No. Good thing. I guess I should just not judge a book by its cover…”

“Hey I think you saw a little more than the cover last night!”

She giggled and told him she would be wearing a black suit with a purple shirt. He whistled, promised to meet her at seven and disconnected.

He skipped breakfast, went directly to the pages and actually managed five before it was time to shit, shower, shave, shag and leave. He considered tossing one off first; decided he didn’t have the time so he handled the other business and left.

At the coffee shop he hovered in a discrete corner and watched the door. At three to seven she turned up and she was gorgeous. Thick cascade of hair, clear skin, a ready smile and the kind of slim body he could really take the time to get to know.

Seeing her confirmed two things. She was hot, and he had never seen her before in his life.

He was undecided about what to do next.

She sat down, checked her watch and looked around. Her eyes fell on him for a brief moment and then she continued scanning the room. Half-an-hour later she was looking a little deflated. The day’s exhaustion was beginning to show on her face. She checked her phone and after a moment she started to punch a few buttons. He quickly put his own phone on vibrate so he could decide what to do if she called him without her hearing the phone ring. She didn’t finish making the call. She began to look really upset when a waiter popped up for the eighth time to ask if she was ready to order.

When he made his move it was almost subconscious, “Hi, is this seat taken?”

She didn’t even bother to look up. She just shook her head. She thought he wanted to pull the chair over to whatever table he was sitting at with friends. She looked surprised when he sat down next to her, “Hi.”

She didn’t look in the mood at all, “Do I know you?”

“That’s what I came here to find out.”

“I don’t think I do.”

“What if I read your mind?”

The look she gave him could have aborted babies, reversed nuclear explosions and caused crooked politicians to have simultaneous heart attacks across three time zones. How he survived is a mystery.

“Are you serious?”

“Just hear me out. Two minutes. My name is Rohit by the way.”

She didn’t volunteer her name, saying, “If you want me to tell you my name read my mind.”

To which he responded, “Actually I have a birth certificate with both my parents’ names on it so I’m not technically a bastard.”

The flicker in her eye gave her away so he pressed on with his eyes shut, “I think you’ve had a long day at work.”

She rolled her eyes. He continued, “not a hard day, just a long day. It was a day of meetings where nothing was finalized but you know you have to sit through them so that you can finally get to the meeting where everything falls into place.”

She looked mildly interested, “you’re getting this from my mind.”

He smiled his most disarming smile, “Mind, body, what does it matter.”

“Careful smartass. I’m not in the mood for flirting.”

“Because this asshole you met recently, who you thought was quite a cool guy is actually a real jerk.”

Her face went still with surprise.

He pressed on, “You want to call him and give him shit but you also don’t want to sound desperate. So you’re wondering what to do. You’re lonely because this is not your city. But you could learn to like it here.”

He opened his eyes, “How am I doing?”

She looked vulnerable but there was an edge to her voice as she asked, “Did Vishal put you up to this? Is this some sort of game? One guy sleeps with a girl and then he sends a friend to break up with her?”

He paused for a moment, “Wow, that’s actually a pretty cool idea.”

She began collecting her things, “I’m leaving. Tell Vishal I said to go fuck himself.”

As she reached for her phone he covered her hand with his. When she glared at him he took his hand away, “Sorry. I don’t know Vishal.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’d still like to have coffee with you.”

“Why?”

“This morning I woke up and it smelled like rain. I hate the rain. People are always in a bad mood when it’s hot. I think it’s worse when it rains. It’s hot, then it’s wet, sometimes it’s dark, fucks up my head and my mood and I don’t like it.”

“Okay so?”

“When I thought it was going to rain today or tomorrow I decided I can’t take this shit anymore. I’m nearly thirty. I don’t have much to look forward to except old age and I don’t know…bills. I was planning to kill myself with pills that I would wash down with water from the first rain.”

He waved at an invisible stranger, “Goodbye cruel world and all that sort of shit.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because I was wondering whether I should work or have breakfast when I got a text message this morning. The message was from you.”

“I don’t even know you.”

“I know. Some asshole named Vishal had sex with you and didn’t even have the good grace to leave you his own number.”

Understanding flooded her being and she seemed to deflate right before his eyes. She wasn’t looking at him or anything else when she said, “I thought he liked me.”

“He never got to know you enough to decide.”

When she looked at him again the blazing in her eyes was unmistakable, “and you thought what? I’ll go check this chick out and if she’s good enough I’ll fuck her also?”

The surprise on his face was so unmistakable that she didn’t doubt the words he uttered, “I just wanted to see the woman who saved my life.”

“I don’t have place in my life to deal with other people’s issues. I have issues of my own.”

He nodded, “Absolutely. I understand. Actually I just wanted to say thank you. You made me realise that I’m not yet tired of happy accidents. Who knows, I might want to kiss it all goodbye again tomorrow but today I have to thank you for making me want to stay.”

He was on his feet and out the door before she could think of anything else to say. He had crossed the road when the phone rang. He answered, “Hello?”

“You don’t check the number before answering the phone?”

He turned around, she was outside the coffee shop and became fleetingly invisible every time a car whizzed past. “No, I like to be surprised.”

“Coffee?”

“Not in the mood. Keeps me awake.”

“Oh.”

“How about dinner?”

“Don’t think I’ll sleep with you.”

“Don’t think I’ll sleep with you!”

“Why not!”

“Can I come back across the road so we don’t have to do this over the phone?”

She disconnected and waited. By the time he got across, she had a smile on her face.

“Hi, I’m Rohit.”

“Hi. Suman.”

“That’s a really nice suit Suman. Love that purple on you.”

“Still not sleeping with you.”

“Still not asking.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m thinking vada pav and one soda between the two of us.”

“What?”

“Why would I waste money on an expensive meal with a girl I don’t want to sleep with?”

“How about the girl who saved your life.”

“She should buy me a meal.”

“Done.”

“This will be a cool story to tell our kids.”

“No sex remember? Where are the kids going to come from?”

“Adoption agency. Enough talking Angelina. Let’s go get that dinner you’re buying me.”

All around them people were thinking it smelt like rain. Some of them cast furtive glances at the sky while others moved quicker than usual.

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