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Dialogue over Dumbbells

Posted on July 26, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

They were shoulder to shoulder in the gymnasium. The younger man was putting away his dumbbells when he noticed the older guy looking at him. Their eyes met for a brief moment and the older man said, “I’ve been watching you for the past six or seven weeks now.” The younger man was about to do his walkabout before he picked up the weights for another set of triceps curls. He had been working out at the gym for close to two years and he hadn’t yet got conversation from any of the other users of the facilities.  Stuck for an adequate response he said the only thing he could think of, “Is there something wrong with my form?”

There was a flicker in the older man’s eyes or perhaps it was just a trick of the light reflecting off his spectacles, either way he paused for a moment before he said, “No, your form is fine.”

“Okay. What then?”

“I’ve noticed you don’t talk to people.”

“I don’t know people.”

“People make friends.”

“Running into each other between sets and exchanging pleasantries is not friendship.”

“You could always meet in the outside world as well.”

From the way he paused the older man almost believed that the idea had never occurred to the younger man. He recovered enough to say, “What’s your point?”

“I’ve noticed that you don’t talk to people.”

“You said that already. So?”

“I was wondering why.”

“Can I complete my next set?”

The older man stepped aside and noticed that he picked up weights that were much heavier than the ones he had been using for his previous set. He continued to watch as the younger man went through his reps and for the first time he paid any real attention to his form. He only cheated, a bit, on the last two reps. When he put the dumbbells away there was none of the blustery slamming of weights that characterized the behaviour of the muscle-heads who periodically made their presence known with excessive grunting and groaning. The older man offered his hand, “I’m Manik by the way.”

The younger man shook his hand and said, “Akhil.”

“How are you Akhil?”

“Good. So you were saying?”

“I was wondering why you don’t make conversation with people in the gym.”

“What would be the point? People talk weights, women and pass on unsolicited wisdom. Not really my scene.”

“Which part?”

“Sorry?”

“The weights, the women or the unsolicited wisdom, which is not your scene?”

Akhil looked at him for a moment and then he said, “Are you a lawyer? Or a cop?”

“Why do you ask?”

“All the questions man, I feel like this is an interrogation.”

“Have you ever been interrogated before?”

That caused Akhil to cease all movement. He wasn’t exactly looking at Manik but he wasn’t looking away either. He picked up the dumbbells and said, “I have to do another set.”

Manik wandered off and Akhil tried to watch him in the mirror but the older man did a good job of setting himself up beyond a couple of machines in such a way that his actions were hidden from Akhil. When he went to put away the weights he realised that Manik was back and jumped slightly, “Dude! What’s your deal?”

“You said it felt like you were being interrogated.”

“Just in a manner of speaking man. It’s no big deal.”

He stretched his arms out and reached for a nearby cross bar to hang from. Manik let him do this for a while before he said, “Did you like her?”

“Who?”

“The very pretty girl who used to work out here a few months ago.”

“Which one?”

“Come on, there was only one.”

Akhil shrugged, “Maybe she worked out at a different time.”

Manik looked at him, as if evaluating whether to follow something up or to let it go and then he decided to follow it up, “For six or seven months atleast, if not more, every single day you turned up after she turned up. You worked out near wherever she was working out and you left when she left. Most of the guys in the gym thought it was pretty funny. They called you the pet she didn’t know about.”

Akhil whirled to look around the gym but the few people that were around were engrossed in their business and nobody was looking in the direction of his conversation with the inquisitive stranger by the dumbbells. After a moment he said, “You’re just messing with me aren’t you?”

“Actually, no. People really did say that.”

“Whatever man.”

“Did you try to talk to her?”

Akhil was leaning on two dumbbells and when he didn’t say anything Manik continued, “Did she laugh at your advances or did you simply find out she had a boyfriend?”

Still no response. It was as if Akhil wasn’t even there. Manik continued, “Did you say the wrong thing straight away or did you come off as a nice guy to begin with and then frighten her by saying something completely stupid?”

Akhil’s jaw was working. His gritted teeth were the only sign that he was hearing what Manik was saying to him. The older man leaned on the dumbbells himself and said, “Or did she just not hear you or understand what you were trying to say because she found out she was pregnant and didn’t know what to do?”

That got Akhil’s attention. He met Manik’s eyes and it was clear that something in Manik’s last statement had got to him. Manik straightened up and looked beyond him at the large plate glass windows that overlooked the street. Two police jeeps had pulled up and parked. He fixed his eyes on Akhil’s and said, “When you couldn’t see me during your last set I called for backup so don’t try anything stupid.”

Akhil turned to look out the window and when he saw the police vehicles he turned to search Manik’s face as he continued, “Her name was Sonali and she was four months pregnant. Too late to abort without complications. We found her about two months ago. Did she hit her head or do you normally try to win a girl over with an iron rod?”

Akhil took a step away and Manik said, “This will be a lot easier if you just come with me quietly.”

Akhil said in a barely audible voice, “She looked like she didn’t hear a word I said so I pushed her and she hit her head…and…I don’t know. I saw all the blood and got scared…” Tears were streaming down his face.

Manik put his arm around the younger man’s shoulders and said, “This is not the place for this. Let’s go.”

Akhil went without resisting.  Manik wished all of his arrests were this easy.

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