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Thursday, May 06, 2010

Did you leave your limb behind?

She trudges back into the living room dragging her mutilated body behind. She does it in slow measured steps almost hoping that I wouldn’t notice. I think she is still under the wrong impression that she is welcome here. She also seems to be suffering from a curious case of amnesia in the sense that she obviously cant remember that I have just chased her away with my boot in my hand but she does remember this to be her home. Or she has a very low sense of self esteem. Or both. I do feel for her. But I don’t want to have anything to do with her any more. I am tired of chasing her away. I let her slip in.

I vividly remember the first time I met her. She just couldn’t stop staring at me through her glazed eyes. It became so obvious that every now and then I would glance through the corner of my eyes to check if she was still looking at me. And when I couldn’t find her at her usual place, I would be wondering where she might have gone. To be honest, she is not exactly a pretty sight but then I don’t get so much attention from many quarters in general anyway.

Then it happened. One fine day, I found her in my bed. I must have been drunk enough to allow that. But as soon as I regained my senses to register her presence, I was filled with disgust. I had to ask her to leave but she wouldn’t budge. I resorted to throwing her out of the bed. She promptly fell on the floor with a plop, was likely outraged and so assumed an inflexible stand. She got rooted to the spot, unyielding as a rock. She wouldn’t listen to what I was saying. In fact, she even refused to look at me, preferring a vague blank spot in front of her to my good looks. It took me a good half an hour and quite a few violent threats to get her out of the apartment. I immediately threw the bed sheets, the pillow covers and the quilt into the washing machine and decided to sleep on the couch instead to get over my trauma. It wasn’t till after the bedroom was completely disinfected that I took to sleeping in my own bed.

You would have thought that that was the last I would see of her. But no sir, she still graces me with her visits every now and then. These days, she restricts herself to only the living room. We still have our fights and just about fifteen minutes ago, I ran after her with my boot in my hand. I haven’t done anything remotely like that ever but today I was having one of those moments. And something curious happened. She left one of her many limbs behind as she exited.

As I write this, I am still transfixed by her tail which is thrashing around on the floor even as she quietly reenters. I want to ask her if she even remembers having left her limb behind on her previous visit. But I am unlikely to get an answer. She is clearly delusional but I do admire her tenacity. I think she is here to stay. I will have to make room. May be give her a name. I just hope she stays out of my bed.

5 comments:

Dudette said...

Fun post yet again!
Dint I say you are a misogynist. How do you know the poor li’l animal is a 'she' and not a ‘he’? And if it is a she, why do you have chase her away. She is extending her warm friendship to you, and you mercilessly chase her with a 'boot'. Be a gentleman, and accept her friendship. You won’t regret it. Animals are a good company; they are so innocent and their love is self-less.

My dog gave me a love-bite when I was a kid but I still love dogs. And presently I have extended my love from terrestrial animals to aerial animals like parrots. Yes, I do have two of them and they adore me.

PS do you let anyone slip in to you bed when you're drunk enough ;P

Anonymous said...

i wud suggest cats are always better than dogs...!!!

Cats r very head strong and this reminds me that i can add an incidence here..
i share a room with 2 other girls (damn mumbai!!)....and this is an incidence when i had just joined the gang and was sure of rats at my place...

we were deep in our sleep when i realised four small limbs passing above my head...i was traumatised but regained my strength woke up and saw two sparkling eyes facing me and saying "meow". i replied her in the same tone.
she/he was seated on my roomies foot who by then had not realised. I slowly asked my roomie to move as there is this beast...and she made a cry that scared the poor beast. she ran across and hid herself under my third roomie's bed. and both of them were crying for help...i had to get a broom and make her run out of our room. Since then she has visited our room numerous times...may be she realised she found atleast one competition in me :)

Beta said...

Thanks for sharing interesting experiences.

The poor lil animal in this story is actually a lizard and I am not gifted with the imagination required to equate her with cats or dogs.

Referred it as her because that's what makes the story interesting :-)

Dudette said...

Lizard eh!!
darn you... but it was interesting! certainly.
they scare the hell outta me :) take my words back, they aint cute and they aint innocent.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha~

I am must say, its well written-i think u shud have kept her real identity under wrpas and waited for more interesting narration......

and Sleeping with a lizard...urgh!!! U really need to change ur apartment :P