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.