My wife doesn’t usually call me when I am at work. If she does, you can be sure that there is “breaking news” or there is an important message to be passed on. But when she called me the other day, I was shocked when I heard what she told me. I never thought I could do something like this, or should I use “we”, since it involved everybody at home?
All these years, I’ve only heard people appreciating me for my organised way of working and the way I take care of things that I use. So, it was kind of shattering, to say the least, when my wife told me that it was missing. We had just bought it the previous evening and it was surprising that it disappeared almost magically!
Just as I was recollecting the sequence of events and the places we visited that day, she brought about a twist in my thought process when she asked me if we got it billed in the first place. That was a good lead, since we had a little discussion if we really needed it before we got it billed. But, alas, I threw the bill in the trash can the moment we reached home. How did I do it? Shouldn’t I have been careful at least when we bought expensive things like this?
Then, in a moment of brilliance, I checked the text I received from the bank immediately after the credit card was swiped. The amount confirmed that it was indeed billed, but where did it disappear? I clearly remember carrying all the things from the car trunk into our home. Or, did I leave one little bag behind?
I wanted to check the car trunk immediately. But I had come to work in my colleague’s car and my car was parked right outside my home. I thought I would ask my wife to check, but realised that the keys were safe in my trouser pocket. I then thought of asking my wife to locate the spare key, but dropped the idea since its location is too “complicated” to explain on the phone.
With options running out, I decided to wait until I reached home in the evening and check the car trunk myself. I was sure I wouldn’t have been so careless as to misplace/lose something like this.
At the end of the day’s work, as my colleague’s car turned into the street where I live in, my state of mind was just the same as it would be towards the climax of a racy thriller, not knowing which way the movie would end, but making all kinds of guesses.
As the car slowly came to a halt, I rushed out, picked my bag and opened my car immediately.
As I slowly opened the car trunk, I was relieved to see the transparent bag containing 1.5 kg of shiny reddish-violet bulbs, onions, that cost me the same amount as an entire week’s vegetables would have a few years ago!
( The writer’s e-mail: >malyadri@yahoo.com )
