Nooru`s C.V Camp Doldrums

Short story

It was after the onslaught of another flash of lightning , Febina asked Nooru:
“Noorukka, you are acting as if you are eighty years old.”

Nooru could not make out what she was aiming at. He only knew that he had just made out with her. It was an obnoxious dud. An unsuccessful endeavour. After that , as usual, exhaling one`s disgust at oneself and tucking into a lot of frustration. Nooru took a look at her glum face and muttered:

“ I`m sorry”
It had stopped drizzling out side . Every leaf who had competed with each other for the heavenly touch of the falling rain drops seemed to have ended their rustling. Here, Nooru, turning pale and dry!
He could yet remember his words when he told his ‘coy mistress’ , with a sleazy glance, “ Molu, I just want to be alone with you for some time…… can`t you see, it`s going to shower?” , and her disgustful query whether he was able to cut any bloom after that prolonged dreariness of chopping red strokes across the adolescent exhibition of innocence on the white canvas with a monogram of one or another ill-fated Higher Secondary Principals.

Yes, Nooru could recall that too: “Look, Febi, …..the tedium of this da…valuation farce is not going to have its culmination soon. They say they are expecting another consignment from Kasargod…..may be this whole month …or next…”, and then . while neglecting the rise of those beautiful eye brows, and hugging her to seal her facial honey cup with his cigarette stenching thick lips , Nooru felt that his wife was slowly slipping into a state of euphoria. After all it was long since they shared that sort of a thing. The da…ed CV camp had already started taking a toll on his constitution. Nooru unzipped his black bag and taking a cue from it , Febina must have gathered a kind of wild energy into her rosy tissues. At this juncture , Nooru heaved a sigh of relief and somewhere in the dale of his mind millions of daffodils bloomed.

It was Febina who rolled down the mat and he could readily inhale the aroma of something she had smeared on it. Yes, he was sure he could stand to think about feeding on her all the ways she couldn`s even imagine at all. She also might have thought about changing the wall paper of her mind. Nooru had by that time discovered a new man in himself who was as strong as ‘ Neil Armstrong’!

But, alas……
A pesky mobile ring! .,.. A bolt from the blue!
Nooru just stretched his hand out and grabbed that nasty gadget. A flash of lightning ogled into their privacy. Nooru was staring at the number. It was Sreyas`s. The ELT- prodigy at the English C.V. camp. His chief. How come this guy calling me at this blissful moments? That had been Nooru`s first thought. He tuned his auditory sense to an anxious mode. Through the ear piece he could hear the husky voice of the young master: “ Nooru, …don`t panic please, …. I`ve just received a call from Trivandrum… yes, from our Exam J.D……yea, …nothing that sort of exorbitant allegations hopefully, ….but .. you could have been a little more conscious…..”

“Man, please shoot it!”
Nooru`s inflated balloons let out all that air they had achieved earlier, and presently, Shreyas`s words struck his heart on the wrong string :
“ J.D. asked me to tell you to leave for TVM tonight itself. Yea, so that you can reach there by tomorrow morning. I`m afraid you might`ve made one or two serious errors in the mark sheet we had prepared on our thirteenth day of valuation.”
“But Shreyas, you also had verified everything. “

“I`m a bit forgetful about that day`s business. See, I`m serious. .. right now he wants only your flesh. That`s all. Good Night”.
It had stopped raining outside. Only streaks of lightning.
“What`s it ? Anythihg wrong?” ….. the enquiry of a chicken heart.

Yes, Febina had already grasped the deflation in the body of her hubby. Her mind`s screen also went blank. She saw Nooru springing from the mat and turning on the lights and dumping himself into the bean bag. He was damp, both mentally and physically. That`s why Febina asked him:
“Noorukka, why do you act as if you are in your eighties?”. Or, did she really hide anything pungent in those words?

ABDUL NAZAR P
(ghss kallachi)