Monday, September 12, 2005

A quick tale 67

One lunch time last week

It’s Tuesday and you step out for a bite during lunch hour. You see her first. You recognise the face as one from your school years. Your rival. The one you lost to each time. In maths exams. In spelling competitions. In lemon-and-spoon races. Yes, the ONE.

You think of hiding but it's too late. She spots you and comes over to greet. So how have you been, you enquire. Oh the usual, she answers, marriage, babies, career-on-hold, things like that. Huge mortgage, crippling debt and a philandering husband, you add mentally.

And what have you been up to, she asks. Great job, fantastic prospects, frequent trips abroad, hectic partying, no time to settle down, you reply. Making it all sound unnecessarily glamorous.

Then you pull out your fancy mobile and note down her number. You promise to stay in touch and head for the restaurant. She turns around, waves and steps into a charity shop. I'll treat myself to a glass of wine today, you tell yourself.

7 comments:

kay said...

oof.

Anonymous said...

it sounds like a chitra banarjee divakaruni story.
awfully similar :)
inspiration?
or just genius thinking alike?

Anonymous said...

Good that you changed the ending of the piece.

The previous one was..well `extremely changeable'.

Shammi said...

Ooh. Mean! :)

kay said...

you changed the ending?

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

My inner bitch loved this one! Keem em coming

Prahalathan said...

Nice blog...
But just short stories all the way?

PS: I hate word verification!