HER 3

Living in a posh apartment with all luxuries around had always been her dream. She felt accomplished looking at the sunset from her apartment window on the sixteenth floor of one of the best buildings in the city.  Looking behind, she had nothing to regret upon.  She did not realize time slipping away while her mind escaped into thoughts, and her eyes stationed on the setting sun. Neither did she realize that darkness had engulfed her apartment as she forgot to switch on the lights at the dawn of the dusk.

Clock Struck seven, an uninvited silence enveloped the room.  Anyone could easily hear the slow noise as the clock raced with time.  To kill this silence she switched on the television. She wasnt interested in watching the film. A drunken old man was hitting his lady and kids. Fast and loud bgm gulped in the aura.  Neither was she interested in music nor sympathetic for the lady and kids.

Like her mother always said, if you don’t study, you wouldn’t get a job and end up marrying a man who might not respect you. She always believed a lady dependent on her man for livelihood is no good than the flesh at butchers shop. She pitied such lives and felt proud of herself.

 He opened the door. She muted the television volume. He looked pale and tired. His steps were unsteady. Eyes were red and weary.

Theirs was a marriage that lacked existence. He worked day and night to please his boss and returned home only to bed. Weekends spent drinking at corporate parties or playing golf with his colleagues. Wife was only an ornament to be exhibited during corporate family events. All he spoke of her was to boast about the turnover her company has in market and his plans to invest in the shares.

She paced to the bedroom to see her tired husband sleeping with in his shoes and office suit carelessly occupying more than half of the bed.

She stroked his palm to ask if he had his dinner.

He sounded tired and his low voice asked to get lost and leave him alone.

She returned to the living room that still played the same movie. Unlike then the kids were asleep, the lady was serving dinner to her husband and the drunk husband was apologizing to her with teary eyes. She increased the volume of the television. A soft and low music filled the room.

She woke up to the sunlight that pricked her eyes from the very same window she pondered at sunset the day before. Tying her hair into a neat bun, she began her day, reciting today’s menu to the maid and piling up the documents she had left on table into her image of successful woman in her mind.

Read Her 'Part one' here