Tag: Fiction

Posted in Fiction

The Dinner

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

The dinner was a quiet one as usual.

He never spoke much. That’s why she fell sideways looking for emotional support.

She purposely avoided thinking of it as an ‘affair’. It made her feel guilty.

Anyway, it wasn’t like she was sleeping with him. They just chatted about everyday things–daily struggles at home and office, poetry, paintings, children, dissatisfaction with family life…

Sometimes they spoke of love or lack thereof in their lives. The easy conversations made her wonder how it would have been if she had married him instead…

The thought made her uncomfortable. She was, after all, a respectable woman. She had honored her parent’s choice for 19 years. She won’t go back now. Her husband is a good man, just not who she wanted…

If only he would talk to her…

Ask her about her day…

Tell her about his own…

Remind her in some way she wasn’t just a piece of meat…

Her husband finished his dessert quietly and got up to watch television. Sighing, she cleared the table and went back to chat with him again.

Photo by Dilyara Garifullina on Unsplash

Posted in Fiction

Seeker Finder

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

He (looking in her phone screen): Cool birds! Where did you find these rare birds to click their pics?

She: They throng our rooftop. The tree they sit on stands next door.

He: How is it possible? I have lived here for 10 years and never seen one.

She: Seeker Finder…

He: What?

She: Ask the right Guru (religious teacher) and the answer might turn your life around. Though, it may cost you a thousand bucks stay at an Ashram (religious home-school).

He: What do you mean?

She: Ever read Hellen Keller’s Three Days to See?

He: Whatever…

Posted in Fiction

Forever and After

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Life is rather boring here, thanks to our ‘honorable’ prince.

First, he riled up the witch enough that she turned him into a Beast and the city to ruins. Then, rather than scoping out the nearby area for a kissable girl, he decided to mope around instead.

How did he expect her to find him? Did he have GPS installed, or a neon sign, “This way to the Cursed Prince”?

Does he even know about the existence of Online Dating? Men ‘meet’ sexy women out there all the time, make them fall in love, exchange virtual kisses! Who said the kiss had to be real?

But no, he had to wait for a century until this unfortunate woman walked in and fainted at his first sight! So much for true love!

Now he spends all the time hiding from her. He watches her from hiding spots behind the curtains and secretly follows her around like a lost pup.

Sigh! I wonder when that kiss is going to happen. After being lonely for a century, I am dying to watch some action⁠—not that castles can die. We just sulk…for centuries…

Being immortal sucks.

Photo by Kevin Jackson @ Unsplash

Posted in Fiction

The Hoax

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

It took her two hours to accept that he stood her up. For the first time in their two-year relationship, he hadn’t turned up.

As she sat at the empty table, she had to admit she wasn’t shocked. Ever since she gave him the ‘news’ of her ‘pregnancy’ over the phone, he sounded distant. Later when she called for a date, he was too busy, which was a first too. But she insisted to meet anyway, hoping to end the hoax-gone-wrong in-person. But now, he was MIA.

She cursed her best friend for suggesting such a joke. The idiot always had a thing against her man. But even she had hoped he might consider marriage. All it did was push him away instead.

Well, she’d just go to his apartment and tell him the truth. She’d apologize for upsetting him…

That’s when she realized the joke was on her…

The first tear rolled down…

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Posted in Fiction

Family Honour

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

When parents arranged the marriage...

She: Please don’t make me marry him, I am in love with another.

Mother: Please understand my dear. It is a matter of our family’s honour.

When she returned after a few months of marriage…

She: Please don’t send me back. He drinks, beats and rapes me every night.

Mother: No! You must go back…for our family’s honour.

When she eloped with ‘another’…

Mother: I wish she was born dead. She dishonoured our family.

Posted in Fiction

Bestie

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

I was waiting in the old barn where we had spent our childhood plotting mischiefs. It had been twenty years!

But I knew she will come today. There was no where she would rather be and nothing could stop her now—Becoming ghost had its merits!

Posted in Fiction

Arranged

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

It was difficult to start a conversation while our families milled around us. We had only ten minutes to decide.

She took out her phone ‘replying an urgent text’. I received a message from an unknown number, “Let’s run away from them all!”

She was smiling!

Posted in Fiction

Tiny Story: The Hairy Tale

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

For the record, he never asked me. And he was holding a sword when he cut my hair, tied them to the window and told me climb down. I couldn’t argue with him then. Would you?

I just got down the tower, still wobbly from the loss of half-my-bodyweight worth of hair, and am trying to walk straight on this uneven forest floor for the first time. And ‘what’s-his-name’ is already asking me to ride this… thing!

Never seen it before (living in a tower and all that) but it is…

Huge…

Walks on both its hands and legs…

Doesn’t even wear clothes! Only a lock of hair covers its backside! Gross!

The nutcase tells me I must pat the ‘Orse'(?) to make it comfortable. I say, “No! I am still recovering from the loss of hair. I am not ready to lose a limb yet.”

Moreover, mother will be home any second now. If I can stall long enough, ‘what’s-his-name-again’ can turn into a delicious roast…

Posted in Fiction

Tiny Story: Heaven

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

In front of their old rundown family farmhouse

9-year old son (incredulously): This is your ‘heaven’?

Father (in a conspiratorial tone): Did you ever jump over a fence, climb a tree, bathe in the river, play in a cave or own a real tree house?

Son (grinning ear-to-ear): When are we moving in?