He yawned and looked out of the window, it was a dull gloomy morning. It was raining continuously for the past few days, so he had little time to go out and get some fresh air. He hated the touch of rain to his skin. But he longed for the wind to rustle his grey air. He longed for it to throw a stray leaf at him that made him blink. So he stretched, went out and sat by Sheila on the veranda. Away from the reach of the spatter. She looked at him with love in her ginger eyes. The look that still gave him shivers from head to toe. They had been together for the past eight years. Since she separated from her husband, to be precise. They had a loving coexistence. He couldn’t believe someone could love him as much as she did. It felt like she was a different person when she was with him.
He knew because he had followed her unnoticed to her shop a few times. He had seen her sit there alone, her head resting on her palm. Waiting for the next customer to walk in. He had seen her with her customers, trying to look cheery and make small talk, with an ounce of sadness still hanging in her eyes and making her look older than she really was. He had seen her checking the time over and over again for hours till it was finally time to close shop. But when she got back home, it seemed that all the love in her consumed her and became the person she was. She would smile, she would talk, she would be a different person altogether. She was wonderful.
He inched closer to her and nestled next to her chair. She rested her palm on his back. They both sat together and looked at the rain in silence. There used to be a time when she would talk her heart out to him, and he would just listen. He prided himself at being a good listener. And when she talked, he could feel the comfort it gave her to let out like that. She didn’t talk much nowadays. Just the occasional you-know-what-happened-todays. But he knew that didn’t matter. It was just age.
She had been married 36 years when her husband met a younger woman and decided to give his hormones a second chance. Their only child had long grown up and settled down in a far off land. He never visited her. Her man left her with her little boutique, money enough to buy a new house, and plenty of humiliation. That was all she had now, apart from her grey haired fellow.
She met him outside the grocery store one morning, a month after her divorce. He used to idle there in the morning when people came to get their daily supplies of milk. It was she who first came and talked to him that day. Within an hour they became friends. And then she started seeing him there every morning, without fail. A few weeks later he started visiting her at her place, and then eventually moved in with her. Time flew by, and they became the most important part of each other’s lives. He liked both owning her this way and being owned by her. They were inseparable. She might have grown old, but to him, she was just as beautiful now as she was when he first laid eyes on her.
It was almost lunch time. She was already inside, setting the table, while he took a few more minutes to laze by himself. He inhaled the air, spiced with the smell of her delicious chicken curry and felt pleased. She was an incredible cook. He would have lunch and then catch a few winks. There wasn’t much for him to do. After all, there’s hardly much to do for an old cat when it’s raining outside.
Inspired by Geetanjali Rao's Printed Rainbow
