Shape of the Sun

Trials and tribulations

In retrospect, Manmeet had viewed the one day and five-hour time frame on her ticket with a pinch of salt. How bad could it have been? She was in the first-class cabin, complete with an air-conditioner, toilet facilities, and a clean bedding set. Manmeet could also order good food from the pantry to her relief, and the only shortcoming that she could even think of was that there was no television, and she didn't have a phone in place for entertainment. But then, Manmeet would not be Manmeet if she let that phase her. In her cognition, too much TV and social media were killing society's brain cells, and she was among the lucky ones.

How bad could this train ride go?

Huh. Not only did it go bad, it went all the way fucking south. Things had been pretty chill with Manmeet dozing off and on, until the sixth hour into the ride, the train came to a stop. Apparently, the train had run out of diesel and needed some take-off time to fill up the tank. This time, for some reason, extended by an hour, and by the time the train continued its journey, the air conditioning stopped working, never to return. Even though Manmeet was in the first-class compartment, the poor air conditioning made it easy to sweat, and the combination of smells from the pantry and people coming in and taking off from the various stations stifled the air. Manmeet felt sticky and uncomfortable all over, which doubled upon the strange fatigue that she felt.

After ordering some food, she took a quick shower, her anxiety weighing in on whether her door was fully locked, and if some person could break in when she was so exposed. Luckily, no one did. Manmeet dressed up in fresh clothes and sat to eat her food, before lying down to sleep. She couldn't sleep and ended up purchasing three crossword puzzle booklets from a street vendor at the next station. Manmeet was four hours in and almost done with the last puzzle when some crazy, old man had sneaked his way into the first-class compartment and fell with a thud in front of her berth door. Manmeet, alarmed, had opened it to find a crowd gathered there, she could tell out of curiosity, and the man in their center, blaming her for pushing him down and demanding 2 crores for medical fees.

Needless to say, Manmeet's expression was like wtf? And it wasn't only her. The crowd who came to watch in the fun, and the conductor who came to her aid, were shocked too. 2 crores? Why didn't the old geezer just rob the Reserve Bank? That would be so much better. Manmeet came out of her shock and told the man that he had three minutes to get up or she would be calling her husband who knew very important people. It would be too late to stand up then. The man took a double-take at her ferocious expression and immediately jumped to his feet and got the hell out of there like he wasn't the one crying that he had only a few months left to live. He couldn't help scolding her and that husband of hers in his heart for being so stingy even when they were already so rich. The crowd left with him when they saw that there was no more drama here to watch, their gloating expressions focused on the runaway old man.

If Manmeet had known his thoughts, she would have held him back and called him out for being so shameless. Did he think that they had money trees at home? Pooh. Don't pretend to be so pitiful in front of her. No one was as pitiful as she was, okay? Not only had she been attacked by an old scammer, but he had also managed to make her remember Rajkumar Reddy, even when she didn't want to. Manmeet swore that she didn't really want him to be her husband, and it was all just a matter of necessity. He couldn't be so stingy, to hold this small thing against her, right? If he had been in her shoes, she wouldn't have minded that he called her his wife....Uh. It seemed she had started thinking too many weird things.

Damn.

Manmeet shut her door and went to relax in her sleeper. Since there was nothing to do, Manmeet decided to pass the time thinking about her family at home. This week was her cousin, Roshan's wedding, and she had declined an invitation, citing that she would be too busy with work then, which would have been true if not for Mr. Abir. Manmeet knew that they'd be really happy to see her, just like she would be to see them. She smiled just thinking of being there on Roshan's big day. It was just like yesterday when they were children, and now he was getting married. Would she ever get married, she mused, a bit melancholy. Manmeet never knew why all the men she ever dated always had something weird going on, and the only one that she never had, courtesy of Rajkumar, managed to really entangle her, but he wanted out. And now that Manmeet thought about it, there was still a relief that things had ended as early as now between them. Manmeet had a feeling that if a man like Rajkumar ever disappointed her, it would not be something so easy enough for her to sleep and forget about, just like all the other men before him.