The Midnight Moon

Chapter II

Himani was standing in front of a printing machine,  her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.  She bit her lower lips and narrowed her eyes even more but as soon as she saw a paper coming out she smiled like a child.  She waited patiently for next few minutes until all the papers were out.  Once done she smiled widely before she left the room. She was walking through the hallway when she saw Anya coming from the opposite direction.  Anya turned to her left and then started walking towards their cubicles.  Himani quickly followed her, still smiling.

“Good morning. “ Himani said cheerfully.

“Morning. What is in your hand? “ Anya motioned towards the papers in her hand.

“My son's project. Schools should stop giving students project. They hardly do anything.  It’s just extra work for us.”

“Can you print such things here? ”

“Yeah.” Himani tilted her head to her left.  “I actually don’t know.  I always do that here. No one stopped me, so I guess it’s allowed.” She giggled as she said that. Anya kept walking without any reaction to Himani’s words. “Why is your mood off? ”

“My mood is always off. ”

“A sad reality.”  Himani shook her head.  “What happened this time?”

“I saw a dream.”

“Scary?”

“I woke up with tears in my eyes and sweat on my face.” Anya said as she sat down on her chair. 

“How are you feeling now? ”

Anya kept her bag on the table.  “I feel as if I am still in the dream.  It felt so real. It still feels so real.”

Himani sat on her chair which was next to Anya's.  “It’s not real.  Look around you.  You are here at the office.  It is a safe place.”

“Here is the performance report you gave Baskar sir.” Rohit shoved the file in Anya’s hand.  “It has some mistakes, so change it and make sure it is perfect this time. ” He left as soon as he was done talking.

Anya looked at the file in her hand and then at Himani.  “Safe place?  Where he is there?”

Himani smiled. “Ignore him.”

“I try. He isn’t easy to ignore. ” She let out a deep breath.

Soon Anya and Himani were engrossed in their work.  They did not talk for a whole hour and quietly worked without disturbing each other.  But after an hour Himani was tired ,so she looked up from her laptop to take a break.  She looked to her right and saw Anya, who was typing on her laptop.

Himani looked back at her laptop screen and started typing before asking, “So what was the dream?”

“I thought you would never ask!”

Himani laughed while shaking her head. “Tell me, tell me. ”

“It was about Dia.  I was at my house,  which wasn’t my house.  I mean it was exactly like my house but it was Dia’s house.  I did not know whose house it was and why I was there. I started looking around to get some clue as to what was happening. ”

“Then? ”

“I went to a room. My room." She paused for a second.  "Dia was sitting against the side drawer, her head buried in her knees. She was crying.  And then she started bleeding. I did not see her husband, but she started bleeding because he started beating. On the nose." Anya touched her nose. "Her nose was bleeding. ”