The Date
FRIDAY
The old lady had a smile on her face.
Just by looking at her one could tell that she had once been beautiful and admired. But age leaves no one untouched. Her face, which had once been as pure and bright as a fresh rose, had withered away as every rose is destined to. Her body, which had once been firm and shapely, was now frail and sagging. Her demeanor, which had once been proud and confident, was now lonely and unsure.
She was sitting on her bed in her night gown, getting ready to sleep. Looking at her house, one could say that she was well-to-do. Her bedroom was one of affluence and had a positive atmosphere about it, unlike the rooms of most old people. The walls were adorned by pictures of her family, and of herself in her prime. She clearly loved her family. However, she also wished she could return to her old life, the life of her youth.
Even though her children took good care of her, she had grown extremely lonely after her husband had, died a few years ago. They did visit her often, but they had lives of their own, and she knew it was unreasonable for her to expect more than an occasional glimpse of her children and grandchildren.
She had made peace with her loneliness. And it was days like tomorrow that kept her going.
She picked up the alarm clock from her bedside. It was 9 PM, and she set the alarm for 6 AM. She took a small sip of water from her glass and put away her artificial dentures. Before she slept, she looked at the note once again. The note she’d read countless times since that evening.
R will pick you up at 9 AM tomorrow for your appointment with the dentist.
The old lady drifted to sleep. The smile never left her lips.
***
The young man entered the house and slammed the front door shut. He was clearly unhappy about something and was making no effort to hide it, even though the house was empty that night. Or perhaps that was the reason.
The house was large and spoke of affluent occupants. The interiors were exquisite and the lighting was brilliant. The furniture was custom made and ornate showpieces adorned various nooks and crannies. There was a wall full of beautiful family photographs showing how they had changed through the years.
His parents were on a weekend getaway and he had been looking forward to partying through the weekend. He was out pubbing with friends when he had received his father’s text message.
Pick up grandmama at 9 AM tomorrow for her appointment with the dentist.
Normally he wouldn’t have minded running an errand like this. It was just that he had to bail on his friends and miss out on a fun night of partying. And he hated waking up early on weekends.
He stepped into the kitchen and picked up a soda from the fridge. He then climbed a short flight of stairs up to his room and switched on the air conditioning. The heap of clothes on his chair was almost as high as him. Empty chips packets and soda cans were strewn across the floor, as were numerous crumpled sheets of paper. It looked like he wrote a lot, but ended up throwing most of it away.
He slipped out of his clothes and took a cold shower. That seemed to calm his temper. After putting on his night robes, he powered up his computer and started a chat client. There was no way he could sleep that early on a Friday night, even if he did have to get up early in the morning.
He was a popular guy and had many friends. He was also smart enough to know that if push came to shove, most of them weren’t really his friends. But he had an insatiable need to connect with people, to talk to someone all the time. Especially girls. He knew he was being shallow, but he didn’t care. There were only a handful of people who he really thought of as his friends and who knew him at all. Oddly enough, his current girlfriend wasn’t one of them.
He chatted through the night with a bunch of people, mostly bitching about his parents for making him wake up early on a Saturday. A girl he liked was online, so he casually flirted with her for a while. He was planning to break up with his girlfriend anyway. He also squeezed in a couple of episodes of his favorite sitcom, before finally dragging himself to bed at 5 AM. Dawn was almost ready to break outside.
***
SATURDAY
The old lady hadn’t slept well. She had been restless the whole night, tossing and turning, drifting in and out of an uneasy sleep. It was as if she was nervous about the day to come. Nervous, yet excited. She was like a child who couldn’t sleep properly before an exciting trip. Despite not being fully rested, she sprung to her feet as soon as the alarm rang, early in the morning.
She slowly made her way to the bathroom, stifling a yawn. The marble floor was cool, and the winter air chilled her bones. She eagerly stepped under the old shower, and her body relaxed under the hot water oozing from it. She stepped out after a long bath and stood in front of the mirror, feeling more confident. It had been a long time since she had really looked at her reflection in the mirror. Behind her dangling locks, her eyes sparkled and a smile decorated her face.
She spent a good half hour trying to decide which dress to wear. Once she was dressed, she started putting on makeup. It was almost as if she was getting ready for a date.
***
The young man was shaken out of his deep sleep by the relentless buzzing of his alarm. He had already hit the snooze button twice. He knew he couldn’t delay it any longer or he would be late. He forced himself to get up, splashed cold water on his face, and put on the first pair of clean clothes he could lay his hands on. He was out of the house within 5 minutes of waking up. He drove like a maniac and reached his grandmother’s place at the stipulated time.
He got out of the car and rang the doorbell. He waited one full minute before ringing it again. As the seconds ticked by he got more and more restless. Restless, yes, but not angry. It was a whole 5 minutes before his grandmother opened the door with a broad smile on her face.
***
The old lady was just about ready when the doorbell rang. She was not as agile as she had once been, doing things that much longer. But she was sure her grandson would understand that. Even though she hurried after the doorbell rang for a second time, it took her 5 minutes to powder her face, wear her favorite perfume, and make her way to the front door. Her smile was at its broadest when she caught the first sight of her grandson’s face.
***
They were at the dentist’s. The old lady had gone in for her appointment and the young man was waiting for her outside. He was visibly bored. He glanced at the magazine rack but all the issues were old, so he didn’t bother picking any up. He took out his cell phone and started fiddling with it. It was a top of the line touch-screen smartphone. He opened his contact list and picked out some friends to text with, though he was not sure if any of them would be up so early on a weekend. With nothing to keep his mind occupied, his eyelids began to droop and he fell asleep with his phone clutched in his hand..
The loud SMS alert tone woke him up. It was the default Nokia tone. He instinctively checked his phone, but then remembered that he’d set it to vibrate. Then he saw a simple Nokia phone lying on the table in front of him. It was his grandmother’s. He picked it up out of curiosity. The message was from an unknown number so he opened it.
Luxury homes in prime locations at affordable prices! Ready to move in! Please contact: 9976323452.
He checked the rest of her inbox. There were 30 odd messages dating back to a month or so, all of them advertisements. He then opened her contacts list. There were only 5 contacts: his father, mother, himself, his uncle and aunt. His phone had close to 500 contacts. The stark contrast struck him. He marveled at how small his grandmother’s world was and how lonely she must be. How much the times had changed.
He was lost in his thoughts when his grandmother came out of the doctor’s room. He politely enquired if everything had gone okay and escorted her to the car. Her smile seemed to have faded somewhat, though.
***
They were in the car and speeding towards her house. With every passing second her smile withered, as everything beautiful is bound to.
Suddenly, the traffic in front of them came to a standstill. Nothing moved for a few minutes, and the young man started getting agitated. He got out of the car and walked ahead to find out what was going on. An accident had taken place and the road was blocked. It was very hot outside and as a result the tempers were flaring. People were honking and yelling at each other, and overall progress was very slow. Sweat was streaming across his face by the time got back into the car. He turned up the air conditioner and started tapping his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, swearing under his breath. He had been looking forward to taking a nap after he got home.
The change in his grandmother’s demeanor, though, was exactly the opposite. She gazed after her grandson in curiosity when he got out of the car, and as she realized that they would be stuck there for a while, her expression changed from one of disappointment to one of joy. In the midst of the chaos, there was one point of serenity. The smile had returned to the her face.
***
The little boy came back home crying, because his friends had not let him bat while playing cricket. He rushed to his room and slammed the door behind him. His parents were out of town, and his grandmother was the one taking care of him in their absence. She gently knocked on his door and entered his room, wearing a brilliant red saree and a loving smile. She hugged the boy and asked him why he was upset. She then whispered something in his ear, and he immediately stopped crying and hugged her back. They went for ice-cream after dinner that night.
***
The police arrived with a towing van, almost an hour later, and cleared the road. As the traffic started flowing, the old lady’s smile started fading again. Her face was stoic and expressionless by the time they reached home. She was visibly dejected as she said goodbye to her grandson and got out of the car. As she started walking towards the door, the car started moving forward.
The young man looked in the rear-view mirror. His grandmother looked very frail as she slowly walked towards the door. Her shoulders were sagging. Her body language suggested that she was fighting a losing battle with herself.
He remembered how dependent he used to be on his grandmother, how she used to take care of him when his parents went on business trips, how she used to read to him and play with him, how she used to make him feel special. And suddenly, he realized how she was now dependent on him.
With another quick glance at the rear-view mirror he braked, stopped the car, and hit reverse.
