Verbal handcuff

Reeta placed the phone back on its cradle. She looked at the clock, it was 2 am. She looked at her daughter, who was sleeping peacefully. She could not tell a bed time story to her today.

New place, new house. It’s in a hill top, though near to the town. Nice place, but a bit abandoned. Big pine trees around, wide lawn in front, and lovely scenic beauty of the whole town, all these made Rajiv impressed enough to take the house on rent. 

It was just the third day. There was no electricity for three hours in between. Rajiv told her that he would be late. It was not easy for her to spend the whole day and the night all alone with her daughter. Rajiv’s phone was also not reachable.

Previous day, Rajiv came back at 9 pm. She was not feeling sleepy as she generally used to take sometime to adjust with the new place. Around 12 midnight, she heard someone walking in the verandah. She woke Rajiv up….who was in deep sleep. Both of them peeped through the windows, but could not see anything. Though Rajiv said, probably some cat was walking on the passage, she was not convinced.

Today again, he was late. She was really tensed and uneasy. She quickly listed down all the names whom she could verbally handcuff. She kept talking to her friends for hours and hours for two reasons, one, to gather some courage and two, to keep her mind engaged. 

Just few minutes back, Rajiv called her up that he would take another 10 mins to reach home. 

She thought, how irritated she used to be/feel, when someone verbally handcuffed her. But, now, she understood, there could be other side of the story too, like her’s.