Romeo
and Scarlet
They came scrambling from
all sides.
The
pods on the curry plants were flushed from sweat jelly as if in wait to satiate
the horde. The marigold buds but shuddered at the prospects of being ripped
apart by nimble fingers. Little green tomatoes wished for some more time before
the assault, to ripen their seed. Most,
were not so lucky.
One however, had never
seen a miracle as this before. The scarlet red skin smooth and shiny with pores
bursting with the tangy juice would have wrinkled in a day under the scorching,
bright, fervid sun. Today, was the last day of its transient youth.
Romeo’s yellow eyes shone
like topaz as the scarlet red impinged on them. All else lost colour but this
scarlet. He could not look away. His strong five fingers captured it in one
swipe. The smooth fleshy ball under his sinewy grip promised a succulent treat
he had been longing for.
Rani witnessed this frisky
act with suspicion inflamed by jealousy. She knew he had his heart set on the scarlet
smoothness her rough cheeks could never match up to. The waters had always
cruelly mirrored the mesh of wrinkles on her young skin. Her spirits ebbed but
she followed the horde nonchalantly, eying the playful Romeo who had
obliterated her dry straw existence from his vagrant vision. He had found his
new love. She moaned with agony at the betrayal but the banished cries returned
to her amplified by insolence.
The troop marched on,
kicking or grabbing the humble, uprooting the harmless, tearing away at the
hesitant. Romeo in his ecstasy, flung his stout body over the tensile power
cables and swayed his heavy weight from side to side, then up and down into
circles. Scarlet, his love regaled in the adventurous antiques of the wizard
lover and marvelled at the artifice which allowed this entertainment. Romeo
could feel the excitement of scarlet through his warm grip. His soaring spirits
went higher as he made a daring leap to crossover a yawning street. The group
followed cautiously. Some weaklings took alternative routes. Rani aped Romeo
but devoid of his overblown confidence landed on a parapet wall hurting herself
by the hostile hardness that nearly pierced her heart, much like scarlet. But
she carried on valiantly for her love.
Romeo had now found a quiet,
shady, discreet corner jutting out into space and settled there. It was clear
that he wished seclusion from the group and hence he chose this sequestered
cornice, poorly accessible and precariously positioned to inhibit its approach
from the parapet. Rani almost felt like an ex-lover and guessed that he was
looking to consummate his new love. Her heart missed beats and she felt faint
but decided to hold on. He was caressing scarlet, bringing it closer to his
flaming yellow eyes such that each drew its lustre from the other. He rubbed
his wrinkled cheek on its shiny supple smoothness and then nuzzled it with his
furrowed lips, licking it lasciviously. Rani burned with shame and humiliation
that she feared would reduce her to ash. She could restrain no more, much like
Romeo who had reached the crest of his intoxicated state. He dug his serrated sharp
teeth into the ripe body of scarlet and tore at it to watch its mysterious
insides. Mesmerised, he gazed at the red moist flesh. The tangy sweat flavour
tickled his tongue for more.
Rani’s indignation was
turning into a ravaging hunger spurred by the spectacle. The tottering group
had caught up with the estranged couple and gathered around her. The big ones,
little ones; burly ones, scrawny ones; the meek or the cranky ones; the calm and
the aggressive ones surrounded her; the aggrieved. They too felt abandoned,
orphaned and the culprit was scarlet, the object of Romeo’s obsession. The
sorrowful, anxious group had neither the time nor the intelligence for contemplation.
Their beastly instincts gave them no chance for a strategy as they swooped down
upon the irregular structures of brick and mortar, boughs of the house plants
that came off with the force of their anguish, the clay pots that smashed under
their careless kicks, the cloth lines that collapsed under their reckless falls
soiling the clothes, the electric poles that felt the earthquake and shivered
under the oscillating assaults, the innocent scared shrieks that frightened the
air as it anticipated an attack of tornadoes and an impending apocalypse.
Romeo however remained
unperturbed, oblivious to the mayhem unleashed by his disgruntled subjects. The
euphoria of love that had intoxicated his senses ensured that the sounds of
rebellion did not reach his possessed heart. Even the heat from Rani’s singed
heart did not touch him for he was suffused with the soft warmth of subservient
love. Scarlet had surrendered to him unconditionally; welcomed his ruthless
obstinacy to capture body and flesh. It responded juicily; smearing him all
over with tangy flavours of teasing love sweetened by submission. But alas, the
ways of love travel through the roads of tribulations.
A huge pole speared out
and poked him hard through his straw coat. The cornice where he made love to
scarlet expelled him for obscenity and Romeo felt himself falling into the
depths. His arms were scratching the air to find a grip in the eternal vacuum of
solid mass. Nothing could save him, nothing at all he decided, as he felt
himself sinking in love. Scarlet had left him already, slipping out of his grip
like a capricious mistress. He was alone…..alone….in his journey to the end.
But then came a bend; an
abutment that extended like a crocodile waiting in a swamp, for the monkey to
fall from the tree above. Romeo felt like a quintessential monkey; recognized
his own self and his species when he saw Rani and his troop waiting to hold him
as he fell. He landed on their straw bodies dry and rough, unlike the slippery
smoothness of scarlet, the thought of which still titillated him. His troop
cushioned him while Rani murmured the promises of immortal love in his numbed
ears booming of death. Sitting stunned, he heard and saw nothing while his
troop cuddled him, nicked his straw coat and covered him under their own bodies
to hide him from death.
He regained his sight only
for a fleeting moment when he peeked below into the depths of eternity, down
below three storeys; and there where his gaze fixed, laid his scarlet; soiled
in mud, its beauty shinning red through the earthy brown enticing him from far.
Romeo’s sight was failing him much like his body but his heart beat rapidly.
His senses were losing the context of the world around him and had adapted to
his new reality; of one in love. Everything was space and only space and it
appeared to him that he had acquired the ability to fly; fly to his scarlet
down below.
No distance appeared long
and no depth too deep in his new state. Scarlet was his ultimate destination
and it was all he could see and feel or act for. Anything that hindered this
was an object of derision. The magic of love was working upon him and a burst
of energy ran through his listless body. His numb limb hit by the current of
passion, delivered a hard swipe pushing Rani’s straw body out of his way. She
gaped foolishly at him, perhaps realising that he was abandoning her yet again
and this time, forever. Her wistful eyes shrank behind a film of tears and the
world became blurred as she gave up on her vision. She had no will left to see
anymore.
Romeo
did not waste a moment. He took his last dive hurling downwards. Even before he
could touch the ground, his heart sank. His limbs went limp and his body so
heavy that he felt suffocated under his own weight. It seemed unending, this
descent.
He lay on the hard
concrete bordering the flower beds, unable to move even an inch; his limbs dead
before him. Only his eyes lived, to see the future in the streams of red
streaking out from his straw body, crawling towards the flower beds a few
meters away, where his scarlet rested. He could see the small aperture on its
skin pricked by him during the course of love making. The juice was leaking out
and seeping in the mud, taking along the yellow seeds; the seeds that will
embed themselves and grow into a green bush. Romeo could see it all; the plant,
the flowers, the little green berries turning red, a scarlet red. Perhaps he
will be there too in the next season, in a new tiny straw body.
Meanwhile, it was blissful
to watch his scarlet peaceful against its muddy bed soft and moist; in the
fertile warmth of the lap of mother earth. A heavenly comfort cradled them
both, albeit for a few hours.
Anshu Choudhry is based in New Delhi,
India. Her poems and short stories have appeared in FullofCrow, Muse
India, EastLit, Hans India, Setu Journal, Silver Birch Press, Indiana
Voice Journal and anthologies amongst others.
She holds degrees of Masters Level in Mathematics and English and works
for the Government.
Tags:
Short Fiction