Saturday Night

Saturday Night

It was Saturday, the last working day of the week. We had all had a very tough week and unanimously decided to order in rather than go out for dinner. I got off work pretty early that evening and decided to check if Aakash was available so we could hangout. He wasn’t. It was slowly becoming clear that he wasn’t interested in me anymore. Half disappointed, I started driving towards the gate of the university.

“Going home ma’am?”, a student asked walking past me.

I pushed the break, “Yes, why? You had any doubt to be cleared?”

“Kind of, yeah”

“Alright, I’ll pull over.”, I said.

“No ma’am. It’s a small doubt.”

“Okay…”

“I was wondering if you and I could catch a movie.”, he said.

“What?!”

“Why not? I mean you teach films and you got off work early and it’s the last working day of the week.”

“No… I really don’t think so.”, I smiled uncomfortably, trying my best not to sound too weird.

“C’mon Reva!...”, I looked at him as he said my name, “If I may call you Reva…”

“No, you may not. It’s not the west. And, I have other engagements, so why don’t you hang out with your buddies?”

“But ma’am…”  

“Bye kiddo!”, I said and drove out of the campus as fast as I could. My crush and potential boyfriend ignoring me and my student, who is almost ten years younger to me, flirting with me. What a life! I drove out of the campus, pulled over on the side of the road and texted in our group asking if anyone wanted to be picked up.

At work.

Busy.

Got a date.

In the lab.

In a meeting.

Five messages popped in at once.  

And there it was! Another long and lonely drive back home. I decided to head to the library and pick up a few books.

“Hey Reva!”, the librarian greeted me as I entered, “long time no see.”

“Been really busy of late. The kids had their mid-term examinations going on which means a pile of answer sheets to be corrected and then there was a micro-film festival that the university organized. So…”

“Ah! Rough life huh? No time for dating either.”, Sheena winked at me.

I was really awkward socially but this librarian, although a very strange lady, got me to be friends with her.

“Yeah… not that I try very hard to find a date.”, I smiled, keeping my bag and bottle on a table and scanning the shelf.

“Yeah everyone says that. But nobody means it.”, Sheena smirked.

I knew what she meant but I had no idea where she was heading to with it, so I decided to change the topic.

“What’s been up with you man? Found a guy?”, I asked her.

“No honey. I’m done looking for a guy. I think I need a lady.”

I looked at her, “Really?”, I smiled, although I was taken aback by her confession, I wanted her to feel at ease about it.

“Yeah… you think it’s okay? I mean I know it’s legal… but… you know…”

“Why, of course dude! It’s completely fine. And I’ll tell you what?”

“What?”, she looked at me questioningly.

“It’ll be a lot more peaceful than dating guys.”, I whispered to her.

She couldn’t help but giggle and I had to join in too.

“Hey, my shift is over, you wanna go grab a bite?”, she asked me.

“Sure. I’m hungry.”, I said, “I’ll just go and get these books issued.”

We went to the nearby café and each of us grabbed a burger. We had a nice little chat and it was my first time hanging out with her and she happened to be a really funny woman. I loved her sense of humour and how compassionate she was about people. Sadly, she lacked people in her life who would accept her whole heartedly for who she was. I gave her a ride home and gave her my address.

“I’ll drop by at odd hours, I’m warning you!!”, she laughed mischievously as I dropped at her at her doorstep.

“We’ll be glad to have you over.”, I smiled at her.

“We?”

“Well, come over and you’ll discover who else stays there. And I can assure you, you’ll love it.”

“Alrighty! See ya mate!”

“Buhbye then!!”, I said driving away.

Back home, I changed into my comfy clothes and lay down on the couch quietly reading and sipping on tea while waiting for the others to come. In less than an hour the weather started taking the rougher tone. While I romanticized the storm and thunder, I didn’t want them to get stuck on their way home.

I went out on the porch walking up and down and cracking my knuckles, all the while praying that they all come home at once like magic.

Where are you guys?  I texted in the group.

Nobody replied. I took the last sip of my tea and sat down on the steps of the porch, setting the cup aside. Tired from a tight week that had gone by, I was almost dosing off when I heard Mona’s voice.

“You had to sleep here on the steps!”

I looked up and there she was standing right in front of me.

“I dozed off waiting for all of you.”, I said rubbing my eyes and making room for her to sit.

She sat down beside me, “you couldn’t dose off inside the house, huh?”

“I like it here, you got a problem?”

“Mad woman!”, she laughed.

“You have no option but to bear with me.”, I winked at her.

Bebo arrived a few minutes later and then Som came.

“You won’t believe what happened at work.”, Som said.

“You replied to my message as soon as I sent it?”, I laughed at her. Everyone else laughed too. Som replying to our messages within five minutes of it being sent was an even to be celebrated. Every time one of us sent her a message or any general message in the group, her reply came within five to seven business day, sometimes never.

“Yeah yeah laugh all you want.”

“Of course,”, Bebo said, “when was the last time we got an immediate response from you?, she teased her.

“Well… your teasing won’t work on me today because…”, she stopped midway, trying to get us excited.

“Because…”, Mona repeated.

“There was Maggi and Pasta for lunch today. Yaayyyy!”

“Should’ve known this was coming.”, I said.

“Alright! I’m gonna go inside and change.”, said Bebo.

“Me too.” Mona joined her getting up.

“Oh no wait guys! We haven’t heard what happened at her work today.”, I stopped them, “what happened?”

“I already said. There was Maggi and Pasta for lunch.”, she looked confused.

“That’s it?”, I said.

“Yeah… why?”

“Nothing, nothing. Let’s go.”. Bebo and Mona walked inside.

“You don’t wanna change?”, I asked Som.

“Yeah… I will… what’s the hurry!”

“Umm…”, I frowned a little.

“Yeah no, you keep frowning, I’ll not change,”, she laughed. Now was her turn to tease me.

“Alright alright! I won’t frown”, I said.

“But I know you will, you will…”, she made a little impromptu song about it.

“Come let’s go in. Ena’s got a date and Noddy’s stuck in a meeting. I guess they’ll be late.”

Inside the house, Bebo had turned our sofa cum bed into a bed and was lying flat on her tummy typing away on her phone, Mona was in the kitchen making tea and Som went upstairs to keep her bag and laptop in the room and freshen up. I was expecting her to change out of those uncomfortable and dirty clothes but that was too much for her lazy ass.

Ours was an open kitchen and we could easily enjoy a movie playing on the T.V in the living room while cooking. Towards the left was the door leading out onto the porch and on the right was the washroom, a reading corner and Ena and Bebo’s room.  There were three bedrooms upstairs, two baths and a wide balcony. Mona and I stayed in one, Som and Noddy in the other one and the third one was for guests.

I went to the kitchen to wash my cup and asked Mona to make a cup of tea for me as well.

“You just had one cup.”

“Yeah been like twenty minutes now.”, I said.

“Yeah, Ena is my roommate but she is the one getting influenced.”, Bebo said without looking away from her phone.

“Hey, nothing like that. I’ve always liked tea. Plus, today it sucked at work.”

“What happened?”, Mona asked.

“Leave it.”, I said going out of the kitchen.

I walked straight ahead and lay down on the sofa using Bebo’s butt as my pillow. Som came skipping down the stairs , still happy about having ‘Maggi and Pasta’ for lunch.

“No, tell us what happened. C’mon!”, Mona insisted.

“There! Ishika has found her favourite pillow.”, Som laughed looking at us.

“Will you ever stop using my butt and boobs as your pillow?”, Bebo asked, trying to get up.

“Keep lying down!”, I gave her a little smack on her back.

“I gotta drink tea.”, she said as Mona came in with a tray filled with six cups and a flask of tea.

“Lie down and drink.”

“Just hear her ordering me about!”, Bebo gave a little laugh.

Mona gave everyone a cup of tea. Two cups were still waiting to be filled. Noddy and Ena weren’t back yet.

“Will you tell us what happened at work?”, Mona asked again.

“Well…”, I said sitting up. Seeing me get up Bebo started sitting up as well.

“You lie down. I’m gonna fall back on your butt again.”

“There she goes again!”, Bebo sighed.

“Yeah so… I was driving out and…”

“What should we order tonight?”, Som interrupted.

“Why are you asking me?”, I said.

“It’s your turn this week.”, answered Mona.

“Oh! Well… Pizza?”

“Knew it!” quipped Som.

“Okay continue.”, Mona was growing impatient.

“Yeah… where was I?”

“You were driving out.”, Mona replied.

“Yeah right. This kid came up. Must have been 18 or 19. He came up to me.”

“Must have asked about some doubt.”, Som interrupted again.

“Will you let me finish?”

“Okay okay go on.”

“He came and asked me out.”

“WHAT?!”, they all said in unison.

“Really?”, asked Mona.

“Yeah.”, I made the weirdest face I could.

“A teenage  guy hit on her! Of all people a teenager…”, they cracked up.

The doorbell rang marking the arrival of Noddy.

Surprisingly Ena stood their right behind her.

“Your date stood you up?”, asked Bebo.

“Noooo. I stood him up.”, she laughed.

“Wow!”, Noddy exclaimed.

“Care to tell why you did that?”, I asked.

“Just didn’t feel like going on a date. It’ll probably rain this evening and I’d rather spend the evening with my gerus!”, she went in and jumped on the sofa. For those of you wondering what’s gerus, it’s a special nickname she had for us since school days which meant cows.

“How did the meeting go?”, Som asked Noddy.

“Oh it was okay. I zoned out halfway through it. Anyway, guess what I have in my bag…”, she said reaching for her bag and stopping right before opening the chain, waiting for us to guess the contents in there.

“Your laptop?”, Bebo said.

“Nope!”, she still didn’t open the bag.

“You bought coke or food or something like that, didn’t you?”, I said.

And I was right. She had two large bottles of Coke in her backpack. How could I not be right? We all have been together since school and it had been over twenty years that we were friends.

“Oh there’s Kurkure in my bag.”, Ena said.

“Of course!”, I laughed.

“Make momos please!”, Noddy made a puppy face.

“Of course! Why not?”, I said going to the kitchen.

“You prepare the filling, I’ll knead the dough.”, Mona said.

“Okay then. I’ll make the chutney.”

“You please stay out of the kitchen.”, Bebo laughed.

“Yes, you keep your distance from the kitchen and listen to this.”, Som said sounding eager to tell her something.

“What?”

“A teenage guy asked Ishika out!”, she burst into laughter again.

“Whaaat??”, Ena joined her as well. Pretty soon everyone was laughing at my amusing little life. Well… to be honest, I was laughing too.

That night we didn’t order in food because Mona and I had prepared an awful lot of momos and what better than momos on a rainy night? We had coke too. The power didn’t quite accompany us but we opened the window beside the washroom and the gush of cold wind along with a bunch of candles made the living room a very soothing and pretty picture.

All of us sat around the table chatting away, mostly pulling each other’s legs and reminiscing old stories.

“Guys, you know what I saw in my dream last night?”, I started. I wasn’t only well known among my friends for cooking or writing but mostly for my dreams. You’ll soon find out why.

“Get your popcorns ready guys!”, Noddy laughed even before I began.

“I saw that our school has become an art museum and is filled with portraits of legendary musicians and one day they all pop out of the paintings and start playing live orchestra and I lost my watch in a yellow taxi and Som was dancing on the roof of that taxi and the entire city had gathered to see the orchestra performance.”

They all laughed for what seemed like an eternity and then Ena began, “Ey guys, remember that dream of hers when she was getting married but couldn’t stop doing her Math assignment and get engaged and instead asked her mother to get married?”

That dream dated back at least sixteen years ago but cracked us up every time it was mentioned.

“I remember one where she had a huge house that stretched from Kolkata to Mumbai and she used to cook on the washing machine standing on a microwave oven.”, Som cracked up and so did all of us.

“Dreams reminded me, remember that Christmas tree we made placing all the pillows on Som when she was sleeping?”, Mona asked.

“Oh yeah. That was the best Christmas tree.”, Noddy laughed.

“It was the second sleepover, right?”, I said.

“Yeah. Where I wanted to eat Kurkure at night but Som didn’t let me.”, Noddy reminded me frowning at Som.

“Let the sun rays come and hit the earth, then it’ll be Kurkure time.”, Mona said mimicking Som.

“How can we talk about sleepovers without mentioning Ishika singing ‘Ami je tomar’ at 3 a.m. out in the balcony?”, said Bebo.

“Oh yeah, the first sleepover it was. That uncle from the building in front of her apartment actually peeped out of the window trying to see from where the song was coming.”, Noddy said.

“Don’t forget the coffee!!”, Som started laughing.

“Don’t!!”, said Ena, also laughing. We all cracked up. That one cup of coffee she had made ten years ago was the very reason we asked her to stay away from the kitchen.

Well, I had been in an accident just before that sleepover which I hosted in my apartment. We were just out of school and really excited for college. We had planned on staying up all night and talk about ghosts and stuff so of course we would need tea and coffee. I had a fractured leg, so Ena volunteered to make us the beverages. There was a 10 Rupee packet of Nescafe which I gave Ena. Som was the only person who wanted coffee at 3 a.m. Rest all of us wanted tea. While she was in the kitchen making tea and coffee for us, we were out in the balcony where I was singing that spooky classical song on the top of my voice.

As it happens, she had never made coffee before and getting super confused that night had emptied the entire packet in one cup. You can surely guess what it must have tasted like, isn’t it? We still haven’t forgotten that taste.

Ever since that day we have teased her countless times with that coffee incident.

“Pass me the coke”, Noddy said.

“Remember that Pepsi guy?”, Som began,

“Not again!!”, I sighed.

“Pepsi guy?”, Mona looked puzzled. She was my college friend and had started hanging out with my school group after I had graduated. She didn’t know about every little story that had shaped our school days.

“Yeah. We had gone to the movies. It was in the eleventh standard, right?”, Ena looked at Som.

“Yeah yeah, eleventh standard. It was my birthday treat.”, Bebo reminded her.

“Yeah. So this woman was looking for something in her bag when a very very handsome man went up to her asking if she wanted a combo offer of popcorn and Pepsi or something and we were about to say yes and this woman, without looking up said that she wasn’t interested.”, completed Ena.

“Wow Som! You let her complete speaking in one go without interrupting her.”, I mocked.

“That’s only for you.”, she winked.

“Oh I’m so honoured!”

“Wow! You guys have a shit load of memories!! I’m awed every time you people start talking about your school days.”

“Yeah… we go back a long way.”, I said yawning.

“Even I’m feeling a bit tired.”

“I’ll make coffee for you guys.”, Said Ena.

“NOOOO!!!”, we screamed in unison.

-Reva, 2020.