Flipside

Flipside

A Short Story by G.S.Vasu Kumar

The morning rays pierced through the misty, cold winter skies, and touched Neha’s sleepless eyes. Neha’s  eye lashes fluttered like the wings of a dove in a flight, unable to take so much brightness all of a sudden.

She turned to her left, and saw the smiling face of her boy friend, Arman, in a photo frame on the side table beside the bed. Her left hand hit the photo frame and it crash landed into the dustbin. He was the cause for her turmoil, and sleepless nights. He had left her for someone else.

Neha turned her view to the wall which had the painting of a ship caught in the terrible storm and the raging sea. She glanced at this painting for a while and asked herself, ‘Did the ship make it to the shore?’

She got down from the bed and went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee, which she loved to have every morning standing in her balcony. It was wonderful as long as the love had lasted. She eagerly waited for good morning messages from Arman. They used to chat with each other almost endlessly. Now, she was left with only pain and heartbreak.

She tried to recall the happy moments of her life. But it didn’t help her much to forget the pain which she was going through.

Her mobile started to ring. She took it, saw Arman’s name flashing on the mobile screen. ‘What does he want now?’ She asked herself, before clicking the busy tone button. Again it started ringing. She got annoyed and switched off her mobile and threw it on to her bed.

Neha reached the balcony with her hot cup of coffee. The balcony had various plants and flower pots, which she was proud of. They were her friends and she spoke with them every now and then. She took a sip and realized that she had forgotten to add a spoon of sugar to the cup of coffee. She tried to have it without sugar...But it was too sour to drink. She went back and added a spoon of sugar.

The weather had changed all of a sudden when she reached the balcony again. It became dark and cloudy. The sun seemed to have vanished somewhere behind the clouds. Nice and cool breeze was blowing towards her, ruffling her untied hair. She finished her cup of coffee, kept the empty cup on the window sill.

It started drizzling now. She always loved to see the rain coming down. She walked towards the parapet, closed her eyes and stood there enjoying the cool breeze along with the droplets of water, which hit her face.

She recalled her childhood days when she used to play in the rain, get completely drenched. She used to get fever and cold the following morning. It was a reason to take leave from her school for the day. Her mother took good care of her after scolding her properly for getting drenched in the rain.

She had loved dancing in the rain to the music of the nature.

Even now, she felt like dancing, she spun around in joy and in that process lost her balance, fell down from her balcony.

‘No! I don’t want to die!’ Her mind cried, as her body rushed down faster and faster from her seventh floor apartment.

Suddenly, she landed on a net which was tied just above the ground. The sun rays once again pierced through the dark clouds and touched her eyes. She blocked her face with her hands, and smiled.

‘Cut it!’ The director of the movie cried.