This is the first short story I wrote and all the circus was to write this.
As job schedule don't allow me to be very free I have to set my focus elsewhere.
Thanks for the offer to be an inspiration.
A Gift.
Morning spread her wings above the city of Chicago as the north eastern wind danced above the magnificent mile in the December Sun rays that held not much warmth.
The frozen window pane glittered as Katya came out into the view of the Sun rays from the toilet as she looked busy doing her morning chores. The T.V stayed on where in the morning news and view went on and on. She paused to listen to the T.V as if she saw someone very familiar on T.V
The anchor lady asked “LonelyPoet, after all the awards and book signing tour now you are here, what brings you to Chicago this morning?” Riaz looked at the pretty lady with a smile and said,
“I love the mid-west from the day I landed in USA I love this city, lot of good old memories and of course the home of the rivals of my Packers” and he laughed a bit. Then stuttered a bit and said “I have something very personal and important to do here so I will not be that free today” The typical smile and hand gesture of Riaz is well known to most. He just sat all relaxed and cheerful and spoke to the anchor. The sounds just blurred for Katya as she took her backpack and walked out of the door, leaving a kiss on her boyfriend who was just finishing his breakfast.
Out of the condo they were renting, she walked and the side walks took it with care, the almost dancing footsteps as if they enjoyed her touch. She got into her car and off she drove away, leaving the onlookers wondering what’s up with the hurry.
The day passed by Katya like a lightning. Two different jobs before the dance classes was not easy but for her the determination to be better in what she want to do mattered more than the physical stress it brings to her. She never failed in her life even though not heard from his mouth the words echoed with the voice she heard on T.V in the morning.
“You will learn that dancing will not take you anywhere in life and you will cry”. Even when she was driving to where she held dance classes for students she remembered, how much angry she was with him after those days and his mocking poetry shows on BlogTV which she helplessly watched.
Hameedkunju Riaz Ahammed pennamed LonelyPoet made her his model to write many romantic poems that did not bothered her at all but the more he played with his emotions to write poems, the more intrusive he became to her. Even though only through web and only once in a while, whenever he left a comment or wrote an email to her, it annoyed her beyond all human patience. She made the biggest blunder of forgetting it was all an act by Riaz to write poetry. He never hated her dancing or singing. He never even romantically loved her, even though he told her that many, many times, she just considered him as a man who is a disturbance for her peace of mind. Eventually she questioned who was he to tell her what to do when he said she should be using her talents as an individual and not part of a group art like dancing. That questioning made him understand that she is no longer playing along with his emotional play to produce poems and other writings he wrote, by making hypothetical scenarios. He left for good from all her websites and he never communicated with her after that. She only heard about him climbing ladders up in the literary world. Heard about his incredible popularity on the internet because of the shows he did online, which were funny and filled with poetry. Though she had her own success, still she wasn’t able to be where she wanted herself to be and every day those words he wrote on her Xanga blog echoed in her ears. She told herself during her drive.
“I never lost, I now realize my mistakes. Someday I will be able to see that man whom I always viewed with suspicion and I will accept my mistakes and I hope he will forgive me for all the bad things I thought about him.” The car kept on moving slowly as she kept her focus on the road. Then to herself she again said.
“No it was not a mistake either, I tried and I am trying, he used me to be where he want to be, I did not used anyone or anything to be where I want to be. That’s just me” She smiled after saying that aloud as she knew, that’s the way Riaz always spoke. She learned his ways of talking from the hundreds of comments he left on her blog and Facebook before he left for good. The car slowly reached the big building where in the basement she rented the space to conduct the dance classes. She got out of the car and when walking to the building in her mind she asked “Where are you Riaz?”
The manger of the building maintenance was standing at the stairs as if he was waiting for her. She smiled at him and said “Hello Derek”.
He said hello back and told her “I was waiting for you, the building got sold today”.
Katya stopped and looked at him and asked “Really? What’s up with that? I thought you folks are getting like a million dollars as rent every month from this entire building”
Derek laughed and said “Yeah that’s true, someone came up with a good price the owners could not refuse.” Derek came a little more close to Katya and said “All short term tenants need to vacate” As if he was sadder, he frowned and told “Katya you may have to find another place, I am sorry to tell you this”.
Katya just stood there looking at him and told “Let me talk to my friends, if not here, somewhere else, the classes must go on” She forcefully smiled at him and walked down the stairs in haste.
Turning from the stairs when she was about to open the door of the dancing floor she noticed the door was unlocked and open. Katya walked into the dancing hall turning on the lights. Far in the right corner of the hall behind the table in the office chair she noticed him sitting with a corner smile. Knowing who he is and hiding her surprise, she walked across to the left and asked “What are you doing here Riaz?” Her voice echoed all through the hall even though she spoke in a moderate voice. A million images passed through her mind and after nearly 8 years of chats, comments and online brawls there he was right in front of her. Still the hidden surprise made her hands shiver but from somewhere in the depths of her, a feeling said to her, to remain calm.
He got up from the chair and walked towards her taking the chair with him. She stood there staring at him, on one side rage through every corner of her raced to say something, but the more he came close the lesser the rage became and the calmer side of her kept her quiet. He put the chair right beside her and told her in a bold voice. “Sit”. She looked at him straight in his eyes and asked “Why should I?”
Riaz turned his face towards the door and said again, “Sit” this time a little louder.
She sat and asked “What do you want?” Slightly turning hearing the chair scratching on the floor he understood she sat, and then in a subdued voice he said “Listen”
“You have no right to make me listen, Riaz, I am polite but I have limits to my patience and I don’t have the time to talk to you. Sorry if I disappoint you” She got up and walked away.
“You are right Katya, I have no right to anything of who you are, but you have some right to what I have become” Riaz stood right there where he stood without looking at her. He continued “Look you were the bubble girl and you can’t deny that. I used imagery using you to write and I can’t deny that either. So let’s cut the crap and get real here.” By that time Katya interrupted and told him
“Get real? Look there is nothing real in what you did. All that you did were your choice and yes, initially I played along but you are one nut case Riaz”
Riaz interrupted her as he turned around and said aloud “All that you say as my insanity got me all that anyone can only dream about, so my dear friend, what works in this era and at this moment of time is my insanity.”
Riaz took an envelope from his pocket and said, “Do not speak to me anymore for I don’t want to say things I don’t want to say and you don’t want to hear. Take this. It is not something for my happiness or satisfaction or for your happiness or satisfaction.”
Katya interrupted again and said “All you earned is from your hard work Riaz” This time she was more polite
“See Riaz you have gone through an emotional hell to be who you are, I’ve read every work of yours and enjoyed every bit of it, knowing the emotional circus you are going through. But I am sorry to disappoint you again Riaz I can’t take this” She spoke as if she knew what is in that envelope.
Riaz, looked at her and smiled and told “Kiddo, I don’t love you in the way you think I love you. But you did not let me finish what I was saying, you may think you can’t take what that does not belong to you or what you did not earned. I believe it is not an earning; it is a right of yours. I am not going to stand here and argue with you all evening and I don’t have the time for it. Understand this; I made you the model without your permission for which you have the right to take part of all that I earned”.
“Will you please stop Riaz?” Katya asked.
Riaz said “No” By that time they both reached the door which was completely opened by Katya for students and other teachers to come in.
And smiling he said “You don’t have to obey me. But you have to take this” he handed over the envelope to her and walked away and in his walk with a giggle he said “It is not what you think it is”.
“Childish man” Katya said as Riaz stormed through the door with his long rain coat flying backwards like the cloak of a Jedi. Katya opened the envelope and pulled out two title deeds with her full name on it... One for the building of the dancing floor she is standing in and another for the condo she lived with her boyfriend in downtown Chicago.
Katya sat down on the floor with her head down thinking for a long time.
She did not notice her friend who came in through the other door. She was surprised to see Katya sitting on the floor like a stone. She shook Katya pulling her out of the reverie she was in. Her friend asked “Katya, what happened?”
Katya said with a smile, “I knew it, I knew it, he always loved me dancing” In all perplexity her friend asked “Are you okay Katya?” Katya this time laughed aloud, got up from the floor and said.
“Yes, I am okay, okay for now and okay for the rest of my life” then hugged her friend turning round and round and danced.
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