An afternoon to remember…

It’s Wednesday afternoon. He called in sick. We lie on the bed…and look outside the window. The sky is clear. I am grateful for this feeling of content, a warm bed and the color blue. I think to myself that this hot Wednesday afternoon…will remain in my memory for a long, long time.

He is listening to some show on the radio. I am reading “Interpreter of Maladies”. I have read it many times…..yet I simply read along. I notice how the words curl…I read them aloud in my mind…and they sound nice.I wonder whether she made it all up…or were they true stories she wrapped in pretty words…and made a book of lovely intimate afternoons?

I know I shouldn’t write about this afternoon-it’s too intimate, too romantic…but instinctively I know, I will. It’s like a poem…you have to write it. You have no say in that. But, it’s not a poem. It’s just a lazy afternoon in October.

Lethargy takes over.I close the book…and I close my eyes. I remember smiling.

I doze off. When I wake up, I see his face and a naughty ray escaping the blinds…and grazing his cheek. I smile at this pretty picture. I doze off again.

After a while…he pulls me into his arms. I mumble “Go, make tea!” He mumbles something incoherent and sleeps again.

At the back of my mind…I hear a voice saying “wake up…it’s so late…” but I stubbornly ignore it. A part of me is sad…that this afternoon will melt into a rosy evening and then dissolve into an inky night.

I want to hold this moment gently in my fist and not let it go…but I know it will escape.There will be other enchanted times…but magic moments-you can’t keep them in your fridge and reheat them whenever you want!

I feel my hair spread all over the pillow. I am curled up like a cat inside the maroon razaaii. A single strand of hair is tickling my nose…but I’m too lazy to move it aside. I knew I would change nothing in this moment… not even that ticklish strand of hair.

The aroma of boiling tea…invades my slumber. I smile…and I shift to his side of the bed. It’s still warm. After a few minutes, he comes in and says “Wake up lazy bones!”

Yes, I will remember this afternoon for a long time to come.