Pest control

The screen was slowly lighting up, the updates were finally getting installed after many days of ignoring the small pop up that kept manifesting itself on the upper right side of the monitor. Uma had had no time for updates, the continuous clacking of keys on her machine was the only sound she interested herself in along with an almost inaudible flute music playing in the background open in one of the many tabs that dotted her browser. 

Whether she really wished to listen to the music or was far too busy to find the tab in question is still a mystery but there she was almost beginning to smile, ticking something illegible in her small notepad just in time to pull her head out of the now slowly lighting screen of her computer to answer a phone call.

‘Finally it’s done. I’ve finished my work’ Uma breathed out content on the phone speaker.

‘Ah, good’ a voice floated back. Kind and unbothered about other trivialities as usual but Uma never seemed to mind that. He was a nice man, uncomplicated, dutiful and not too fussy. 

‘We will be back by two.’ he continued and paused for a moment ‘We’ll have lunch at home.’ he spoke unhesitatingly.

‘What?’ Uma near cried keeping herself from sounding exasperated though she didn’t much do well to hide it. 

‘But you’re out, why don’t you just have something nice to eat. How about that lovely restaurant we dined at last month. What was it called.’ Uma did a bit of brow knitting and eye-rolling in unison.

‘No, No’ Manu promptly replied. ‘They..uh..they don’t want to eat out.’ he lowered his voice ‘you know how it is with them.’ 

‘No I don’t’ she said agitatedly and immediately regretted quickly changing her tone to a more mellow note. ‘I mean just once they can have an outside meal’ Uma strained on the words outside to drive her point home. ‘No they can’t’ Manu interrupted, and you know how they are.

‘But’ Uma protested.

‘Sweetheart please’ 

‘I’m just saying that you know..’ she didn’t know what to say. There was absolutely no polite way of telling a husband that his parents were beginning to turn into a bother.

‘it’s just that I’ve got work’ Uma tried to sound sweet in a sing-song voice, hoping to win over a man who was far too uncomplicated to understand such things.

‘But you’ve just finished it’ he sounded straightforward as always.

‘yes, but there’s always more and I end up working through the night and then I’ve to wake up early and..’

‘Please, darling. Now I’ve to go, they’re standing in front of the fountain waiting to get their picture clicked. See you. Love you.’ he hung up and Uma kept up with a tirade of curses once the phone was silent on the other end mimicking Manu’s voice until there was a musical sound somewhere in the background. The screen had flickered to life, the updates were installed and Uma threw her machine a side eye before switching it off.

It’s not that she was trying to be disrespectful or churlish she justified to herself but it had been three weeks since her in-laws’ few days visit and her inner celebration was short-lived when they spoke about leaving and booked their tickets for next month which was still a couple weeks away, so you can understand Uma told herself that she had every right to a few crude sentiments.

Was it her fault really she thought while chopping vegetables that she worked from home? No of course not. So whose fault was it that she had to wake up before sunrise because her in-laws woke up shortly after midnight that is if they slept at all and liked an early morning tea and breakfast at a time when people were still waking up?

Of course, they were completely capable of doing it all themselves but they were after all guests in their new home in a different city, visiting their only son, a bit of decorum was in order. 

Protocols and similar such unsavoury things were what Uma wished she could steer clear of but always found herself mangled in, much like every other woman she supposed she knew and so breakfast if not tea was her onus, as was lunch, as was dinner and other small nibbles and morsels that happen during evenings and so answering her own questions Uma found herself flung into one of the many roles imparted upon married couples and she felt herself fitting in neatly even if a little snug.

Did she resent such moments? Far from it. Uma was content, happy and these trivialities were exactly that. Negligible happenings that are in a way interesting. 

She glanced at her phone to check the time and it was almost one. Just another hour. Well, I better hurry up.

The phone was ringing and its sound broke through the cacophony Uma’s exhaust chimney was wont to create. 

Wiping her hands on a kitchen towel she glanced at the screen slowly lifting her phone. Something crawled in the pit of her stomach. A vortex was beginning to form where her innards were and it ate at her from the inside. She felt the bile within rising to her throat.

There was no name, just a number.

A number that felt like a half-buried ancient memory resurface like a maggot that suddenly crawls out of foodstuffs. It was a squirming little tiny worm that made her spine shiver with revulsion as it wriggled out flashbacks that she’d tried forgetting.

Uma fought the nausea building inside and stared at the phone that was still ringing. She had lost the strength to hold it anymore and it vibrated on the chopping board.

She swallowed to keep herself from throwing up, held the kitchen platform from falling on the floor. 

Her face was burning, she was ready to burst open. Every nerve ending in her body beginning to seize. Her heart thumped against the chest through her feet and she was out of breath. 

Suddenly the phone stopped ringing. There was one missed call and she heard the door click open.