When the destiny started to weave this story, Rima was a faithful and loyal housewife of 45 years and has completed twenty years of marital life. Her husband, Pritam, was around 49 and was the top rank executive of a globally reputed digital company. Their son and daughter were studying abroad. The family lived in the ancestral bunglow of Pritam, that was spread over a large area of land having porch and garden at the front. The building had many rooms with separate toilets for each as once the family was a joint family having more than twenty members who lived in the house.
With the children going abroad, only Pritam and Rima lived in that house. They thought of renting out the rooms but had the problem because there was no provision of separate kitchens and it needed complete renovation if they wanted to attach new kitchens to the unutilised bedrooms. As the children were mostly abroad and Pritam had frequent outstation tours, it became imperative to think of keeping one or two paying guests so that Rima was not required to stay alone during the official tours of Pritam and absence of their wards.
First to join them as paying guest was a retired Major of about 65 years and his ailing wife. In addition to the monthly rent of the room, a nominal amount was also paid by the Major to the host for the food that was supplied to the old couple by the host. With enough domestic hands available in the area, it was not a problem for Rima to manage timely breakfast and meals for the old couple. Rest of the things were taken care of by the Major himself. It was agreed that when Rima would be be out of town, the Major would opt for home delivery from some hotel.
It was neither the room rent nor cost of food that bothered the host family. When every member of the family had to be out of town for some reason, they were assured that they didn't have to leave the house unguarded as the aged couple lived as tenants.
But the host family had to rethink when the wife of the Major died of heart attack within three months of taking the room on rent. Major went to his son's place to perform the funeral rites of his wife and Pritam and Rima had to attend the wedding of Rima's elder sister's daughter. They were not ready to leave the house unattended by anyone.
It was not prudent either to leave the house with any newly arrived tenant without verifying their credentials. The family was thinking about the problem when Prayag, the son of Rima and Pritam, suggested a solution from abroad.
Two former classmates of Prayag were looking for accommodation on rent at the same town and they were offered two rooms as paying guests on the same rent, and terms and conditions as was applicable to the Major and his wife.
As the Major went to his son's place to perform the rites of his wife, Pritam and Rima also went to attend the wedding leaving the house to the care of their new tenants, Jivan and Stephen. The Major returned earlier than the host and was impressed by the maintenance of the house by two young guys, hardly in their early twenties.
About a week later, Pritam and Rima too returned and heard from the Major about two young guys and they were happy too. The relation among the three tenants and the owners of the house became so cordial that though they lived separately, all were like a family and whenever either the Major or Jivan or Prayag brought some food from outside, they would share it with Pritam and Rima and vice versa. To reduce the burden of cooking for Jivan and Pritam, Rima proposed to shoulder the responsibility of their meals so that the two could live as paying guests like the Major. Both Rima and Pritam had a soft corner for the young boys as they were friends of their son, Prayag and looked upon them as their sons.
About six months passed and Pritam was invited to a global conference in Australia. Rima was to stay back at home. It was a week after Pritam had left that the city was lashed with cyclonic storm from the evening followed by torrential rain. There were water logging disrupting communication. The maid who cooked dinners informed that she won't be able to come in such a foul weather. Jivan and Stephen were stranded at their institute. They informed Rima that they would stay back at their institute instead of returning in that foul weather.
Rima decided to cook the dinner for the Major and herself. She prepared dinner with care keeping in mind the age of the Major. When it was around 8.30 PM, she thought to give a call to the Major to collect his meal from her house. But it rained so heavily that she didn't feel it proper to bother the old man. So she packed the meal in hot box and decided to handover the same to his room that was only five feet away from her front door.
Rima never imagined even in her wildest dreams that it was going to be the most fateful night of her life. She carried an umbrella to save herself from getting drenched and taking the hot box walked carefully to the door of the Major. She had to press the door bell only once and the Major opened his door. The Major was so overwhelmed at her gesture of concern for him that he repeatedly thanked Rima and requested her to take seat inside the room. But Rima pleaded that her dress was partially wet and it would make the floor of his room dirty.
Handing over the dinner, Rima turned back and while stepping down from his verandah, her feet slipped on the wet tiles. Rima tried to balance herself but could not; the heavy wind swayed away the umbrella in her hand while she fell down on the passage in front of the room. In a moment, she was completely drenched and her youthful body got offensively outlined from below her dress. The Major came running at the sound of her fall and without losing a moment came to her rescue taking her wet body in his lap and carried her to his room in that position though in the process he too got completely wet. Without bothering, he carried Rima on his lap to his room and making her sit on the sofa and wanted to know if she was injured.
Rima was in a state of shock at the sudden accidental fall but she felt awkward to sit as the wetness of her dress was dripping on the sofa where she sat. She hurriedly said sorry as the Major too got drenched at that old age while rescuing her and she tried to get up and leave. Only then she felt severe pain in her ankle and almost lost balance. But the Major instantly hugged her to help her keep her body balance and to avoid another fall.
Rima was already bewildered and ashamed for the Major having carried her on his lap and she was more embarrassed as he hugged her drenched body to prevent her another fall and she could feel his boner throbbing offensively against her thigh.
At first, Rima was disgusted to think that an aged widower should have an erection while lifting her, who would be of his daughter's age. But it also sent a forbidden sensation in her loins thinking that even at 45 plus, she had a plumpy body capable of rousing dirty desires and sexual excitement in such an old person as the Major.