Rekha Diwe was no great beauty. She'd known that all her 40 years. Even as village girls go in India, she had been quite plain. The teeth were uneven and her facial features rather masculine. But when she'd been married at age 18, her husband's family had been pleased with the gifts of sarees, kurtas, a milking cow, five pregnant she-goats and a collection of bridal jewellery. And she'd had a pleasing figure. Neat and curved hips below a small waist and breasts which were already heavy and well formed at 18; and were to become superb as the years went by.
Her husband Ratan had been a caring but useless man. No job and no ambition, but good to her and their children in the early days. Now, after 24 years, he was still employed only on a casual daily basis by construction firms, or as a labourer on the roadways. He had become less caring towards their elder daughter now aged 23, their son of 18 and the younger daughter of 13. Also her husband had become lazier and less demanding in recent years, as regards his conjugal rights, and she was relieved. Years ago, he'd stopped trying to please her although her memory of early orgasms still came to her in quite moments or in the night, as she explored her own body in the dark.
Their house was hardly what the word implied: a single room of 7 metres by 5 metres in which they all slept, ate and kept dry during the monsoon. With a kitchenette lean-to on one side and a small bathroom with chemical toilet on the other. Husband slept on the only bed, a brass-knobbed single bed from at least 60 years earlier. Rekha and the children slept on the floor, on mattresses of straw and feathers. Rekha's elderly mother also slept there, and lived in the house practically every hour of the year.
But Rekha was regarded as successful. She had a job as daily housekeeper at the big bungalow at the end of the village, belonging to a high-caste Indian business woman and her Britisher husband. She earned more every month than Ratan had ever earned in their life together. She kept her family clothed, fed and respectable and was seen by most village women as a model of good housekeeping and perseverance in the face of life's difficulties; meaning especially her sot of a shiftless husband. She had no schooling at all. Not a single day in her entire life, despite the national requirement and provision for free primary education. She'd even paid for her son to attend school so that he could now write his name and address in English as well as their local dialect, and could read the local newspapers. Yes; she was a successful woman and mother in her village.
But Rekha had a dream, a fantasy, which she knew was only that but it had sustained her year after year in her employment up at the big bungalow. She had a secret and shameful desire to hold next to her the pale Britisher husband of her employer, and to feel his nimble hands on her skin, on her breast and holding her hips. She was realistic enough to realise that he would no longer be able to hold her waist, simply because it was no longer clear to her or any man where her waist had once been; or at least that is how she felt about her figure. But to have him hold her and press her to him, would be the very zenith of her sensuous desires in life; of that she was quite certain, even if he did not fill her or show very great sexual interest in her. The paleness of his skin, the fairness of the hairs on his arms, the slim hips and broad chest (very much the reverse of Ratan's figure), the mobile and sensuous fingers and thumbs; these all attracted her.
Although 20 years older than herself, she believed him to be fit and strong, and longed to find out. She watched him whenever he wasn't noticing her, which seemed to be all the time, although he did give her a big smile occasionally. Also occasionally, she had done some dangerous and scandalous things to please herself and she hoped would not be found out. In her small laundry at the bungalow, she'd reached below her saree and touched her labia before hanging out the Britisher's underwear; as if to place her scent on them, no matter how faintly. On a few occasions, she had tried on Sir's briefs before they were washed. Then she knew that she had his scent on her, no matter how faintly. But also she knew how small his hips and bottom were because she needed to stretch them over her own, so that they dug into her waist, and around the tops of her thighs, and between her legs. She longed to see his hips and thighs and buttocks for herself.
Then one day, an ordinary day at the big bungalow, something changed. Madam was away for some days, on business, as was often the case. Sir was alone in the house although the gardener went about his business around the lawns and herb plantations; but the driver was absent, carrying Madam around the State in their SUV. On this day, the gardener finished his work early and went to the nearest town, 40 km distant, to buy in a new supply of liquid fertilizer and insecticide for the herb garden. Rekha was alone in the house and Sir was closed up in the office, adjacent to the main bedroom. Rekha's fantasy was far from the front of her mind as she prepared the vegetables for the evening meal. After that she would sweep and swab all the rooms in the house and Sir, going by previous practice over some years, would vacate the office and bedroom, and sit on the veranda while she did it.
She heard his voice, "Rekha." She replied equally with the monosyllable, "Sir?" and walked towards the office. Her hands were damp and she was drying them on a cloth as she saw him just inside the bedroom door. He beckoned her as he often did when something needed cleaning or tidying. As she moved towards him, his right hand raised and took hold of her shoulder. It was almost the first physical contact they'd ever had apart from when lifting things together or passing items for storage or cleaning. He let his fingers fold and press down the back of the shoulder, with his palm flat on her bloused shoulder. He pressed slightly again as if to propel her forward with that one shoulder blade and then his other hand took hold of her right wrist, still holding its drying cloth.
He moved backward hardly a single pace and pulled her with him. Her feet were now both inside the door frame of the big bedroom; three times the size of her entire house. She resisted his dragging by instinct; everything she's learnt from a child was to resist such urging from strange men. But also she knew that this is what she had desired for years, and now something was going to happen. She knew that she ought to extricate herself and flee but knew just as certainly that she wanted more to happen, and to know the answers to her many questions. As she faltered momentarily, and pulled back from his grip, he seemed to sense her difficulty and she felt his grasp weakening.