I Traced Her Out

Rekha was pretty busy in the afternoon of that Sunday. She had to wash and iron her blouses, sarees, bras, and underskirts. Also, she had to wash all the bedsheets and the dresses of her husband and children, then she wanted to wash the floor and make the domestic environment spic and clean. Being the headmistress of the local primary school, she had huge responsibilities. In addition to managing the academic activities, she had to visit the district Education Office, and the Taluk Treasury and source weekly food items for the midday meal program for the students. Hers was an economically non-viable school, the total strength of the school had over the past few decades dwindled from 650 to just 14. The state government still funded the school as a social responsibility. Among the majority Syrian Christian community, the birth rate had fallen to 1.2 and most of them had migrated to western countries. And the affluent people sent their children to high-standard public schools.

Though there were only three or four students in each class, the responsibilities were all the same. In the first standard, there was only one child. Everybody expected that the school would become a part of history shortly. But Rekha knew that her job was secure, and she had another eleven more years of service, now that she is forty five. With her 5'7'' feminine figure measuring 36C- 34- 36, and stray streaks of gray in her thinning hair, Rekha commanded respect.

When she was busy with her domestic chores, her mobile phone chirped. Her son had set up a chirping ringtone. She would have ignored it, if it was from somebody strange, like a distressed parent. It was from Anna, her colleague, who she cannot ever ignore.

'What is it Anna, you know I am busy,' she barked.

'I know, this is important, I want you here and now before I do something bad against me.' Anna was distressed.

She was a woman of regular tantrums. But Rekha knew her inside out, nobody knows her as much as Rekha does. Anna is a docile and obedient lady, too naïve and too much of a prude. She believes in her imaginary world. Rekha cannot ignore the distress calls of this passionate woman, she was living alone in her huge house, and her husband was working at a college far away in the north. The poor lady needs a little emotional prop, nothing more.

'Okay, just wait a bit, I am in the middle of something, give me half an hour,' Rekha soothed her.

'I will wait for you.'

'Wait for me, don't worry, we will manage it, whatever it is.'

Anna sighed, she thought she could vent her frustration on Rekha. She fidgeted and her face looked disheveled and forlorn. For almost two decades, Rekha was her emotional prop and her refuge. If anybody discovers the illicit gay relationship, they have had over the past two decades, the collateral damage will be far-reaching. It could mean the death knell to the school and the conjugal life for both of them. It will cast a long shadow over the lives of Rekha's kids. So far nobody had any reason to trigger any suspicions. As colleagues, they both made a good combination, the other two teachers just played a complementary role. Anna was there to make sure that everything functioned smoothly even in the absence of Rekha. She was so obedient and anxious to please her superior.

When Rekha's car whirred into the homestead, Anna got up, wiped her tears, and anxiously opened the door. Rekha who was in a fresh set of churidar, went to Anna, who looked as if a storm had ravaged her. Rekha laughed inside, the poor girl is so sensitive. She had experienced and inured to it all for a couple of decades.

Rekha closed the door from behind and looked at the secret lover who was in a disarray.

Anna ran into her arms and sobbed violently. As usual, she had gone for the panic button.

'Did anybody die, doll girl? What happened?'

'More violently she sobbed and lay her head on her lover's chest.

'There is only one way to silence you,' Rekka pushed down the neck of her churidar, pulled up a cup of her bra, and pushed a hardened nipple into Anna's mouth. As she had predicted, Anna was calm now, like a famished child she was sucking on the succulent breast. Rekha rocked her lover's head in her hands. She sighed with contentment.

Rekha nudged her lover to the bed nearby and in one sweep removed her top, her bra followed. She forcefully pushed her sagging breast into the innocent-looking nervous wreck's anxious mouth. Anna suckled the leathery slithery nipple as if her life depended on it. Rekha ran her fingers in the disheveled woman's hair and combed the long locks. After a while, she sighed and put the other breast into the hungry woman's mouth.

Rekha had work pending at home. She sighed again and got up. She unfastened the churidar bottom and it collapsed around her feet like a dead turkey. She had not put on her panties as a precaution. Then she smoothened her long curled pubic hair and put her index finger into her steaming engorged core. She sniffed and tasted it closing her eyes. Once satisfied she climbed on top of the anxious colleague and pressed her pussy into Anna's mouth. For twenty years Anna had been religiously eating that pussy and she was familiar with every nuance of its taste and musk. Immediately she knew that the menstruation of her colleague was just a few days away. Now the taste was more salty than sweet. She whimpered into the core of Rekha. They had over the years synchronized their periods, but now again they are out of phase. Anna probed deep into the dark tunnel, her partner sighed heavily, her breasts heaving. Anna struggled to synchronize their orgasms, she tried to moderate the tornado taking shape inside her, Rekha was screaming and pumping vigorously, her honey flooded into Anna's mouth with each downward stroke. Shortly Rekha collapsed into the sweaty icky mess of Anna's body, they both struggled for breath. Rekha opened her eyes like a flower blooming, slowly and in a drugged languidness. She rolled up the skirt of Anna's nighty and sniffed into her pussy. She looked down on the drenched pussy of Anna. The girl had come even before Rekha could eat her. She swiped up a hand full of the spend liquid and licked her hand.

'Hmmm, tasty as ever. Now are we in a talking mood?' Rekha asked deep into her friend's pussy.

'Nisha ditched me, she broke away from me. She is all that I have,' Anna cried out.

'Dear girl, you do not own her, she is an independent individual. Our children, and Khalil Gobran says, do not belong to us, they belong to the whole universe, now tell me what happened,' Rekha kissed her thigh.

'Bull shit, it is easy to sermonize and shower advice. When your children turn your back on you, you will not wax philosophical. I do not need your sympathy, I need your empathy.'

'Still, you did not tell me what happened. As long as she is happy, it is alright for me.'

'She is into a nasty relationship with an obnoxious hussy,' Anna muttered venomously.

'Who could be that lady who fits the bill?'

'The same bitch who stole my husband during his dubious university days.'

'My love, remember she is matured, and we cannot do anything about it. There is no absolute truth, there is only a relative truth subject to change without notice.'

'She defied me, me, her biological mother, who nursed her and brought her up, who laid down her life to bring her up. Without any qualms, she betrayed me and joined my enemy.'

'YOU live your life, she will do hers. She is full-fledged and has flown away. She chooses her perch, not you, an absolute and doting old dam.'

'Fuck you, would you have said so if it were your daughter Merin?'

'Certainly, and as for fucking me, I am waiting.'

Suddenly Anna realized that she was alone. In her deep and profound experiences, she was alone. There was nobody to cushion her crash landing. Mutual care and support were a delusion, you have to bear your own cross, and the rest is a misunderstanding. She sighed into the satiated pussy of her superior. The orgasm had somehow helped her compose herself. It dawned on her that she had to handle it all alone, no support base could be counted on. Even her husband may laugh straight into her face. Her dignity was at stake, her integrity was at stake. Society and the church will laugh behind her back. They will sit in judgment, that she was not a good mother, that she pushed her brilliant and beautiful daughter into the arms of the devil. No, the bitch cannot have her way with her precious child.

'Dear hypersensitive girl, remember the law of the land is on her side. Nisha will decide who she wants to be with. We have little maneuverability here.'

'Thank you! Tomorrow I am on leave. As I have nobody on earth, I will go alone to Cochin and settle it.'

'In one bout or rage you can stab a man and even with a thousand rages, you cannot un-stab him. Do not do anything rash, I warn you. As for granting a leave of absence, it is painful, without you, things will go out of hand. If possible, come to the school tomorrow, we will sort it out. Problems will kill themselves if we ignore them, I guess Machiavelli said so.'

'Thank you very much, I will note it down,' Anna furiously slithered from under her lover and stood up.

She rolled down the skirt of her nighty as if protecting her modesty.

'What is good for the mother is equally good for the daughter,' Rekha got up and kissed her on the forehead.

'No Rekha, I am not revolting against her sexual orientation, which is shameful indeed, the society will stigmatize us. But my primary concern is that bitch, the gorgon that shadowed my married life.'

It was a brazen lie, her primary concern was how to handle the incendiary situation that her only daughter was a lesbian.

'Don't forget to call me if you have any difficulty. You will be at a loss in that city. You are more precious to me than anything else, I wish you stayed put at home until you properly digested the ground realities.' Rekha suggested and went away promising to call her late at night.

'I hate you,' Anna screamed from behind.

'That is very kind of you,' Rekha turned back and bared her teeth quizzically.

'I mean it, you know,' she continued.

'Thank you dear for the compliment,' Rekha walked away.

Anna could not sleep at night, she detested long-distance bus travel, it provoked vertigo and vomiting. But the mutiny staged by her dear and only daughter was beyond her imagination. Nisha had rejected her phone call and it was followed by a hurting message, 'Mom, we will talk when the dust is settled, when the ruffled feather is smoothed.'

The dust cannot settle, it was suffocating her.

She collected plastic kits to collect her vomit during the bus journey and put on a set of churidar for traveling ease. Early morning at six she reached Kanjirappally bus station. Up to Palai, the bus was not crowded. The bus was packed by the time it departed from Palai town. More passengers got in at various towns and junctions. At Thalayolapparambu, the bus entered the Kottayam-Cochin highway. Thereafter it was a death race, buses, one after the other stormed the road. They snarled and vied for overtaking and saving a second or two, they hunted for passengers, even when the buses were bursting at the seams. Anna bent down and vomited into the kit, her head was spinning. The road merged into Vaikom- Cochin highway, reaching the coastal region. Now the road was a pandemonium. The bus drivers terrorized the cars and two-wheelers, they sounded horns venomously. Hundreds of city buses joined the mad race. immediately after Udayamperoor, her bus was stopped by the motor vehicle department officers. They examined the records and ordered to suspend the rest of the trip.

Anna grumblingly came out and she was flagging and wobbling. Other passengers cursed and seethed. It was a Monday morning, and workers were flowing into the city, struggling to reach there on time.

She boarded a city bus, and the trauma continued. By around ten she was defecated at Vytilla mobility hub. She abhorred buses. She chose to take a metro train, it was an alien world, a brutally mechanized world where artificial intelligence ruled the roost. Some young men helped her to buy the ticket and get to the right platform. The university was twelve kilometers to the north. Outside the university metro station, she was assaulted by the tropical sun. The tri-wheeler men demanded thirty rupees for a distance of one kilometer. She decided to walk. The sun furiously scorched her like a blazing torch. She was sweating all over.

Nisha blushed beet red and was obviously annoyed when her mother turned up. It was deeply embarrassing for the youngsters when their parents turned up.

'What is wrong and urgent? Did the earth break into two, did the heavens collapse and fall down?' Nisha muttered herding her out of the college building. They walked into the man road, under the huge ancient trees.

'I demand an explanation, why the hell did you defy me?'

'What happened?'

'Who is that bitch? I demand her name and address. It is time to face her. This slut has been after me long enough.'

'Who? Do you mean your daughter-in-law? You are not ready to know who she is.'

'Who is important to you? Your true sacrificing mother or an easy lay slut?'

'You are important to me as my mother, she is important to me as my wife. Both are important in different ways and cannot be replaced or substituted. I wanted you to let it cool down. You are going to hurry and spoil the curry.'

'Will you tell me what her name is? For god's sake?'

'No chance.

That talked about two kilometers and reached the ancient Mahabali temple, the temple of the legendary king of Kerala. Nisha's idea was to put her on a city bus back to the mobility hub, before creating a scene.

'Now get into a bus and get home we will discuss it all when you are ready.'

'You are insulting me, demeaning me. If I try, I can have connections in this monstrous city. I have taught thousands of children. I will trace her out.' Anna seethed.

'Nobody disputes that, try you may.'

'Nisha dear, you are so beautiful. You are letting that strumpet hack you.'

'Then that is the issue, I am beautiful and she has me whereas you cannot have me!'

'If you were a child, I would have slapped you.'

'I give you that freedom, slap me if it would help you cool down.'

Anna unzipped her handbag, 'look at this, this knife is exclusively for her, mind you.'

'Poor mom, you are overacting, and you are bad at it.'

'I hate you, truly I hate you,' she muttered.

'Certain women do not mean what they say and do not say what they mean. You are like that, I know your vulnerabilities and insecurity. Nothing is gone wrong. You found happiness in the arms of a woman, and so did I, because I am your daughter. We cannot escape from the inner software. You have to reconcile with the ground realities.'

Nisha forcefully put her into a bus. Before Anna realized what had happened the city bus had stormed away with her, hunting for more passengers. Her daughter had treated her like a bungling idiot. She was not going to be an obedient ninny. The bus plunged into the roar of the city. Her navigational skills were lost, she needed rest, and she needed a place to sleep. After almost an hour, at Madhava Pharmacy junction, she noticed a signboard, 1km to High Court junction. She had an impulse to get down at the high court, somehow it was a place associated with law and justice. She needed justice. She found very few people there. Cars flowed like floods. Long-distance buses from Paravur and Guruvayoor roared in from the north. City buses whipped up a commotion on Shanmugham road and Banerji road. She stood there like a flame in the wind. She found nobody to confide in.

'Madam, what a surprise! Why are you standing here alone?' somebody asked her.

She looked back, it was a policeman, a traffic policeman, in his khaki pants and white shirt. She smiled at him impotently.

'I am Tomy, your student long back, I am in the city police and now I am in the traffic,' he introduced.

'Thank you Tomy, probably you could help me,' she said.

He guided her to a hotel and offered her a glass of cool lemonade. It was followed by a warm lunch. She was overwhelmed.

She told him that she was in the city because of her daughter. She was spending her weekends with a mysterious person. He was requested to find the identity of the mysterious person, the person's name, and the address.

Tomy said that it was difficult to track a person without a written complaint. Still, he promised to do what he was capable of, using his connections.

'Thank you so much, son, thank you so much, god will bless you,' her eyes spilled out.

Tomy shared his phone number and put her on a city bus going to Vytilla hub.

For the next three weeks, Tomy failed to give her any useful information. After a month, Tomy informed her that her daughter was seen boarding a luxury car. The owner of the car happened to be one Usha Menon, one of the big shots in the city and the state. He gave her all the details of this celebrated lady.

'Thank you, Tomy, thank you so much.'

Now she was going to take over the reins of destiny, like the classical furies in the hazy distant antiquity.

Nisha rolled on her lonely bed at night, remembering her salvation and succor a few kilometers south, the luscious and regal Usha Menon.

'Long distances kill me, your sweet memories fill me- so said one John my father,' she typed on her mobile.

'I miss you, more so Jane and Julia,' Usha responded.

'My mind and body chorus to worship you, and I guess our cherished dreams have merged, our prayers have fused, and a rainbow graces over the horizon of our hallowed hopes.'

'Sweet child, we are one and will always remain so, no matter what destiny holds for us.'

'Time and again I take a dip in the blue-black bottomless ocean that your eyes are, and renew my hope in life and love.'

'Naughty girl, you are provoking me to gatecrash into your hostel building.'

'Wish you did so, goddess stalking the earth, and collected me in your lovely arms and pressed me to your soft soft scented bosom, like my princess shining and charming! We will fly high and away deep into the garden of stars. Every day I try in vain to convince my soul that you are a reality and not a wistful dream.'

'You know what, my sweet child? This evening you made me so excited and I violently came into Deepa's mouth, shouting 'oh Nisha baby,'' Usha chuckled.

'I am jealous, you know. I need you in my mouth,'

'How long do you have to stay at the hostel? Can you come and stay with me?'

'The project work is on. Once the dissertation is submitted, I would be generally free.'

'Please finish up the studies. I will be mostly on tour. If you come to my house, you will be lonely. Once the studies are over, we can get married in Europe. We will have a small function. Till then the problem is to restrain Jane and Julia. They are revolting for your lips and hands.'

'Oh, please send their picture, I want to see those angels erect and alert, waiting for the devotee cooped up here on her spartan bed.'

'I have put on a thin chiffon top hugging my curves?'

'Oh goddess, I need it. The beauties hiding behind the curtain and exposed.'

'Sure, there you are, let me move to a brighter light.'

'I am now kissing your panties! The fragrance of that beautiful flower between your divine legs, is still lingering a bit. They are unhappy that they cannot get to kiss the pink exotic flower anymore.'

'Bring them back, I can indulge them!'

'Oh god! I have to have them just now, those divinities are killing me.'

'Darling, have you any idea where I am now?'

'Enlighten me, please.'

'I am at Frankfurt airport, waiting for my transit flight to Paris.'