Short Story: Committed by Debarati Chakraborty

In this short story, Debarati Chakraborty shares the turmoil in the heart of a woman bumping into her first love after years.

It had rained the night before. The leaves of the rain-soaked trees looked luscious and greener after the shower. Like any other day, Megha pushed open the gates of the jogger’s park and trotted down the concrete path that sliced through the wet grass on either side. She was careful not to wake Jia, her four-year-old daughter, as she tiptoed out. Megha saw Jia turning in her sleep, still latching on to her kol-balish, and then gradually her baby curves fell into a slow rhythm, rising and falling with long sleep-effused stirrings. 

Megha was never a morning person. With her growing reticence especially after signing the divorce papers with Vivek, she had embraced this new morning fitness regime. Not that it helped get over the sinking feeling that caught her unawares at parties and family gatherings where she was more conspicuous these days as the no-strings-attached single parent. The quiet sidelong glances, the looks of undisguised pity, and the curious gleams at the corner of suspicious eyes spoke volumes without uttering a single word. 

What must have happened?  Was he abusive? Was it another woman?  

Mornings offered a welcome respite from voluble, intrusive people. People who had inexorable curiosities around other peoples’ lives; divorce was still a topic of much speculation, no matter how much people loved to believe that they were long over with such middle-class sensibilities.