Vanilla

"I will not give you eight hundred for an hour's work", Rashmi yelled at the plumber.

He was there to fix some leakage in the bathroom. This house, much like her life, is getting old and miserable. It is one of those old DDA Janta flats. Gloomy walls, broken tiles, and damp smell make sure that any breeze of fresh air shouldn't even dare to enter the house. Continuing the spat, she moved to the other room to bring some cash which is usually kept on top of the fridge.

After spotting the rocking chair empty, Rashmi, in a very soft voice, that amazed the plumber a little, uttered, “Dev, are you in the washroom?”. No response. She picked up the cash and went straight to the bathroom to check if Dev was there; he was not there.

The plumber also slid into the room as he sensed some trouble. “Is everything fine, ma’am?”, he asked.

Rashmi gave a confused glance at him and went to the other room. “Dev, where are you honey?”, she asked, again in a very polite voice, and kept roaming in the house, but now her body was shivering.

“Why are you fretting over this?” asked the plumber, “he might have gone outside.”

Rashmi still shivering and confused gave him a stern glance this time and said, “He cannot go outside, at least not alone”. She rushed to the opposite flat of Mrs. Rawat, Dev likes to visit her and play with her granddaughter, only to find that he was not there.

“Is… is he handicapped?” inquired the plumber hesitatingly.

“Can you please keep your mouth shut for a while?”, Rashmi replied angrily, walking down the stairs. She had not even blinked for the last five minutes. Dev went out alone earlier also a couple of times, and only God knows how she found him. She moved outside the building now, to look for him.

The plumber followed her. He was not sure why is he doing so, maybe he felt he should. “We should ask the guard,” he suggested, “he must have seen him somewhere”. They both headed towards the main gate.

“I have not seen him today ma’am. He always takes a walk with you”, the guard consoled her, “Don’t you worry ma’am. I will talk to the other guards and will let you know as soon as I get some news.”

They both kept on walking from one block to another in the society, asking everyone on their way. It had been half an hour already.

“He has Alzheimer’s,” Rashmi said in a low voice, “He can’t remember stuff. He can’t remember things, dates, people, and sometimes he can’t even remember me.”

She might have thought that she owes an explanation to the guy who is roaming around with her, or maybe she just wanted to talk to someone. She was tired of talking to herself about this. Well, a stranger is the most suitable person to talk your heart out. The plumber didn’t have anything to say, he just nodded his head looking into her eyes, almost like he was saying that she can talk to him, he might not understand everything, but he can lend his ear patiently.

“It feels like an endless cycle. For the last two or three years, all I am doing is to make sure he doesn’t forget everything. I try to slip in conversations, snippets of our past. I keep showing him pictures on a regular basis.”, said Rashmi while they moved towards the dairy.

“How did all this start?” asked the plumber curiously.

“I don’t know. He started forgetting keys, wallets, sometimes names. It felt natural as we all tend to do these things. But then it started getting more frequent and finally when we consulted a doctor, we got to know about his condition. It’s strange, when we were in college, he was the one who remembered every important date or every minute detail about his family, his friends, and about me.”

“Have you seen my husband anywhere?”, they reached the dairy and inquired Mr. Gupta about her husband.

“Yes ma’am, Dev sir came to our shop about an hour ago. He kept staring at me and then left. Is he alright?”, Mr. Gupta replied in a concerned way.

“Can you tell us, which direction he went?” asked the plumber.

Rashmi couldn’t be more worried. “I shouldn’t had left him alone in the room.”, she started blaming herself.

“We will find him. He must be nearby only. Please don’t blame yourself”, the plumber consoled her in a firm voice for the first time.

“He went towards the park near gate four. You can look in that direction.”, Mr. Gupta said pointing towards the left direction.

They thanked Mr. Gupta and starts walking towards the park. Anxiety and pessimism, which might be a result of the last few years, had overpowered Rashmi’s spirit. She knew that he will not be in the park, still, they went on. It is ingrained in her nature now, to keep walking forward inside the dark tunnel in the hope of light at the end. Although, a part of her had already started believing that there isn’t anything in the end.

He was not in the park as well.

“Please have a seat ma’am”, the plumber gestured towards the bench, “it’s been more than an hour now”.

She sat on the bench like a timid kid with her head facing the ground. The plumber seemed stressed too.

“Things were different before”, Rashmi said.

“What?”, the plumber replied in a puzzled manner.

“It was not always this way. We used to have a lot of fun.”

“Okay. Is there any place near this park you both used to visit, we can go look there?”, the plumber tried to overlook what she was saying.

“He loved watching plays. Almost every month he used to drag me to Mandi House. I hated them. After the play, he very patiently used to explain to me which character sketch he liked the most, how the narrator’s voice modulation held the crowd, and obviously the big loopholes he always found in the writing.”, Rashmi continued sharing all the good memories she had anyway.

“I haven’t seen any play. But yes, I take my kids to the theatre once or twice a year.”, replied the plumber. He must have remembered his original job, to lend his ear patiently.

“There was a time when he was sent to Jaipur for six months on deputation. For the first two months, we used to write letters to each other. I couldn’t hold myself for long, and finally, I too moved there. We hadn’t stayed away much after that.”

“You two seem to have led quite a wonderful life, almost like a love story we see in movies.”

“No, it is not like that. We too had our share of lows. Lots of arguments, sometimes on such silly things, disagreements on almost everything and whatnot.”

“That is quite normal, happens with most couples. One has disagreements of all sorts with their partners, friends, and family.”

“Quite normal, Ordinary right! I always used to think that we both are yet another ordinary couple with an ordinary story. But now when I look back, there are so many unordinary stanzas in our ordinary story.”

“I believe life is like that only. Things appear simple, beautiful, and moreover meaningful in hindsight.”

They both stayed there for another five minutes, in complete silence, lost in their respective worlds. These five minutes seemed like a quick break they had taken, for themselves, as they must move forward, again, in search of light.

“It’s getting dark, we should move ahead.”, the plumber suggested as he saw the setting sun.

“I haven’t locked the house. Let us first do that.”, Rashmi replied.

“Sure. We can reach out to the police then. I believe they can help us find him.”, said the plumber.

Rashmi nodded her head in agreement and they slowly started walking towards the house. With their tired faces, they walked up the stairs and it felt like each stair is adding a burden to their disappointment.

Rashmi opened the door and entered the house along with the plumber.

“Where have you been Rashmi?”, said Dev with a grin on his face, sitting comfortably on his rocking chair, “I was looking for you.”

There was finally some flash of light. This flash was so strong that, it filled Rashmi’s eyes up with tears. The plumber looked at Rashmi and smiled.

“Happy anniversary darling. I knew you will forget this year also. Look, I brought ice cream for you.”, Dev said with all the zest he can muster in his voice, “It is vanilla.”