Blink Ink is a printed quarterly publication, featuring fiction snapshots, blinks and vignettes of about 50 words. Now and then, we add some of the stories to the web. These are pieces by Sweta Srivastava Vikram.
“Inevitable”
1) When Maya entered her twenties, a marriage proposal followed her home. She wasn’t ready; the boy’s side was eager. Maya wanted to get a masters degree in psychiatry. But words weren’t permitted in her house. The henna tattoo reflected the color that would define her life.
2) Soon after the wedding, she and her husband were moved to London. Nobody asked what Maya wanted. Their bags were packed and flight tickets booked. A new place and a new life would perhaps lessen his delusions, his family thought. Or maybe they didn’t want the responsibility either.
3) Despite a sick husband at home, Maya managed to survive. She joined the School of Psychiatry while working two jobs. She provided for them while he laughed at the whirling ceiling fan. He hid behind the couch, pulled his hair, and chewed his nails. Maya forgot to smile.
4) Eventually he slit his wrists and became a case study for Maya’s classmates. The more he screamed, the less she told the family about her husband’s condition. He was her responsibility, they reiterated. Not theirs or any mental institutions. Until such time he was alive, she had to serve him.
5) Scribbling a few words in her psychiatry journal, Maya stared at the ceiling fan in her home office. The fan, with its soothing air and Zen like music, brought tranquility to her patients. It could also embrace her husband’s limp body. Thinking of the possible end, Maya smiled.
Sweta Srivastava Vikram
