They came together. In a car.
He said, “Parking is not easy.” And looking at her, he continued, “why don’t you get down and go into the church. Let me find a place to park the vehicle.”
“I thought we could go in together” that said she stepped out of the car and walked into the church. The memorial mass had begun. The church was cram full. She walked forward and then sideways to find a place. Having found, she sat and glanced around. She tried to concentrate on the Mass. She felt she saw the dead woman seated somewhere among the crowd.
“What would the dead think of such a memorial that ends in feasting?”
“The dead may have distaste for food “
her thoughts.
Towards the middle of the service, after the priest had commemorated the last supper, a man came walking into the church, as if looking for someone. He searched among the rows of benches.
He came very close to her.
He said,
“You sitting here? Come let’s go.”
She thought she was seeing him for the first time. However her body responded to his bid to go. There was concern and assurance in his words. She smiled. She got up and slowly followed him. Her mother who was seated a few benches ahead paid no heed to her coming and going. They walked out of the church into the yard and then into the car. He did not make her wait in the parking lot. He took her by hand to the car.
She saw the man with whom she had come waiting outside the church. He was talking to his friends. He saw her and was about to say something and he even intended to walk quickly behind them. By then the car had started slowly moving. She thought the man she left behind was her husband.
“And who is this man sitting next to her ?”
“It hardly matters now, after all she has decided to go with him.”
About the Author
Mini Babu is working as Head & Associate Professor of English at BJM Govt. College, Chavara, Kerala. Her poems have featured in anthologies, journals and magazines. Her collections of poems are Kaleidoscope, Shorelines and Memory Cells.
