The Old Man

The Old Man

A Short Story

The old man coughed very badly. I mean, he was just a figure etched out in the night. I am a night gawk. A man who will wake up most of the time in the mid night. And I smoke.

I live in a flat, up on the sixth floor, it's a long way down when I stand at the balcony. There are flower pots and sandals. We always kept our shoes in the balcony. Walking into the house, we would pass through the hall with our shoes and walking to the balcony we would place our shoes there.

My parents are anti- me, I mean me smoking. They don’t like it. They don’t like me smoking. I don’t wanna fall asleep. It is the night that I am looking at, and when I look at the sky there are stars up there. Ursa- major and I am in love. A night breeze is blowing and my whole family is asleep in their respective rooms.

Me being the night gawk, I have to come out to smoke. The day would be better when there would be a thousand places and people wandering about where I could smoke unwatched. The night is so wonderful. There are so many stars up in the clear sky and there are no clouds.

So I smoke in the balcony.

Beyond me is the huge house of the rich man. Rich man has plenty of money, lots of cars and servants that wander about in the courtyard or the rich man's house. There is a chicken coup, the hens and the cocks would be seen only in the morning, I would watch them in the evening for that is when I would wake up.

Beyond the rich man's house, there is a small road. This road I cannot see because the rich man's house blocks my view. But I have walked on it. The road is potted, filled with sand at a dozen places and the concrete is almost washed away. There are coconut trees with long barks that stretch into the ground.

In the distance I can see a new building, another apartment block as it is being built. Between the rich man's house and the new apartment blocks that was being constructed stood an old building. Often in the mornings, when everyone is waking up and i still haven't slept, I can see a fat lady as she hitches up her petticoat and bathes in the first floor. I don’t know whether she is crazy. Up, on the terrace, children would be wandering about in the evenings, some would be carrying their books. Studying gee's.

The house stands right near the road. There are three blocks demarcated, the balcony of the house is divided into three parts. Three different families share it. I think so.

The Old Man

One, the lady that I saw who had two kids, quite old I should guess but it's very far away from my balcony. Two, was the couple that I saw once.

" You should be very careful man. Don’t want your dad up your head again. Do you."

I switched off the television, and shut out the light. It was very dark, the only light was the aquarium. I hurried on, to my room where I returned back with the carton of cigarettes and after a careful search at the kitchen I managed to prize out a box of matches. I moved back into my room , finally spraying the hall with the room freshener. It smelt lavender. Augh!

"Anything so long as it's not nicotine in the air."

Lighting the matches, I have to be careful for i read once, that a small match light can be seen as far as two klicks. And damn, should anyone see, the morning they would drop into my house and complain. Tails never stop wagging and tongues never stop talking. And would come my dearest daddy. All angry.

I peeped down four floors, everyone in the rich man's house was asleep.

" Don’t be too asleep, rich men can never afford rest, especially at night. You will learn should someone rob you."

I looked up, there were still some floors in my house building too, and seemingly there was neither a sound, nor any light. So I guess I was alone.

I thoroughly enjoyed the smoke, after all it was the first one after my dear parents had departed . Sweet dreams and my love. And the stars above. It was so wonderful and i was so alone.

In the small apartment I noticed a light, an naked electric bulb i guess. It was fine, there was an old man there wandering about.

" Was it the house where I saw the women?"

" No, I don’t think so. Fuck man why worry, smoke!"

" Hey old man, pissing in the night. Old man, get scared, there are ghosts like me."

I thought that he was scared, or maybe he thought that he had seen a night robber. He looked at me,

" 'Ol man, screw you. Why do you bother? Go and piss in the bathroom. Don’t waste electricity, don’t you know that it is precious. Go and piss and dont bother about me, when you get up in the morning, get Alzheimer’s and forget about the boy in the fourth

The Old Man

floor whose face you can see when he lights up the match and you can see his face. You can see his handsome face, why yours is so old."

And then the lights flickered, flickered. I stood there, unsure of whether to dump the fag or to smoke the rest and then throw it into the rich man's house.

The whole place went dark. My house was already dark, but there were always lights in the rich man's house. Even they died out. All I could see were the bulb in the bathroom and the old man. In the distant, there were street lamps and halogens lighting up the apartment block that was being constructed.

I nearly took the last puff. There was not much more and my lips could feel the slight burning sensation as the embers came to nearly the last. The old man was visible more, against the light,

" Why old man? why are you looking at me? Don’t you have other things to do, you stupid fool. Go mind your business and leave this poor guy alone."

I noticed that the door which led into the house was also closed,

" Why old man? Sleeping out alone, don’t you feel scared."

I could see that he was still looking at me, though in the distance his features were quite blurry. All I could see was the white shirt that he wore.

I showed him the finger, hopefully he would understand. Bloody old fool.

He walked towards the bathroom, and stood there in the doorway, his back towards me. He looked like peeing. His hand rested upon the door sill for support. Then, still his back towards me, as I stood looking from the fourth floor. I fell. I fell four stories. I feel from my apartment block and feel upon the compound wall that separates the rich man's house from my apartment block. I lay there moaning, until the whole neighbor hood was awake with my cries of pain and sometime later they hurried me to a hospital. I was there in the hospital for six months, had ten major surgeries on my whole body and i still cant walk properly. I don’t look all that handsome that I once was. There are scars , and as Mr. Mukherjee says,

" We cant take them off by medicines, plastic surgery might be helpful but we just cant say. After all you are lucky to be alive,"

My father never took another apartment higher than the ground floor and I have almost left smoking nowadays. And I never saw the old man again, after that night when he was peeing and I was smoking. When that damn old man took his head off his body and placed it in his hand. His hand was turned towards me and it looked like green embers burning where his eyes should be.

The Old Man

The following is a work of fiction. The characters and incidents portrayed and the names herein are fictious and any similarity to the name , character and history of any person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

 

 

© 2006 T.Prabhakar. All Rights Reserved