Seven Shades of Grey
Page 28
He rises, resigned to his fate. Her body continues rocking, blazing eyes follow his every move. His troubled mind wishes things would have been different, wishes that she had remained the brilliant software programmer that she was, wishes her mind had not wandered believing that her husband was having an affair, wishes the husband and the kids were still around. But there was no genie, no jinn, no angel to grant him his wishes. Not even his wife who was the only person this lost soul bonded with. And so he walks out, having done his duty, brought about peace for just a little while longer. His eyes reflect his helplessness, and as before another silent prayer escapes his soul: peace to this troubled soul, peace to all around her, peace to everyone who brings her peace.
The door is bolted once again from outside.
Inside, the rocking body stops, sullen eyes look at the computer, her only link to the outside world. She moves to the chair, switches on the power and waits for the computer to boot, to connect her to the Internet. She looks into the mirror just behind the computer screen, and a pair of dark and sad eyes looks back at her. They have a marked discoloration below the lower eyelid, like those found on people who have forgotten how to sleep. She has not slept well in a long time.
She looks at a sheaf of papers lying next to the keyboard. There is something written on it. She reaches for a pen and strikes out a group of letters. On closer examination one sees that there are a number of such groups written one below the other. Each one of them has been struck off. There are a number of sheets that look exactly like this. The letters in themselves make no sense, but look like names, probably IDs that people use in chat rooms on the Internet.
Curiously enough there is one group of letters that has not been struck off but is circled. Her hand reaches for this group of letters. Her fingers gingerly move over them, almost as if wanting to touch them again and again. Her eyes turn soft and quietly become wet. A tear forms in the right eye and gently descends, a broken star crashing earthwards. It falls on to her chocolate-stained white outfit and quickly leaves another small stain. Another one follows from the left eye. The tears come fast. Blurry eyes continue to gaze at the paper as her fingers continue to move over the same group of letters. Her nose turns bulbous, a beautifully pointed nose. A sniffle escapes her body. She fights to control her tears but knows she has already lost this battle.
Her teary eyes stare at their mirror image, and a startling transformation begins, the same reaction to the same thoughts that have plagued her for the last few years. They move from looking sad to looking positively diabolical. A man made her suffer, and now all men must suffer, they seem to say. It is her anger that put her in the mess she is in today. The computer has come to life.
She switches on the modem and starts the dial-up sequence. The computer connects her to the Internet. She double-clicks on Yahoo Messenger. The login screen appears. She uses the mouse to click in the user name login box. She first types crazee_in and then as an after thought erases that and types Dolly66.