Charlie Next Door

by Debashish Irengbam

  CHARLIE NEXT DOOR

  DEBASHISH IRENGBAM

  For my family.

  For my friends.

  For S.

  Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  10

  11

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  Acknowledgements

  About the Book

  About the Author

  Copyright

  1

  The details flitted past her gaze in a stream of inviting stats.

  Age: 27

  Height: 179 cm

  Build: Athletic

  Body hair: Goatee/ Mostly smooth

  Size: L.

  Rate: Rs 8,000 for—

  A click and the next stud’s profile popped up on screen. This one had a rather muscular torso and boasted a size XL. It had taken Anupama a while to figure out that these were not shirt measurements.

  The man’s face was hidden, as always. Renu had warned her it would be so. The escort – or ‘adult friendship’, as they preferred to term it – agency’s thriving success amongst its niche clientele in the city was mostly due to its emphasis on discretion, both for its customers as well as its staff. The only way you could unlock the pictures and see the men’s faces was by signing up for a permanent membership by paying and providing your personal details to the website. Not that she ever would. Heavens. God knows what a stupendous amount of time and courage it had taken her just to create a faceless, temporary profile and sign in – if only to see what all the hype was about.

  She had intended to take a quick peek at the site and then delete her account immediately.

  That was five months ago.

  And as her profile counter so kindly informed her, she had made almost two hundred and fifty visits to the site so far. The guilt had stopped a long time ago, those little residual pricks of conscience vanishing every time she deleted her browser’s history cache. She used her own laptop, but she preferred not to take any chances, especially with two teenage kids in the house who had grown old enough to accept their own sexuality, but not quite their mother’s.

  It wasn’t wrong really – she would remind herself every now and then whenever the need arose. It was human to have instincts, just as long as she didn’t act on them, unlike those women who had actually posted detailed reviews of their experiences with the various samples on display. She half-admired, half-baulked at the nonchalance with which they had put up profile pictures of themselves too, pictures in which they were smiling with smug satisfaction, just in case the message wasn’t clear enough. Many of them appeared to be married, mothers even, like her. She shook her head in dismay.

  This was why she loved moral pedestals. As long as you had someone below you, things seemed fine.

  Besides, it was just harmless curiosity, an act that was barely even sexual, having become more like a casual part of her routine. Wake up, pack lunch boxes, bid children goodbye, shower, read newspaper, have tea, have breakfast, watch TV, soak dal, chop vegetables, log on, check out the physiques and stats on display, log off, clear history, make lunch, wait for kids to return … and so on and so forth. Just a sensible spender, window-shopping around the mall – glancing in, appreciating, and then exiting without any loss of dignity. And since when was mere appreciation a crime?

  Her inbox beeped with a message. She muted it hurriedly, even though she was alone. Her heart skipped a beat every time she heard that ping, even though she knew what it would be. Another reminder mail from the site to upgrade her membership if she wanted to enjoy the unlimited and uncensored privileges available to paying customers. Check. Delete. Inbox: 0.

  The nagging itch at the back of her neck returned, and as she scratched it, her eyes glimpsed the pallid greyness peeking in through her windows.

  The drizzle outside had turned into a shower, heavy drops spattering ominously onto the gravel and dirt and plastic sheets and pigeons perched bravely atop streetlight poles. The world had turned ashen, with a distant boom of thunder for added effect. Anupama strolled over to the windows and inhaled that heady, lingering smell of freshly wet earth. It was interesting how predictable the monsoons could be, yet how they never failed to get an audience every single time. Something reassuring about that.

  In a couple of minutes the fragrance was gone, and all that lingered was that delicious chill in the air which made you forget where you were and induced cravings for masala chai and cream biscuits. How long had it been since she had a cream biscuit?

  A flutter of warning rose within her, but it was too late.

  One year and nine months, she recalled, as her heart recoiled with that familiar, cruel pang.

  Tea and cream biscuits at 5.30 p.m.

  It was one of the few shared habits in her married life that had survived and cemented itself into a routine. The biscuits would always be arranged in a full circle, and the flavour would always be vanilla, because that’s how Rajeev liked it. He could be pretty meticulous when it came to such details, and that was one of the things she had liked about him when they first met. It was also one of the first things she had realized she couldn’t stand about him, but that was another story, for another time.

  How casually she had taken that evening for granted, expecting it to go the way that all the previous evenings had gone ... She had never bought a single packet of cream biscuits after that.

  A sinking heaviness crept upon Anupama; the kind that made her aware of her knees supporting her entire body. She closed the windows and turned around. Her laptop was glaring back at her, its obscene images of faceless, semi-naked men popping out of the screen. She strode over and shut down all the profiles one by one, before logging out and clearing her history. Her cheeks and ears had gone warm, as if she had a fever, and the back of her neck was itching worse than ever.

  It was barely one in the afternoon, yet the room had already turned dark. In an hour or so, both Misha and Nimit would be home. But for now, she was alone, and she had a few minutes to spare before the kitchen summoned her, so she hurried to her bedroom. Time was of the essence.

  Opening her cupboard, she fetched the dark brown bottle of cough syrup surreptitiously hidden between her clothes and opened it, filling the lid to the brim before swallowing it in one go. Two capfuls later, her breathing began to steady, and a warm, fuzzy feeling spread through her insides, calming her down. She considered having another capful, but that would be too risky, especially with the kids coming in soon. In a world where going to the local liquor store would have raised too many eyebrows and every clinical sedative required a prescription, little blessings like this OTC medication were what kept disturbed souls like her afloat. She thanked herself for having had this brainwave months ago – a secret shared only between her and her closet.

  Enjoying the rising sense of numbness within her, Anupama sauntered over to the berber carpet in the centre of the living room and lay down on her side, curling up into a foetal ball, legs folded into her arms, knees pressed against her chest. She shut her eyes tight, and had just begun to enjoy the little tinning sound in the back of her ears when the abrupt, shrill ring of her mobile jarred her back to her senses. She picked it up without opening her eyes.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hey,’ chirped Renu. ‘Got to go check on Kay’s loo at six. He’s freaking out over
the tile shades. Again.’

  ‘All right.’

  ‘Everything okay?’

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Home.’

  ‘Living room?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Floor or sofa?’

  ‘Sofa.’

  ‘Don’t bullshit me.’

  Anupama sighed. ‘I’m just tired.’

  ‘So get your ass up and make yourself a coffee like a normal person. Or better yet, meet me for lunch in twenty minutes. I know this—’

  ‘I’m too tired to travel.’

  ‘I’ll come over.’

  ‘I’m too tired to host.’

  ‘You know you’re going to kill yourself at this rate.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I’m too tired to die. I’ll see you at six.’

  She hung up and opened her eyes. The nether region of her sofa was gaping at her like a forbidden cave. Within, a single, solitary hair lay beside one of the sofa legs, amidst faint residues of dust – abandoned and forgotten. Was it Rajeev’s? The thought made her uneasy. Could it be – after all this time – there was still a trace of him left behind? How ironic would that be? He was always petrified of losing his hair, and now his hair was all that was left of him. Was that poetic, or simply a bad punch line? Misha would know. She had a knack for these things.

  She brought her attention back to the lifeless strand, which suddenly didn’t seem so lifeless anymore.

  How long did it take for hair to decompose? She would have to tell the maid to sweep it away in the evening. No more souvenirs. The memories were enough.

  The tinning sound was back in her ears, and she was grateful for that. She closed her eyes again, welcoming the blackness.

  Anupama woke up with a jolt and checked her watch. Her head was splitting. She had dozed off, and now it was only twenty minutes before for her kids returned from school. The dal hadn’t even been boiled yet!

  All philosophical musings of loneliness forgotten, she hurried to the kitchen and dumped the soaked pulses into the pressure-cooker. As soon as that was done, she set about chopping the onions and chillies. Her mother would have been appalled at the sheer girth of her onion pieces. Annu, chop the onions, don’t slaughter them – she had chastised her every time her mincing skills fell below the mark. Anupama smiled joylessly at the memory and chopped the onions into even thicker pieces, enjoying the private pleasure of an unacknowledged defiance.

  Three pressure-cooker whistles later, she retrieved the dough from her fridge and set about shaping them into balls. She had barely made two when her doorbell rang.

  She checked the time. It was still too early for the children to be back.

  The bell rang again.

  Who could it be? The replacement gas cylinder had arrived a week ago, the cable and newspaper bills had been paid, no one had ordered anything online, the neighbours knew better than to disturb them during the afternoon, and she rarely got any visits anyway.

  The pressure-cooker whistled again.

  The bell rang a third time.

  She wiped her hands in dismay and ran to the door. The bell rang a fourth miserable time before she unlocked the door and swung it open to see a stranger outside, drenched to the bone. A young man, probably in his mid-twenties. The wet locks of his hair were plastered all over his forehead like a careless painting, and when he swept them away, she saw a pair of greyish-green eyes that couldn’t possibly be real. His face reminded her of those European models she had seen in passing on glossy magazine covers – triangular, lean and heavily dotted with stubble in all the right places.

  Of course, all of these musings and reflections took place in her head within a fraction of an instant, by which time the stranger had cleared his throat and said, ‘Hello, I am Charlie. I only just shifted next door. C-704.’

  ‘704?’ she asked, surprised. The apartment had been empty for almost two years now.

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Didn’t they tell you about the pipe leakage problem there?’

  ‘Yeah, I Sellotaped it.’

  She stared at him. ‘You Sellotaped it?’

  ‘Yeah, I just Sellotaped the shit out of it.’

  She nearly asked him what he would do once the tape dampened out, or why he hadn’t taken any of the other two empty flats on their floor, before realizing it was none of her business.

  ‘This was the only flat available,’ he said, almost as if reading her thoughts. ‘The other two aren’t for bachelors. Anyway, I was wondering if you had a spare umbrella,’ he went on, ‘because it’s raining like crazy outside, and I still have a couple of boxes to carry in from the truck. There’s this scary lady outside. Mrs Gobi-raita-something…’

  ‘Mrs Govindikar. She’s the society chairperson.’

  ‘Yeah, so she’s not letting the truck come in ’cause it’s a society rule or something, ’cause children play inside the compound. And I was like, who’s going to play in this weather? And she was like, rules are rules. So I was like—’

  ‘Sorry, I don’t have an umbrella right now,’ Anupama cut in. ‘My daughter’s taken the spare one, and my son has the other.’ Why did she have to mention her children to a complete stranger?

  ‘Oh, okay…’

  ‘I have some plastic bags that you could perhaps use.’

  ‘That could work. But I would need really big ones.’

  ‘I do have big ones.’

  He burst into a loud guffaw, startling her.

  ‘Sorry, very sorry, I have a sick sense of humour,’ he said. ‘I should go.’

  ‘Do you want the bags or not?’ she asked irritably, not quite getting what he was so apologetic about.

  ‘Er, yes, please.’

  Anupama fastened the door-chain in place before hurrying back to the kitchen. She pulled out the cardboard box containing the larger polythene bags, only to realize she didn’t know how many he needed. She hadn’t asked, and why couldn’t the fool have told her? She huffily carried the whole box to the door and unchained it.

  ‘I just need four,’ said Charlie.

  ‘Just take them,’ she said, thrusting them into his arms. ‘And return them when you’re done.’

  ‘Okay. Thank you …’ he leaned back, checking the name plate outside her door. ‘Mrs Arora.’

  ‘Bye-bye,’ she said, closing the door.

  She peered out the eyehole and waited until he was gone before softly knocking her forehead on the wood.

  ‘Bye-bye?’ What was she – six?

  Her heart stopped. How many times had the pressure-cooker whistled so far? She bustled into the kitchen. Just as she was reaching for the stove, she noticed that the lights of the kitchen window opposite hers were on for the first time in years, giving her a clear view of the unfurnished space inside.

  Charlie’s kitchen window.

  The thought that henceforth, they would both be visible to each other from their respective kitchens discomfited her for a moment, before the pressure-cooker’s whistle tore through her eardrums. How many whistles had it blown by now? She cursed herself and turned off the gas hurriedly.

  ‘What’s wrong with the dal?’ asked Nimit, as Anupama spooned the viscous yellow gel onto his plate.

  ‘It’s just a bit overcooked.’

  ‘I can’t even see the pulses. It’s like soup.’

  ‘There are worse things in life. How was school?’

  Nimit shrugged. ‘Teachers taught. We studied. Gaurav got a nosebleed during chemistry practicals. Prashant joked it was AIDS and got sent to the principal.’

  ‘I hope you’re not hanging out with those boys.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  He was lying. His recent Facebook photos showed him at the school football ground with those two and a bunch of other ruffians – ties loosened, arms flung over each other’s shoulders, sporting grins and gestures that belonged to baddies of a bygone era. Of course she knew who Gaurav and Prashant were, but experience had taught her that it was
only by feigning ignorance that she could pry out the really juicy details from her kids. It was for this reason that she had never told him or Misha about how she was on both their Facebook friends’ lists under fake aliases. The whole process had been unexpectedly simple too. With Renu’s help, she had created two fictitious alumni profiles from both Nimit’s school and Misha’s college, put in a comic-book character as a profile picture, added a few details and interests, and sent out multiple friend requests to a horde of students from their institutes, just to avoid suspicion. And quite frankly, it was alarming how many of them had accepted her as a friend (her own kids included) without even verifying her identity.

  ‘I’m serious, Nimit. This is a very crucial time of your life. You don’t want to be making any wrong decisions now.’

  Nimit rolled his eyes. ‘Mamma, it’s eleventh class. Half the guys don’t even bother coming in anymore.’

  ‘Well, my son isn’t going to be in that half.’

  ‘How come you only call me your son when you’re warning me about something?’

  His mobile beeped.

  ‘Di’s going to be late by another half hour,’ he said, checking it.

  ‘Why didn’t she message me?’

  ‘You don’t have WhatsApp.’

  ‘Where is she?’

  ‘She didn’t say.’

  ‘Can you ask her?’

  ‘Why?’

  The doorbell rang.

  ‘Just do it,’ she instructed Nimit as she rose and went to the door.

  It was Charlie, back with the box. He smiled cheerily as she opened the door, revealing a dimple on his left cheek that Anupama hadn’t noticed before. He had changed into a fresh shirt too, the top two buttons of which were undone, revealing a few stray tendrils of chest hair which—

  ‘Smells nice.’

  Anupama snapped back to focus. ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Chana dal, right?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, surprised.

  ‘It’s on your fingers.’

  Anupama immediately lowered her right hand, embarrassed. ‘Sorry, I—we were eating.’

  ‘Not at all. I love chana dal, actually.’

  ‘You can take this if you want,’ called Nimit from behind. ‘We will order some—’