She
gathered all her note-pads and loose sheets which had been meticulously
numbered and dated and arranged them in serial order. She had roughly 200 pages
of manuscript written in her neat hand-writing (a typist’s delight!). She’d ask
the Doctor to recommend a good typist for doing the needful. She didn’t want
Norman’s typist to type her manuscript as she wanted her story to be under
wraps before publication. She’d be putting the typist under contract to keep
the story confidential.
Tired but
elated, she tiptoed to the Doctor’s room, carefully picking her way in the dark
apartment, as it was way past midnight then. She wanted him to be the first to
get the good news. “I’ve finished the novel, Benny? How’s that?” she had
planned to ask him and surprise him. She had finished the novel in two days
flat. She still had some days to rest in his apartment. She had to even ask
Benny for an appointment to call John and fix their meeting. To her
disappointment, his door was closed. Maybe he was fast asleep and she didn’t
want to disturb him at that unearthly hour.
She
returned to her bedroom and decided to phone John and Norman. John sounded
dazed and sleepy when he picked up the phone on the second ring. “Uh, Martha?
Are you all right? What’s the matter, dear?” he said. She excitedly told him,
“John, guess what? I’ve just finished writing my novel. Now only the typing
part remains and voilà, I can publish my book!”
“Very
good, darling! Congrats! You’re sure you don’t want to run it through me before
sending it for publication?” he asked, knowing very well that her answer would
be a determined “No”. She was one confident dame, in the area of her expertise.
“Yes, I want to give all of you a surprise. If the book is read and dissected
now itself, there’ll no fun left. Though I assure you that I value your
opinion, this once you’ll have to excuse me and trust my judgment,” she said
politely, but with laughter in her sweet voice. He started missing her
immediately. “Martha, I want to see you and talk to you. Have you talked to Dr.
Hussey about our appointment, as yet?” he implored.
“Tomorrow, first thing that’ll be my target. In fact, I wanted to brief
him tonight, but I’m afraid it’s too late and I cannot disturb him. In fact,
I’m sorry that I disturbed you and woke you up from your sleep. Good night,
then. And yes, I miss you too. Love you. Bye.”
Then
she called up Norman. She knew that she could take the liberty of waking him up
at that unearthly hour as they were quite close to each other. She knew that he
was always ready to help her. “Hello, Norman?” A very sleepy voice saying
“Hello” reached her. She froze when another voice interjected his “Hello” and
said crossly, “Who the hell is that?” It was that of a female. The snooty
secretary’s voice! Martha knew better than to disturb their cozy rendezvous.
She however couldn’t help the tears that rushed to her eyes. Norman was
supposed to be engaged to her, wasn’t he? What was she doing in his room then?
Obviously, Norman wasn’t missing her at all!
Her
mood was thoroughly spoilt by that thought. It was just as well that she had
seen his true colors before any further commitment and she thanked God that she
wasn’t married to him. He obviously didn’t lose time in moving on from one lady
to the other. Maybe he could make do with any one who was ready and available!
Disgusted and disillusioned, she decided to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow
was going to be an important day.
For a
long time, sleep eluded her as she kept going over Norman’s infidelity. When
she finally reached a conclusion that he couldn’t be really blamed and couldn’t
be expected to remain celibate, till she became fully all right; she stopped
thinking about him and fell asleep with a profound realization. He was not a patient suitor. Cancelled.
The
next day, she woke up at 7 a.m. and was pleased to see the Doctor watering the
potted plants in his balcony. “Good morning, Benny. I’ve good news for you. I
finished my novel last night. Since it was way past midnight, I didn’t dare
disturb you.”
Surprised and genuinely pleased for her, the doctor exclaimed, “Wow,
that’s surely great news. “Hearty congratulations, dear! We must celebrate
today in the evening. I’ll take you out for dinner tonight. So today, you can
just laze around and do whatever takes your fancy. At last you’ll be able to
afford that much-needed break!”
“Benny,
can you give me and John an appointment to meet at your clinic tomorrow? It’s
very urgent!” The doctor’s sensors were on red alert. He’d have to very careful
if he didn’t want to displease Martha. Of course, he had to buck up and plot
his plan of action to get Martha immediately. He was dangerously close to
losing her, now that her novel was over! He felt desperate. Slowly, he told
her, “Um, my diary is chock-a-block with appointments till the next week. Why
don’t we wait till next Monday? Now I don’t foresee any trouble for you. So
just relax and enjoy.”
She was disappointed but knew
that she couldn’t force the busy doctor to reschedule his itinerary just for
her sake! She even felt foolish and unreasonable. Just because he was bending
over backwards to help her, she couldn’t take him for granted! She sighed and
agreed. Then she went to the kitchen to make French toast and coffee, while he
went off to have a shower. She didn’t know that he had tiptoed into her room
and seen the neatly kept folder containing her precious novel, on her desk. He
knew that she’d later keep it either in her suitcase or the closet. His mind
was racing furiously.
To be continued...
The copyright of this novel is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.
