A serious affair

Arn whistled as he walked home from the office. The sun was out and there were no clouds hovering in the blue sky. It was a balmy 60 degrees and there was not a single soul on the walkway. Arn had been working at SkyHigh Shipping as a warehouse manager for the last 8 years and he enjoyed the responsibility of ensuring the dispatch of thousands of products every single day. SkyHigh handled logistics for a bunch of food processing companies in the deep south and it was Arn’s job to ensure that they got their raw materials in time. Arn could tell the nature of the substance being shipped just by looking at the packing case. Red stripes meant raw meat, yellow circles usually indicated spices while Green corners meant perishable products. Arn was happy in his job and his life was built to match.

He walked along jauntily swinging his legs just a little bit faster as he neared home. He lived with Liva in a two bedroom house on Livingston St. It was a fairly small place but they both loved it as it was the very first place they both had felt comfortable with when they were house shopping 4 years ago. Liva was like a serene pond and he used to enjoy teasing her just to watch those annoyed expressions float across on her face. Liva was beautiful, tall and very elegant. Arn loved her lips most of all because they were a dusky color that infatuated him. He wanted to kiss her all time and she would push him away when it became too much for her. He could not think of a life without her and he was sure that somewhere in the corner of her mind she felt the same.

He turned into #251, opened it with his keys and walked in banging the door. He knew that she hated it and this was their favorite ritual. He shouted “Liva, I am here baby. Come here right now and give me a kiss from those luscious lips of yours!” Silence however unseemly held sway and that made Arn frown. He was not used to Liva not being there when he got home. In fact one day they had a huge argument about her visiting the library in the evenings and not being there to greet him. Of course nothing much had happened after that and Liva continued her literary pursuits with that terrier like zeal of hers. Once Liva got interested then it was better to just let her be until she snapped out of it herself. Arn grabbed a bottle of Kizer’s orange juice, picked up the newspaper which he always read in the evening and lodged himself on the beige colored monstrosity that Liva called an English sofa. He felt quite irritable and tried to find a reasonably good position that would not give him a stiff neck. It was a typical autumn evening and it passed quickly as he finished the newspaper. He could find nothing interesting except for a few letters to the editor that he always found fascinating.

Arn dozed off lulled by the deep silence and sprang up guiltily when the doorbell rang in its usual clanging style. He opened the door and Liva walked in with that smooth silky prance of hers. Without a word she turned away and went to the bathroom and locked herself in. Arn stood gaping like a fool and wondering what he had done wrong. Before he could venture to ask her, she came out and gave him a hug on her way to the kitchen. She did not look at him so something must have been troubling her but it looked like she was okay now. Arn hummed happily to himself setting the table while Liva cooked fragrant little things that always set his palate growling. Dinner was a great success as always accompanied by tasty gossip about the Kinjos the newlywed Japanese couple who lived down the lane. Dessert was frangipane and that disappeared in a flash for both of them loved sweets. Liva seemed very hungry and Arn was quite puzzled. She was in general a very dainty eater picking at her food eating only small morsels. But today she concentrated on her plate, her face hidden by the glossy black hair that curled down from her forehead.

When dinner was over, Liva went in to the bedroom while Arn cleared up the dishes and cleaned the counter tops as best as he could. He shoveled the garbage into the dust bin below the kitchen sink noticing that it was full. He looped the garbage bag shut with the little plastic tie and went outside to drop it off into the community bins. His longing for Liva’s warm body welled up and he hurried up throwing the garbage bag into the open bin. In his haste he had overshot the bin and the bag landed heavily on the road behind the bin. He cursed himself quietly but to his relief he saw only a small little tear the size of a biscuit and it was fairly high up. He was suddenly gloriously happy at this small favor that the gods had dished out and this time he gingerly placed the bag inside and went back inside. He hugged Liva and tried to kiss her but she just ducked and asked him what took him so long? He explained about the garbage and to his surprise Liva became very agitated. “Why do you have to do these things in the night, can you not be like normal people?", she asked angrily. Arn asked her, “Are you okay Liva?”. Liva looked at him and immediately her face crumpled which in turn made Arn feel very bad. He reached out and gently held her while she cried herself to sleep. Arn was used to these bouts of crying and he did not feel unusually perturbed. He was tired by now but yet he could not sleep. Something kept gnawing at him but his mind was completely blank and he eventually slept.

Arn woke up in the morning and to his relief the old Liva was back. She smiled and kissed him on the lips but without the fervor that he wanted. While he showered she told him that she was going to the grocers and to leave the key inside the mailbox. He finished his breakfast, picked up his bag and started walking to the office. Suddenly he realized that he had not left the key. He turned back, walked past the garbage bin and to his disgust saw that the garbage bag that he had dumped had been ransacked. The garbage was strewn all over the bin but thankfully it was all inside. ” I guess there are small mercies that we should be grateful for!”, he thought. Suddenly the sun caught a shining little thing underneath the bin. Arn picked it up and found that it was just an ordinary hotel card key. It belonged to a hotel called the Birds Of Prey. He threw it into the garbage and promptly forgot about it. He left the latchkey in the mailbox and hastened to work.
When Arn came back from SkyHigh in the evening, Liva was waiting for him. Arn was incredibly happy and they had a nice quiet dinner. For some strange reason Liva never looked at him much and avoided all his amorous attempts by complaining that she was tired. He did notice that she had changed her lipstick to a bright shade of red. He found that interesting because she usually hated bright colors. Arn did not want pick a fight with her, so he suggested that they sleep to which she obliged readily.

Over the next few days, Arn was busy at work because the labeling machine broke down and they had to do everything by hand. He was usually bushed when he got home and could barely say goodnight to Liva before going off to sleep. This continued for a week and Arn was desperately tired. When Friday rolled around he called up Liva at home and told her, “Why don’t we go out to Bernie’s and have dinner there?” Liva agreed and they both met up at Bernie’s in the evening. They had a great time and the tiredness of the week slowly seeped out of Arn. Liva looked lovely in a floral red dress with a little woolen stole around her shoulders. While they were dancing, her stole came off and to his surprise agitated Liva showed up. She fussed around with the stole and to his dismay she told him that she wanted to go back home. Once they reached home, she went to sleep leaving him with a profound feeling of déjà vu. Moodily Arn went to sleep hugging Liva like he always did.

When he woke up in the morning, Liva was not in the bed. He walked into the bathroom and found Liva daubing some medicine on the back of her shoulder. She did not notice him and when he asked her if everything was alright, she jumped up and he saw that she was alarmed. Arn was stupefied when Liva yelled at him for startling her and she stomped out. For the first time he did not know what to do. This was not the Liva of old.

When Arn finished his bath and came for breakfast he found a little note that Liva had left on the table which said that she had left for the library. Arn was completely bemused and went to work. While he was having lunch, Jane the accounts intern came up and asked him if it was ok with him if she left for the day. He knew she had a boyfriend and she sometimes skipped out early to meet him. He smiled at her and she immediately blushed which did not help matters at all. He forgave her and sent her off with a smile but not before asking her where he could buy some interesting gifts for Liva. Jane told him that there was a curios shop on Eastwick that had all kinds of odds and ends. On a sudden impulse he decided to take the afternoon off to surprise Liva. He took the downtown bus and walked up to Eastwick Avenue. He found the shop that Jane had suggested and bought a crystal pen which Liva would like immensely.

It was such a lovely afternoon that he started walking looking around him and enjoying the sights and smells of downtown. As he was about to turn the corner of Ridgemont, he suddenly noticed a couple across the street who turned into a building. Something seemed very familiar about the woman. They were walking hand in hand and the woman was laughing but that was not what fascinated him. It was just the way the woman had thrown her hair back. It was such a familiar gesture and he was irresistibly drawn.

Arn casually walked to the building and to his surprise he saw the words Birds of Prey written in neon on the side of the building. He suddenly remembered the card key and now he was hooked. He walked inside to find a seedy and rundown motel with dull lighting. He again saw the couple ascending the stairs and as they turned he caught sight of her face. His blood ran cold for he could not move. It was Liva and she was with another man. He ran up the stairs after them and caught sight of them disappearing into a room. He stopped in front of the door and he could clearly hear her laughter staining the silence. He was furious and he wanted to run inside, smash the man’s face, slap Liva and just destroy everything in sight. He stood rooted to the spot remembering the last few weeks and how he had missed so many different signals. He was trembling in anger for he could not stop himself from this deep dark wound that had been created inside of him. For a long time he stood there hearing sounds that left him with no doubt about what they were doing. Red blood suffused his face and he found himself clenching his jaw sweating profusely. After a long while he slowly crept down the stairs out into the darkening light of downtown.

Happiness had been bled out of him and there was nothing to look forward. The sounds and sights of life around passed through him like water through a sieve. He went home and waited. Questions bounced around in his mind like a rattle trap. Should he kill her? Should he shoot them both? Why not run away from this house? How could he look at Liva after this? What kind of a life could he expect from now on? Maybe he could travel the world and enjoy himself. Why not kill himself? Why not buy a gun to shoot as many people as he could, starting with Liva and her boyfriend? A raging torrent of tumultuous thoughts cascaded all around him. Arn was helpless caught in a maelstrom of feelings that buffeted him from side to side. He was like a ship on the stormy seas that had no port to call its own. There was no lighthouse to beckon him into its warm lagoon. He had not felt this helpless at any time in his life and realized that nothing could have prepared him to face such a calamity. The contradiction of loving Liva and the knowledge of her treachery was too much for his overtaxed soul. He sought succor in a bottle of cognac which smoothened the turmoil and anesthetized him. It was merciful welcome oblivion as he felt himself falling endlessly down in total darkness. Arn dreamt that he was the destroyer of dark worlds.

Liva came home late in the evening. Arn was asleep by then and she snuggled into the bed unknowing of the immense trauma that had played out in Arn’s mind. She assumed that it was a day like any other. A day filled with love. She was happy and in her happiness she hugged Arn. She did not notice him stiffen and pull away. Nothing could reduce the glorious warmth inside of her. Happiness was like a warm mink coat keeping the intense cold at bay. She looked forward to the morrow when Arn would leave for work. She was walking on air and her spirit rose like an eagle soaring in the skies feeling the wind underneath her wings. Liva dreamt of eternal love infinite and precious.

Liva and Arn slept together intertwined by dreams that linked them forever in eternity.