Short Story – Mohini Das

Chapter 25

It was a rainy afternoon. Dorothy, an author of a best-selling romance novel was writing her third. It was near to its completion, Chapter 25 to be exact- Marie and her lover were not in the best place, it was a love triangle and Suzanne was causing all of its conflicts. Dorothy thought she would cause a nearby unity of the lovers, namely, Marie and Richard, with some minor plot twists in this chapter. But before she started it, she thought of taking a break. After all, she had been working at it from early in the morning, having nothing but mugs of coffee. She was so tired that she somehow put her food in the microwave to heat and started checking her phone. And there it was, a text from Jeremy.

Jeremy, a charming young man of 28 or what Dorothy would call him, “the love of my life”, was her fiancé. Head over heels in love with each other, they were soon to be married. Dorothy had grown a fondness towards him for he was always there with her for years, ever since she came to the big city.

She had a smile as she was opening the text, but was left in shock! It went through her body as she couldn’t process what just happened. The words kept repeating in her head, “I’m sorry, love, but I don’t think us marrying will be the best decision. I think– I am calling off our engagement. I’ll surely stop by your place sometime and return the keys.” The pain felt unbearable. It was seeping into her. She didn’t respond to him, didn’t eat, dropped her phone and went straight into her study. “I need to keep my mind off it. At least for now.”, she thought to herself and continued to write her incomplete chapter.

Richard, the male interest of her book, took a massive turn in this chapter when Marie was flying off to a foreign country. He didn’t go after her like any other epic story, but succumbed to the situation as if it was meant to be. Everything he did for his beau meant nothing anymore. Suzanne, who was plotting this entirely, got what she wanted. And then a time jump of 10 years takes place in their lives. “How could he do this after everything? Is it because of me?”, Dorothy kept asking herself thinking all of the good times and the tough times, the dates and that beautiful proposal. She couldn’t hold herself together anymore and burst into tears. She shrugged it off her shoulder that it wasn’t even her supposed storyline and went to the kitchen as she realised food could only bring her comfort. But the most shocking thing happened. As she went across her kitchen table she felt confused. There it was, a box of chocolates and blue orchids, her favourite. “But only Jeremy knew…”, she said as she turned around and he was there. “You really did fall for it, didn’t you?”, Jeremy said as he grinned at her. The puffy face explained it all. He went straight to hug her tight. Dorothy still felt awkward as she couldn’t register this into her brain quickly blaming the massive turn of events. But he apologised for his silly prank and they made up. Later, Dorothy thought of rewriting the end of her book. She didn’t change Chapter 25 but instead gave a beautiful ending to the time jump. It was her vulnerability that brought her to such a twist and she didn’t feel like getting rid of it. Her experience made her grow and made her realise how easily she can spiral. But she learnt out of it as she had learnt her entire life.

So you see, life is a rollercoaster of emotions. At the end of the day we are human beings. We get happy, we get sad, we become vulnerable and even the slightest flicker of hope can mean positivity to us. We fall into several situations that make us be what we actually are and we should never forget them.