I wrote this three-part short story in April 2020, during a stretch of lockdown WFH days. I surprised myself finishing this story, what with my baby’s erratic-cyclic sleeping pattern on most days. It won the WattOriginals 2020 Award on Wattpad.
The Telephone Booth’s Secret
Nayani stared at it, dumbfounded. The abandoned telephone booth was surrounded by creepers everywhere. A patch of daffodils decorated its base. Nayani walked towards the booth and opened its door. Instead of dropping a coin in the slot and dialling a number, she hugged the payphone tightly and kissed the top of the receiver.
Ten seconds later, she found two strong hands embracing her. The pay phone was hugging her back! That couldn’t be possible. She could feel human skin. Immediately she looked up and found herself staring into the eyes of the boy who never loved her truly. He flashed her a creepy smile. Then the ground beneath them opened up and they fell headlong.
*****
August 20th, 2019
Nayani screamed and woke up, panting for breath. She grabbed the Tupperware bottle from the bedside table and swallowed vast gulps of water. She then rubbed her eyes and looked around. She was still in her bedroom. She had dreamt about the abandoned telephone booth for the first time. But it all looked so real. The surroundings. The telephone booth. The payphone. The boy she loved during her teens. His hands around her torso. She felt a pang of unexplained pain in her heart. Suddenly she looked at the clock, which flashed a sharp eight.
She jumped from her bed and headed straight to the kitchen, as she was late for work. She boiled the milk, made some tomato cheese sandwiches, and then went to the bathroom for her ablutions. She dressed in a comfortable sandal-yellow Kurti while tying her wavy hair into a ponytail, patting her dusky skin with some compact, decorating her black eyes with kajal, and dabbing on some magenta lipstick. She sat at the breakfast table and munched on the sandwiches, all the while wondering about the telephone booth.
She picked up her phone and typed out a message to her mom on WhatsApp.
“I am coming to Chennai this weekend, Ma. Good morning and love you.”
*****
The morning of August 24th, 2019
Mridula’s cardamom tea was synonymous with nostalgia. Nayani sniffed her cup and brought it to her lips. She sipped it, relishing in the sugary flavour. Then she looked at Mridula and winked at her.
“This is the best tea in the world, Ma. I love you.”
Mridula chuckled, her laughter creating ripples in the August breeze.
“Aha! Your laughter is the best music, Ma.” Nayani continued her banter.
“Okay, okay, stop flattering me. Why have you come here? Nowadays, you are so busy. You always tell me that you cannot come to Chennai for another couple of years. What happened to you suddenly?”
“Okay, let me come straight to the point. I have some unfinished business, Ma. So I thought I could come over and finish it once and for all.”
“Ah, that’s why! Otherwise, you wouldn’t come. What’s the business, by the way?”
“Ummm…it’s a secret. I’ll let you know later.”
“Hmph! You and your secrets.”
Mridula picked up the empty teacups and retreated to the kitchen. Nayani smiled to herself, thankful that one of her parents was still alive.
*****
The evening of August 24th, 2019
The abandoned telephone booth looked just like it had appeared in Nayani’s dream. The glass-paned red telephone booth was popular a decade ago. Nayani had frequented it so much that she knew that the payphone held more secrets than coins. Now, the telephone booth was surrounded by creepers and adorned with cobwebs. The name-board at the top displayed just ‘PHONE’, while the ‘TELE’ part had rusted with time.
Just like in her dream, the outside of the telephone booth was decorated by a patch of fresh daffodils. It was like the flowers were protecting the booth from natural disasters. Nayani opened the glass door and entered it. More cobwebs welcomed her and she coughed, as she inhaled a mouthful of dust.
The payphone had gathered years of dust, which shined in the sun rays that fell on it through the glass panes. Knowing that she’d be met with such a sight, Nayani had brought a rag cloth along with her. Taking it from her handbag, she wiped the payphone thoroughly. The yellow box with its keypad became visible and the black receiver glowed like a magical object.
As she had done in her dream, she hugged the payphone tightly, hoping that it wouldn’t metamorphose into the person she didn’t want to see. She placed her right ear on top of the yellow box and listened to it breathe with stories from a bygone decade. At that moment, she reminisced about her bittersweet relationship with the telephone booth. It was twelve years earlier when the booth meant everything to her.
*****
April 18th, 2007
Three school students were standing near the telephone booth when Nayani reached there. They were seniors from her school and they flashed casual smiles at her. She smiled in return and parked her bicycle. The students took turns making calls. After ten minutes, the booth emptied off and Nayani entered it. She lifted the receiver and dropped a one-rupee coin in the slit. She typed the mobile number that she knew by heart. Three dial tones later, she heard the familiar ring. Mayank picked up on the fifth ring.
“Hello!”
“Hello, Mayank. Nayani here.”
“Ah, Nayani! I wasn’t expecting your call.”
“I am calling from the telephone booth. Can we meet today?”
“Sure, love. Where?”
“I’ll be finishing my music class at 6. So, you just meet me on the 4th cross street.”
“Okay, sure, dear.”
“Love you.”
“Hmmm, love you too.”
But Mayank never turned up that day. It was just two weeks of their clandestine puppy-love relationship. Within then, Mayank started behaving indifferently. Sometimes, he never picked up Nayani’s calls. Sometimes, he had excuses ready at the tip of his tongue. Sometimes, Nayani need not drop another coin into the phone box, because their conversations lasted only two minutes. And, sometimes, Mayank never responded to the cute MMSes that Nayani sent to him from her uncle’s Nokia 1100. Nevertheless, she built a castle of hope in her heart, waiting every day for Mayank to call her and talk to her. Occasionally, she looked at her journal, where she had scribbled ‘Mayanayani’ a thousand times. She was just 14 and she couldn’t find the difference between infatuation and love.
May 20th, 2007
Mayank’s mobile phone was not reachable for ten days in a row. Nayani panicked and decided to visit his apartment. She went along with a friend and confronted him. But all she gathered were vague replies to her questions. When asked about the mobile phone, his reply was casual. He had just thrown the mobile phone in anger and it had shattered to pieces.
By the end of the conversation, Nayani knew she had somehow lost Mayank.
June 18th, 2007
Though Nayani did not disturb Mayank again, she just tried calling him, to check whether his mobile phone was working. She went to the telephone booth and dialled his number. She almost cried when she heard the rings. But she cut the call before he could pick up.
If Mayank was really in love with her, he would have called her once he got his mobile phone repaired. But that was not the case here.
July 15th, 2007
Nayani could not bear it anymore. She needed many answers. So, she mustered up the courage and called Mayank from her uncle’s Nokia cellphone. He knew that number, but he picked up anyway.
“Do you love me, Mayank?” She asked him after the initial pleasantries.
“No, not at all, to be frank.” That was his cold reply.
After a series of muffled cries, Nayani asked, “I need to know the reason. Why?”
“Just like that. I am not interested in you. You aren’t my type of girl.”
That was the sentence that gave Nayani her first heartbreak. A lump formed in her throat as she slowly realized that she was going through a breakup. A bout of pleas from Nayani followed, to which Mayank’s replies were curt.
Even after three months, Nayani felt like killing herself, thinking that she was unworthy of love. But she just couldn’t harm herself, because a part of her still wanted to live and experience the beautiful gift called ‘life’.
*****
A cool breeze wafted from the broken window pane. Nayani broke free from her embrace and her reverie, patted the payphone lovingly, and looked outside. She saw the skies darkening for a downpour. Before she could collect herself, the rains commenced. For a moment, Nayani wondered whether she would be caught in the eerie telephone booth the entire night. If she hadn’t known the booth from a young age, she wouldn’t have entered it. It looked haunted, what with all the creepers and cobwebs.
A sudden thunderbolt cut through the air and a streak of lightning fell on the pay phone. Nayani shuddered. She knew she had to call Mridula and inform her about her whereabouts, lest she would be worried. To her dismay, there was no signal on her mobile phone. Slapping her forehead, she opened the booth’s door to check if there was any passerby. But there was not even a reptile in sight. An unexplainable silence hung in the air, punctuated by the pitter-patter of the first set of raindrops.
Though the thought was silly, Nayani wondered whether she could use the payphone and call her mother. In a sudden burst of curiosity, she picked up the receiver. To her utter shock, a green light emanated from the display pane. She fumbled for a one-rupee coin in her purse. After finding it, she dropped it into the coin slot and dialled the number.
It was a second too late that she realized she had dialled Mayank’s old mobile number. Some kind of deja vu or some familiarity with the payphone had triggered her to automatically dial his number instead of her mother’s mobile number. She wished that it should not be in use or it should be used by someone else. However, deep inside her heart, she wished to listen to his voice. Maybe, speak a few words with him. After all, she had put everything on the back burner and was leading a happy life with her boyfriend, Vishnu.
“Hello!” Someone picked up.
“Hello, is that Mayank?”
“Yes, I am Mayank. Who is this?”
“Mayank, I am Nayani.”
There was silence at the other end.
“What do you want now, Nayani? I think I made everything clear to you.”
For a moment, Nayani was dumbstruck at his attitude. Even after twelve years, he was thinking that she still loved him and that she wanted to torture him. She didn’t know how to react to his response. So, she said, “I am sorry. I never imagined that you’d still be mulling over the past.”
“The past? We broke up just last month. Today is August 22nd. And it’s already ‘past’ for you, eh? Can you see it now? You would now understand why you aren’t my type of girl. You are selfish. You have already moved on, though it was I who initiated our breakup. I just can’t fathom why you have called me now-”
Nayani couldn’t listen anymore, as the receiver dropped from her hand and she stood still, staring at the rain through the broken window pane.
To be continued…
Read the next part here – Part 2.
KJ's Musings 