Incompetence

Kritvik Bhatt

Ding dong. Ding dong.

The bell resonated in all of the school building. Inside one of the classrooms lighted with the bright summer-like sunshine and dazzling with white paint, a teacher in a lustrous dark green silk-like suit stood at the front. “So, students, be prepared for the exams next month.”

The noise and movement of students packing their stuff, opening the zips of their bags, and then keeping their books inside was everywhere. The teacher turned to her right, walked to the teachers’ desk at the left corner of the room, took her books and registers, turned around, and then started to walk toward the open wooden door on my right. We all suddenly stood up and sang, “Thankkkk youuu, ma’aaaam.”

“You’re welcome, kids,” She hurriedly said as she turned left on the corridor and disappeared.

Everyone in the class stood up, some stretched their arms, some started to talk to others around them, and some started to take out the books of the next subject.

I sat in the middle of some middle row, maybe somewhere near the center. I turned my head backward.

Sana turned her head up as she was flipping through the pages of a book. She suddenly narrowed her eyes and said, “It’s social science period now.”

“It’s boring, man!” I stretched open my arms upward. “I’m already feeling sleepy.”

Sana then turned to her right, where Kavya sat just beside us on the other row. “Kavya, wake me up when the lunch break starts, okay?”

“Girl, you’ll get scolded if you try to sleep,” She narrowed her eyes a little too, for some reason. She then moved her left hand and pointed at her with a pen in it. “Wake up. Half yearly exams are next month.”

I moved my arms down and kept my right arm on the backrest of the wooden chair, my body tilted toward Kavya. “For some reason, history’s so interesting when it’s in some anime or a web-series.”

Kavya snapped her finger. “I agree.”

“Me too,” Sana said as she bent her back frontward and put her head on the table, her left cheek on the table and her face tilted at Kavya. “Why don’t we get to see web-series or anime instead of this syllabus, then?”

“This education system is decades old,” I commented as I turned to Sana. “I read online that it was introduced by the British to create workers who’d work for them in their factories.”

“Yeah, I read that shit too,” Kavya commented. “That’s why it doesn’t focus on creativity and development, and focuses on rote learning and following commands.”

“That’s sad, but stop with the history of the education system, now…” Sana commented, her tone indicating she’s really bored now.

“No doubt you’re correct,” I turned to Kavya. “Obviously, why’d British want anything good for us?”

“Whatever,” Sana commented. Suddenly, everyone around us stood up, and I turned around for a second and rose up on my feet too. I turned to the front and looked at the history teacher, a chubby female in a pink kurta-pajama suit, with traditional white sandals beneath them, walking to the teachers’ desk from the entrance.

“Gooooood mooooorning, ma’aaaaam,” Everyone sang again.

***

Sana Kohli

“Bye bye!” I waved my right hand with a smile on my face beneath the black mask.

“Bye!” Kritvik replied, turned back, and started to walk inside the intersection.

I turned to my front from the right side and continued walking alone on the street. Well, the road in front of me was really quiet, with only a couple of students and some middle-aged people walking because of their work. The apartments stood silently on both the sides of the street. I moved my hands behind my head and opened my long hair. My hair, which was tied up in a long ponytail, now spread open behind my back. Some even touched my shoulders and bent backward. I moved and fixed the rubber-band on my right wrist and continued to walk. The sun was shining brightly, and it seemed like it were summers, even though they were not really summers.

I moved my right arm up in front of my chest and started to open the button of the shirt on my wrist. I then started to fold the sleeve up after raising my arm straight frontward. “It’s so hot today,” I commented as I narrowed my eyes due to the attack of the sun.

“I… I don’t wanna go back home. Mother’s mood is still not good.”

“But obviously, I had to go home. Well, where else will I stay then?”

***

“I went home, ate lunch, did my homework, studied, and the day went as any other normal day. But… later in the night.”

I got up from my study desk, shut the notebooks and books on the table, turned to the far left corner of the room, glared at the closed door, and thought, “Well, father must be home soon.”

My room was decorated with baby pink paint, a white fan at the center of the ceiling, and the bed on my right, which was pasted to the corner of the room. I turned to the right at my bed, looked at the blue bed-sheet, and then stepped rightward to get out of the desk. I then walked to the door, twisted the doorknob, opened the door, and then walked out of the room.

I wore yellow shorts and a yellow t-shirt, along with bathroom slippers, which we used to walk normally in homes. The room was lighted with little bulbs, with most of the living room in the dark, especially the sofa, which was about a couple of steps away from the bulb on top of the dining table. Anyway, I looked at the dining table at the front, turned to my left and looked at the closed door just beside my door, turned and walked to the door, twisted its doorknob, pushed the door, and walked in.

That room was dark, with, like, the only source of light being the open door where my silhouette stood, looking at the slender figure of my mother lying on the bed on the right. Her back was on the top, her arms were lying around, and her right leg was bent up, with her left leg hanging down to the ground.

“Mom?”

“Yeah?” She replied in a weak tone.

“W-What happened?” I asked.

“Nothing, dear,” She replied. “I just got off washing clothes, so I’m just a little tired.”

As my eyes stared at her lifeless figure, I thought, “What… has happened to her?”

“Like, what has happened to this house?”

TRIIIING!

The doorbell rang and its voice echoed between the two of us. I turned my head backward and started to walk away. I turned to my left, walked between the sofa-set on my left, as I glared at the door of the house straight ahead. I stood at the entrance as the door was pulled open, with a man in a brown coat on the other side walking in. He stood right in front me, his head tilted down, as he moved his right foot up and started to untie his formal shoe. “Hello, dear.”

“Hello, dad.”

“How was your day, huh?” My father asked as he moved his right foot down and his left one up.

“Well, it was pretty normal.”

“Oh.” He then moved his left one down too, walked in with his feet now only covered with a black pair of socks, and went beside me without even looking at me once this entire conversation. I turned to my back as I walked to the front, extended my right hand to close the door, and stared at her back turning right and entering into the room where mom was lying.

Creeeeeak. Tap. I closed the door.

“What happened?” Father’s faint voice reached me. I turned to him and started to walk in too through the dark living room. I turned to my right and entered inside. My father had turned on the tube-light. My mom was now sitting up on the edge of the bed, her feet down on the ground. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just feeling sleepy.” My mom scratched her messy long hair. Her hairs were rough.

“Okay,” My father unbuttoned his coat and then started to push it off. He took off his left arm, then his right arm, and then threw it on the bed beside her. “Lemme change, and then we’ll have dinner.”

“Why can’t you come back a little early?” My mom asked, her eyes sleepy and her hair messy.

“I can’t come home before I reach my targets, didn’t I tell you that?”

“Yeah yeah, your targets,” She turned her head away from him to her right. “All you care about is your job and your targets.”

“Because that’s how this house runs,” He tilted his head down as he started to take off his tie. “It’s not easy to earn money these days.”

“This house needs your presence too,” My mom said as she tilted her head down and frowned. “I’m tired of doing all of these household chores. I wanna explore things too.”

“We’re not in the age to explore new things,” He pulled off his tie.

“I just want to tell you to give some time to both of us. You don’t need another COVID lockdown to do this, do you?”

“Sadly, I do.”

“I knew you were such an incompetent husband.”

My father’s eyes widened with anger. Inside, he was really angry, you see, but he didn’t really show it outside. He turned to mom. “What did you just say, huh?”

My mom turned her head up at my father and looked him in his eyes, determined. “Just what you heard.”

The two of them looked into each other’s eyes like they’d kill each other off if they got the chance to. It was… really, really awful.

“Why don’t you understand that—!”

“WHY DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND IT?!” There was a little tear in my mother’s eye, and I could see it. She was getting emotional. My father continued to look in her eyes. “I’m tired of all of these household chores! And you! You just sit in a damned office with a damned computer beneath a damned AC all day long! Then you work overtime and have fun with your friends, sometimes you all go to parties because it’s Saturday, sometimes it’s someone’s birthday, sometimes it’s boss’ anniversary!”

“My mom was just like that those days. I dunno why, but she wanted my father to stay at home and give time to her and his family. And, these fights were only increasing. No day went by where the two didn’t fight over some trivial matter which only God knows how must have started. Anyway, that… that used to make me sad. Especially when my mother used to say…”

“If you can’t give time to us, you don’t deserve to be with us!”

“Just sign the divorce papers, mister Kohli!”