Mrs Deber
The Debers’ house was quiet and gloomy. Mr Deber had died thirty years ago of a jaundice fever and the only permanent occupant of the house was Mrs Deber. The son Robert came to live with her now and then. Otherwise she had no visitors at all.
Robert was a failure not to be too harsh. He fell into bad influence as an young adult and dropped out in tenth standard. He engaged in a series of trades failed within a month or two. Thus Robert was a postman, a shopkeep and had entered umpteen other businesses by the age of twenty.
Robert often found himself at his mother’s place unsuccessful and looking for a new job.
Naturally Mrs. Deber was not very happy with her son. This might have attributed to her grumpy nature.
She spent her entire day looking at the TV screen and buying foodstuffs from the window. She did not like many intruders but had to let in her younger son quite reluctantly.
Our interactions with the Deber family ( mainly Mrs Deber) was when the cricket ball would fly into her house shattering a window pane. She was not at all pleasant at that time at all.
No wonder this incident happened to this woman.
One fine morning, it started circulating that the grumpy old lady was dead ( finally!)
There was ‘great evidence’ however that she was dead. Early that morning one of the neighbours saw a coffin being loaded onto a truck by Robert. He was accompanied by a group of people. After loading it carefully Robert drove off with the coffin and the group of people.
From the neighbour the news passed like wildfire from house to house in the neighborhood that Mrs Deber was dead. And that was when we realised the truth of the statement made by TS Arthur!!!
The entire neighborhood sympathized the death of Mrs Deber and everyone regretted not talking to her.
‘If only I had talked to her once she was such a nice woman…….’ , remarked a neighbour. This was strange because just the last week we had seen this neighbour talk in a beautiful language with Mrs Deber for she had dropped water on his shiny bald head. The name of this neighbour has not been mentioned as he’s a lawyer and I don’t want to get into legal issues for writing this story.
All was fine until that night. Mrs Deber had this habit of pacing up and down her balcony during night time. Many people had got used to that– seeing her pacing up and down–people like Dr. Chatterjee.
Dr. Chatterjee returned home from his chamber through the shortcut through the play ground. Before leaving for work his wife had told him that Mrs Deber had died. He was wondering how used to seeing Mrs Deber pacing up and down the balcony he had become. He looked at the Debers’ residence and he looked at their balcony. This time something caught his eye. This should not be happening!
Mrs Deber was pacing up and down her balcony!
Dr. Chatterjee was not a nervous man by any chance but he could not control his feelings after seeing that. He ran and reached his home and said what he had seen panting for breath.
Almost the entire neighborhood presented themselves in front of the Deber residence to see the same scene. ‘Didn’t you tell me that she was dead?’ ‘No you did!’ ‘She told me that…’ A confusion started in the crowd. There was hunt for the person who had started the rumour. Mrs Deber had been watching the scene with apparent interest and interrupted, ‘May I know what is this ruckus for in front of my house?’
‘Mrs Deber we thought you were….’, said one person from the crowd.
Things were explained. Mrs Deber was not dead. It was just that Robert had started a new venture as a supplier and manufacturer of coffins. He thought it would be successful because there weren’t many coffin makers in business. He had been using the Deber residence for storing the coffins. The neighbour had just seen Robert transporting the coffin to his shop!
The dillehma came to an end. Mrs Deber became friendlier and started talking to her neighbours.
All was well.
Oh and Robert’s business is booming!
11th June, 2020.
Redi.
Image courtesy: Google Images
Comments
Post a Comment