STORIES (8) : The Loony – Who?

( I used to read all those trashes in my youth. Naturally, on a day when I didn’t want to exert myself too much on a prompt for an ongoing Contest, the experience came in handy. I wish I had time to make the character of Tanya, the daughter, a little more trendy!)

The Loony – Who?

Believe you me, I didn’t want to do it….. I just wanted to teach the detestable… disgusting lad a lesson. I agree I was mad…incensed rather when I pushed him from behind. Time was running out for me. If I didn’t do something then, I’d have lived to regret this day for the rest of my life. As that horrid monster got thrown off balance, he tried to grope for something, his hands swimming in the air as he fell forward with a shriek that came right from the pit of his stomach.

I’d already stepped away. One of the sentries down there could have seen me. Otherwise, I’d have seen him plunging headlong into the emptiness and down to the concrete some one hundred and forty feet below from the open roof…..

It all began when a relative called me to find out if her son, on his way to someplace up North, could drop in to meet us. My daughter, Tanya, and me. I saw nothing wrong with her request so, went out of my way to be really nice to him, a lad, probably in his late teens!

He looked like any normal lad as he entered our apartment, dressed in jeans and a white shirt. Tanya was not at home, away from attending her classes. I took out some juice and sweets from the fridger and came out of the kitchen to offer him.

He was not sitting on the sofa in the drawing room any more! He had moved out and was standing near a photo of Tanya taken some months ago. Tanya, with her hair neatly plaited into a bun with that garland of Jasmine around it, looked serene in the dancing pose during the College Award Day. She was ravishingly beautiful.

I kept the tray down on the tool and was about to sit down with my glass in hand when something made me turn my head in his direction again. The way he was staring at the photo, kind of ogling her from top to bottom – was just beyond me!

Nothing wrong with that. Times have changed and today’s youths are far more open, advanced with a greater IQ, more introverted. He stumbled back on the sofa at my call.

“So, tell me about yourself, Ronny.” I said just to break the ice.

He kept gazing at the photo as if he was unaware of my presence in the drawing room!

Tanya stepped in back from the college just then. You should have seen the change in his facial expression just then. But before I could say anything, the boy flew up to shake hands with her.

“Hi, I’m Ronny.” He murmured in a voice which was anything but normal, gauging her up from face down!

Looking at my daughter, I realised that she felt ill at ease as the bas—- kept in shaking her hand longer than necessary.

A decent girl, she turned back to get to her room. The boy tried to stop her by hooking hands around her shoulders from behind! I know you might not find anything wrong with that, especially as he uttered :

“What’s the hurry, Sis? I’ve barely met you.”

I could have accepted the fact that he was ignoring me completely. His bad manners even. But there was something lewd, something obscene about the way he was holding her and muttering those words.

Tanya, a member of the College Volleyball team, smartly shook herself free from his hold and chirped:

“I’m all stinky. Got to go up to the pool for a bath. Nice meeting you, bro.”

“There’s a swimming pool up on the roof? Wao! Mind showing me that?”

I couldn’t believe my ears! He was either brought up wrong or plain insane.

“Yea, But aren’t you on your way to your girl friend’s? Enjoy the juice…” Tanya told him, teasingly this time.

Some ten minutes later, she came out of her room in that swim swit, her kit slung over her shoulder. 

The son of a b—- was feasting on her. He still had his eyes on the door a couple of minutes after Tanya had banged it shut from out!

I had never come across a lad of his age like that!

“When are you supposed to get back to New Town?” I asked him, trying my best to bring him out of his drunkenness.

Then he looked back at me as if noticing for the first time since he had got in.

The look on his face was that of a murderer!

I went to the gym every weekend and at 52 was as fit as a fiddle but the look of his face unnerved me like you won’t believe!

“Uncle, I’ve to leave now. Be seeing you soon.” For the first time, he sounded normal at least. But by then, I could make out the reason why he wanted to get out.

I nodded my head but there was no need really. He was not asking for my consent and darted out of the room in a flash.

Through the crack in the door, I saw him heading to the lift. But he was obviously not going down. Filled with the sense of an impending doom, I knew I’d to do something sooner. Before anything happened to Tanya.

Luckily, I found the adjacent, double lift coming down just then. There was no one inside! Rushing in, I pressed the button back up to the rooftop on the 23rd floor. 

My hands were shaking as the door swung open on reaching the top floor. The lunatic was crouching behind the open door to the roof, his eyes glued to the swimming pool! I dashed along the passageway, worried that he might look back. The worry proved completely unfounded. But he had already gone out on to the roof, slithering his way to the swimming pool in the middle. I moved fast and caught up with him.

I had a scary feeling that Tanya might have seen me stalking him.

Then I heard something in my head asking me to take it easy. I had to make it look like an accident. A suicide would be better though. A murder – far be it from my thoughts! Almost half a foot taller than the motherf—–, I could see the enclosed courtyard and the boulevard far below.

Just then he turned his head. I froze behind. I didn’t know how he missed seeing me! Must have been due to the dim light in the passageway. He licked his lips like there was bits of honey stuck up. I was horrified by the intense look of hunger, desire… on his face.

I pounced on him from the shadows and side-elbowed him just then. The unexpected push made him go flying over the short side wall and down, down he tumbled.

The end