She sat on her coach in the small apartments in the street behind the metro station . It was many days since he had come. As she read the newspaper and went out with her friends, she tried to put her other part of life out. She was at home that evening. The other girls were out in front of the dabba. It was a Friday evening and there would be many people there - hungry vultures who would, later that evening, crowd the tin shack in which Didi had created makeshift rooms for her and the other girls.
Sabina had worn her red dress - she had suggested to Sabina that she should wear it. A few minutes before she heard Sabina's laughter, not her usual one, and she heard a throaty voice softly answering her - the scorn lazed in the voice - Sabina and the other girls had gotten used to such tone - it was the one that she had never heard in his tone.
She turned the page of the Filmfare she had been reading - there was a section on Hollywood in it - Julia Roberts stared from it with her innocent look towards Richard Gere. It is all the same everywhere - she threw down the magazine in disgust. She had not felt like going out since the night he had been there. Everything else felt immaterial now. She had some savings left for sometime and Didi could be kept quiet for a few more days. After another couple of weeks questions would start. Yet, her mind did not feel upto it. She could not start it all again after what had happened. She would have to find a way to escape.
She looked up from her seat and listened as Sabina's footsteps and the pair with her walked towards the window. Curiosity made her glance at the bars lining the window - Sabina's face passed and another. All her muscles froze - the familiar face passed by. This time she heard the voice clearly and there was no mistaking it. Yet, the tone was different - every one of Sabina's sentences were met with cryptic sarcasm. She watched as the red passed - it was the dress she had bought the evening they had been together in Ranganathan Street. He could not have mistaken it.
As she sharply turned away from the window, her gaze fell on the table next to the bed. There was his handkerchief and a packet of her tissues next to it.
Handkerchief: "A piece of cloth, usually square and often fine and elegant, carried for wiping the face or hands".
Kleenex: "a soft, disposable paper tissue esp. for cleansing the face or for use as a handkerchief. "
Handkerchief - the one you used many times over and over again. Kleenex - the one you threw away.