The Party Begins..(PART II)

..And then I had met her..
Preity was the type of woman for whom monogamous men sucked in their stomachs. I wasn’t impervious to her charms but had learnt to deal with them in a positive manner so that I didn’t have to spend every waking moment thinking about the woman who was another man’s mistress.
It was ironic that a woman who looked like Preity did not actually have a husband or a boyfriend she could be seen in public with. What was not so ironic was that she used the spare time she had between trysts with her lover to amuse herself with other willing and able men whom she had no intention of ever falling in love with.
Preity had a peculiar character flaw, which only forced her to go after the unattainable. The only reason I felt safe in her presence was that she already had someone she couldn’t have more than me.
Not so long ago his wife had been a beautiful woman as well. Possibly not in the same league as Preity but I was happy with the picture she presented and the life we had together. Things had taken a turn for the irreparable after the miscarriage.
These were the things I told Preity on all those occasions we shared a drink at social events neither of us wanted to be at.So we talked and she had, over time, become the closest thing to a friend and confidante I ever had.
The last flakes of the cigarette hit my thumbs..I guess its time to make the call.
And it makes perfect sense to call Priety.
I retrieved my cellphone from my jacket pocket. She was on speed-dial. I wandered towards the window while waiting for the call to be answered.
When she answered the phone he opened with a question, “Priety?”
“Yes? How are you Rahul?”
“My wife is behaving a little strangely.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s lying on the floor and won’t get up. I can’t tell if she’s hurt or how she got on the floor. She’s breathing, I think, and I think there’s a pulse but she’s in this weird position and she won’t get up.”
Priety was dressed and waiting when Rahul called her. She looked at the doll on the mantelpiece. Her eyes twinkled as she thought of the pain caused by requiring a person to lie the way the doll was lying. She looked at the doll and imaged the way Rahul's wife must look while she listened to Rahul. It didn’t take long for Rahul to bore her with the details.
Details she was already privy to. So she interrupted him and said, “Rahul, will you be going to the party tonight?”
He sounded slightly surprised, “Actually yes. That’s what I needed her to dress up for. She knew this one was important and she’s just lying there doing God knows what.”
“Rahul.”
“Yes?”
“Since we’re absolutely certain that she is fine perhaps you should go to the party today and perhaps we can figure out what needs to be done when the evening is over?”
“You think it’s a good idea for me to leave her here like this?”
“Won’t the servants be in soon?”
“Yes?”
“It might be best if you weren’t home when they arrived Rahul. From what you’ve told me it doesn’t appear that it has escaped them that the boss and his wife fought. Take the evening off Rahul, you deserve it.”
“Okay. I guess I can do that.”
“Coincidentally I don’t have a date for the evening. Think you could pick me up?”
“Sure. It’s on the way. If I leave now, I can be there in half-an-hour…”“
That just barely gives me enough time to throw something on.”
“Okay, I’ll see you.”
On one of the many occasions that Rahul had complained about his domestic life he had expressed the wish to be rid of his current situation. “I wish it would all just go away,” he had said. Priety had merely sipped her champagne in response and he had moved on to complain about other things.Priety had been evaluating replacements for Rajiv for over a year before she ever considered Rahul. She didn’t like that Rajiv liked to hit. She also didn’t like that Rajiv enjoyed roleplaying where she had to pretend to be his wife so that he could hit her. For one thing Manisha looked nothing like Priety in the same way a rat resembles a proud jungle cat in no way. For another, Priety liked to be the one playing the games.
She liked the way Rahul looked after his wife and she knew that he would be a good father and husband.
All she had to do was move a few chess pieces around on the giant board of life to ensure that it was her that he chose to be married to when she was no longer in the picture.

Priety met Rahul at the door. He never got to see the doll on her mantelpiece or the spring-loaded apparatus that hung menacingly over it. He didn’t see the cigarette lighter on a timer that was a clever little mechanism set to fire up at thirty minutes past eight. It would take a minute or two for the flame to snap the string that held the spring back and drove the needle deep into the doll’s crotch.
Rahul and Priety would be dancing in plain view of a hundred people when it happened. Her death would be ascribed to delayed complications ensuing from the miscarriage.
"Shall we move??" she asked Rahul.
"Yes", he said, "the Party must be begining.."