Love On The Walls

A Story by Rizuana

A shorty story about how a woman gets attached to a house lizard...

Vidya walked into her kitchen one evening and finds them kissing. Not a lip lock exactly but their tongues were lost in each other. Unable to gaze away, she moves closer to them, silent, holding her breath and stops when her face is just a few inches away from them. She tilts her head to the right to get a better view but Oops!!! She gets caught.
A blink of an eye and they separate and disappear out of sight. Huh, so much fear for true love’s kiss.
These two lovers or, so Vidya thinks pay her inveterate visits for she had been seeing them around quite a lot. Always two, together. She was terrified in the beginning but later got used to seeing them.
One night before turning off the kitchen lights she showed them to her husband.
“Lizards and lovers? No way. You didn’t see them kissing. Maybe they were fighting,” he chose to refute.
“Why not? They could be” Vidya decided to christen the lizards.
“For humour’s sake, Raj and Simran" she smiled.
Raj and Simran were quite similar. The only difference to tell them apart was their size. One slightly smaller than the other, Vidya presumed she was the female and named her Simran. She reviewed her judgement but since the chances were 50-50 she decided to go with it.
Raj and Simran frequented Vidya’s kitchen mostly in the evenings and the more she saw them, the more she was sure they were a couple in love.
Vidya was in a foul mood. Her husband had again forgotten to pick her up from the salon and she had come home in an auto; her salon treatment all gone to waste. The argument was at its peak when she stormed out of the room to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Her eyes brimming with tears, she was violent with everything. She banged the door of the fridge; she thumped her glass down and kicked a chair which was on her way. Her anger rose to new heights when she saw the window was left wide open, the exhaust fan still on and the water tap wasn't turned off properly, the dripping water making an annoying noise. Swearing under her breath she closed the water tap, switched off the fan and pulled the window shut, with a force, she wouldn’t have applied otherwise. An act, which unknowingly turned into something cruel and ineluctable.
Vidya gasped in horror as she saw a tiny body split into two by the window's force. She saw it move and quickly opened the window again but only to see Raj move his last and die. She felt a pang of guilt and without thinking, picked Raj up in a tissue and dropped him out of the window. It landed in the soft soil below. Simran was left alone in a corner.
Vidya, now devoid of anger went back to her bed, ignored her husband and tucked herself inside the blanket and sobbed. But she wasn’t sure what was she crying for, for death of a house lizard or because of the man who sat across the room his eyes fixed on the laptop.
She blamed herself for being so pettish. But, how could she feel responsible for the death of a stupid lizard? Yes, she loves animals but a lizard hardly counts as one. And to name the creepy creatures, Raj and Simran, her husband rightly says, she is negatively kiddish.
Minutes later, Vidya’s mind still in turmoil, she got up and went to the kitchen. Simran was nowhere in sight. She came out of the kitchen with a knife in her hand and went back to the bedroom. Her husband looked at her with suspicion but relaxed when he saw her leave with a torch in hand. She ignored him and walked out of the house to where she had thrown Raj’s body. She dug up a tiny grave with the knife and placed the lizard in it quite unceremoniously and covered it up quickly like a criminal covers up his crime.
As she got back to bed she tried to justify her childish act. The curious look on her husband’s face and the knowledge that the whole episode will be her little secret lulled her to sleep.
Simran was nowhere to be seen the next day and even the day after that. Vidya made several rounds of the kitchen like a detective hoping for presence of any lizard sign but there was none. Things were now alright between her and her husband but she still hadn’t told him about the lizards. She had come to the conclusion that Simran must have died too in sorrow. Or maybe she decided not to visit her lover’s death place anymore. Or maybe she was planning a conspiracy to avenge his death.
She had given up hope of seeing Simran when one day suddenly she caught sight of her in the same spot where Raj was killed. Life must be tough for her now that there is no Raj to help her find food. Vidya’s heart went out to her. If only she could do something, feed her somehow. She googled everything about what lizards eat, they were carnivores, and realised she never as much gave then a second thought. Now from where will she arrange crickets or cockroaches or other insects, she wondered. No she won’t for she despises all creepy, crawly things and stays miles away from those, lizards included; but again, now she had some repenting to do.
Vidya managed to find a piece of bread. She had doubts if lizards ate bread but she wanted to give it a try. She broke it into tiny crumbs and with the help of a spoon put some crumbs next to Simran at the window sill. Simran scurried away and didn’t come back.
Next evening Simran was there again on the window. Vidya offered rice this time, same reaction as the day before. Vidya placed some rice on the sill at night, hoping that she pays a visit later when no one is around.
Following morning Vidya woke up to a kitchen manifested by ants and to her husband’s taunts.
“Are you blind not to see such a large amount of hoary rice lying in the open? Or are you too lazy to clean?”
Yes. She had left rice a little bit too much, but she had wanted it to be noticed by Simran.
She was tempted to leave a big amount again that night but instead she left five countable grains of rice. In the morning they were all gone but a thin trail of ants said that it wasn’t Simran who took notice of the grains.
On a slightly different morning, Vidya found Simran on the kitchen floor. Sensing human interference, Simran hurried away to climb a wall but fell back. Vidya was overcome by a feeling of empathy. She quietly picked a bottle of water and poured a few drops on the floor, a few inches away from Simran. Simran, who had moved away retraced her steps until her feet slightly touched the water. Next moment, a tongue stuck out and licked just a bit of it and then a little more.
Vidya pleasantly shocked looked around for food and found an apple in the fridge. She quickly peeled it and scraped off a tiny amount and dropped it next to Simran. But this time Simran paid no heed to what was offered. Vidya knelt down and in some cryptic mindset moved her finger towards the lizard. She almost touched Simran’s tail before she disappeared again.
“I want my tea” her husband yelled and she left the incident forgotten. She later told herself that it never happened. She had dreamt it all. No sign of Simran the following day convinced her doubts.
A few days later quite unexpectedly she saw Simran again, on the window but on the outer side. The window was closed so only the pale internal side was visible. Vidya opened the window softly. Surprisingly, Simran made a valiant entry and sat on the wall next to the window.
An idea struck Vidya. What worse can happen? An ardent inner voice encouraged as she went near Simran and placed her palm next to her. Simran took a step back, but Vidya insisted and guided Simran onto her palm. She was tempted to jerk her hand off when Simran landed on her hand but she didn’t move at all. Even Simran didn’t, only their chests rose and fell with their breathing.
After what seemed like a long time, Vidya put Simran down on the kitchen counter. Goose-bumps all over, she felt a chill. To relive what happened she again placed her hand next to Simran. And again Simran climbed her palm, this time more fain and confidently than before.
Vidya looked around. She wanted someone to see it. This was a miracle but her husband might find it sickening and might even refuse to eat in disgust. She softly placed Simran back on the window.
“My name is Vidya. You are Simran, my new friend. I am sorry about what happened to Raj. Please forgive me” she whispered and decided to find edible food for her.
Vidya found herself in a world of magic the next few days. Her new found friend made her look at life very differently. She would ignore her complaining husband with a mysterious smile who would be more annoyed but she stayed unbent. Later, he gave up complaining, it made no sense.
One day her maid had killed a spider. Vidya volunteered to throw it away. She took it to her room and hid it in her drawer and gave it to Simran later who devoured it greedily. Days went by and a secret relationship of trust flourished between Vidya and Simran.

Vidya’s sister had come over with her kids. With a hubbub in the house, Simran mostly stayed away. Vidya always left some insect or the other on the sill, whatever someone killed in her house or her neighbours’.
One fateful evening, Vidya and her sister were doing the dishes after dinner when suddenly, out of nowhere a lizard fell on her sister’s hand.
“Oh my God!!! “, she screamed, shook it off, picked her slipper up and BAM!!!
“No, don’t”, Vidya cried out but she was a bit too late.
“Don’t fear, I am here” laughed her sister and kept pounding the head of Simran till she was completely sure of her death.
Stunned to see Simran's body lying their motionless, Vidya walked out of the kitchen, controlling inexplicable tears and locked herself in her bedroom. Outside she heard the kids scaring each other with the dead body of Simran and she fell miserable. There was nothing she could say to anyone. She was utterly defeated and deflated. She stayed abnormally quite for the next few days.
From that day onwards, if ever there is a lizard around, Vidya takes the responsibility to take it out to safety, and out of everybody’s sight. She would defend them by saying “Harmless, tiny lives. Please let them be”.
Sometimes she would be ignored and sometimes be laughed at.