The Forbidden Fruit

The Forbidden Fruit

I wanted to feel the warmth of the red lips: they symbolized the partial victory I had achieved in the past few hours. I felt like what Adam must have felt when he saw the forbidden fruit dangling from the tree. For a while, I  was a bit jealous of the cool breeze of air from the ceiling-fan that brushed through the lips once in a while. I jumped with joy at the thought that Zeenat was to inherit the beautiful lips one day. The passage of time was to bring forth several beautiful aspects of life before me.

I’ve been struggling against time for a while, and here was the reward for all my struggles. I’ve yet to reach a definite destination, but my efforts were being rewarded in a small way. The school boy was being given  a pat on his back for his efforts to keep up with his peers. Time and tide had put up all impediments to block my way, but I kept marching. This was a small prize for my patience and perseverance. The struggle against time is to go on for a long time to come, I still have a long way to go, but for the time being, I had to contented myself with what was before me. I did wonder  if I deserved the prize or not.

The prize is given only to the victor, losers don’t get anything. For a moment, I  did feel like a runner-up with a consolation prize, but the redness of the lips made me revise my thoughts. The lady with the red lips symbolized victory in its purest form: I had won the rat-race, and there was no doubt of it.

The red lips were to be the beacons of my life for a long time to come. They were to show me the colours of my life. The dull and serene portrait of my life badly needed to be retouched at several points: the colour had withered off at some places, while it was gradually peeling off at certain points. The red lips were to provide the requisite colour to fill in the blanks. She was to splatter my life with the colours of  the rainbow.. she was the skilled painter who has a comprehensive knowledge o the appropriate proportion of colours to be mixed in the to provide the fillings.

The prize  I had won seemed to have all the knowledge and skills required to furnish all the empty rooms of my life with appropriate furniture and paint. She was to be the housekeeper catering to their maintenance for a long time to come. It wads not going to be a very long time. The vivacity of youth had died in me a long time back. I’m not sure if I’m to live a long time.

My feelings for her were  compounded because of the utter loneliness I faced in my teenage and adolescence. The yearning for company had dogged to youth till I developed an inclination towards loneliness. There was a  ticklish excitement in me as I realized the joy and comfort of her company: this was to be the end of all loneliness ingrained in me, but there wasn’t an instinct for mirth because this was not to last a long time.

Happiness and satisfaction are seldom stationary subjects in the drama of life. They always alternate with remorse, grief and dissatisfaction on a regular basis. She was prepared to absorb all the negative vibes with a smile on her face if I was with her.

I did feel bad about it when I realized her fate was to struggle and strife every single day of her life. I didn’t want her to suffer in any manner, but I could do very little about it. Id did  what I could: I bit into the forbidden fruit: I kissed the lips.