The Nasty Get-together...a short story by Mariyam Nadhrath

Udugaa vidaa babulhaa tharithah,
Bimuga folhilaa hurihaa maathah,
Reechey bunelaa aduthah ahamey…
Namaves… mi dhelo mi lolah fenilaa
Hurihaa alikamakee thiyaey
loabin dekila kamanaa,
sooraakee thiyaey

His voice caressed her in the darkness and like a wizard's spell it swirled around her until she trembled and pleaded with him to set her free.

"No! I will not let you go," he said. His voice held just a hint of desperation.

"I have to go home. To pack my things. Please… untie me." She pleaded and looked into his beautiful eyes. His eyes spoke volumes but his mouth refused to form the words.

"You have to let me go," she whispered achingly. Their time had come to an end. It was time to say goodbye.

"Thaufeega…Thaufeeegaaa!"

The insistent, unflattering voice broke through Thaufeega's walk down memory lane. It was an unfortunate case of high pitch and volume combined with an insulting tone, vocabulary and personality. In short, the voice belonged to a very unbearable woman -- Zeeniya Wajdy.

"What is wrong with you? Stop wool-gathering for heaven's sake! It's your turn to tell your deep, dark secret!"

Zeeniya was a strange creature who thrived on gossip and telling people what to do. (Thaufeega's explanation for this was that Zeeniyaa had been allowed to be the captain of the bashi team for longer than what was considered safe.)

"Dhen saabahey... tell the story will you. I'm sure yours will be the best," Zeeniya was still talking.

Thaufeega arched her elegant eyebrows. She knew that Zeeniya was implying that since Thaufeega was the biggest slut of the three women, naturally she would have the juiciest secret to tell.

Thaufeega bit back the retort that was aching to be unleashed. (It was a get-together after all and things had to be civilised -- at least on the surface.) She'd just have to manoeuvre her way around Zeeniya's grand plans.

"Ameena, why don't you go next. I'll tell my story last." Thaufeega smiled at Ameena. (Aaah, sweet Ameena. The nicest one amongst the three, she would do whatever was asked.)

"OK!" Ameena said instantly, even more agreeable than usual.

"I had an affair with Sobir," she declared softly in the usual Ameena style and smiled serenely at two of her closest friends.

Explosion!

"You bloody what?!" That came from Thaufeega.

"Sobir? Sobir? The Sobir? You are kidding!" That was Zeeniya. She seemed to be dangerously close to losing her eyeballs.

Deafening silence.

Zeeniya had her eyes and mouth opened as wide as possible.

Thaufeega had gone into what seemed to be a trance.

Ameena was sweetly oblivious to the state of her two friends. It was her moment of glory and she was basking in it.

"Believe what you want to." She then went for the kill. She looked into the eyes of the two women and pushed in her victory flag. "We all wanted him… but I had him."

There, she thought, that should give the two self-made, man-eaters something to chew on. The boring vegetarian of the group had gotten way with the best meat. Hurray for her!

"Ameena! You wouldn't even know how to have an affair, let alone have one." Thaufeega's tongue was like a snake's. It was poisonous and came out when threatened.

Zeeniya closed her mouth, and wondered why Thaufeega was getting upset. Then it came to her in fragments. About seventeen years ago… in Thinadhoo… a mast!. Zeeniya turned to Thaufeega and narrowed her eyes. This should be very interesting.

"When exactly did you have this affair?" Thaufeega demanded.

If anything had happened, it had to be before Ameena had moved to Male. Probably sixteen or seventeen years ago. But the whole idea was ridiculous. Ameena and Sobir! Preposterous! It was Sobir for goodness sake. He was the most notorious thing born to the island of Thinadhoo. (He had actually owned a motorbike!) And Ameena… she had been the perfect daughter of the island Mudhim. The girl would turn pale at the thought of sitting behind a man on a bike, let alone frolicking under the bushes after sundown. She had been the perfect unspoiled little thing whom everyone had loved. Not that Thaufeega minded. She had rather enjoyed her frolicking episodes.

"Tell us the details. Was that where you went with the flower in your hair?" Zeeniya demanded.

Zeeniya had always wondered if there was more to Ameena than was readily apparent on the surface. After all still waters ran deep. She was just too perfect. Never once had she cheated on her husband. (Reason enough to suspect that she came from another world). She didn't like going to Galaxy shows. She didn't like the material at Amety shop. There was something seriously wrong with Ameena.

"Come on, tell us!" Zeeniya was getting impatient. She had heard from friends that Sobir's voice was sinfully sexy and when he whispered in your ear, you just… melt. The whole concept of it fascinated her so.

"Is it true that he writes poetry?" Zeeniya asked her eyes shining. It kind of reminded her of Amitabh in Silsila. She sighed.

Ameena sighed, too.

Thaufeega rolled her eyes, disgusted. There ought to be a vaccine to prevent this. Sobir was an epidemic.

"Yes. He has such a beautiful voice," Ameena went on excitedly, her eyes unfocused and very un-Ameena like. "When he recites, you just… melt."

Zeeniya swooned.

Thaufeega put her sooji cup on the table and ran her fingers over her face. Was she getting a headache? Obviously Ameena, too, knew of the man's lethal tongue. Damn him!

"Thaufeega, are you alright?" Ameena asked, her smile faltering. Maybe she shouldn't have talked about Sobir.

Zeeniya used the moment to water her curiosity. "Thaufeega, what exactly did happen between you and Sobir?" Her voice took on a sly wicked tone. "I hear he tied you up in a boat and ahem ahem…"

Thaufeega was an accomplished liar. This was child's play. "Zeeniya, if the girl on that boat had been me, believe me it would have been Sobir who was tied up!"

Zeeniya looked pensive as she tried to find the truth in Thaufeega's eyes.

Thaufeega stared back without flinching.

"So it's not true?" Zeeniya looked crestfallen.

Thaufeega nodded and turned the spotlight away from her. "So, Ameena... do go on with the story."

Ameena looked quite pleased with herself. Like a cat which had gotten the cream a couple of decades ago and no one found out.

She continued her story. "It all started when Kalo was circumcised. It was so much fun. A mad mixture of atharu , talcum powder, water and god knows what else! And the music… we listened to Hamdy's songs all the time. It was such fun… Sobir used to sing ey loabi vaa mala for me."

Thaufeega rolled her eyes again. So Ameena fancied that she was Sobir's flower, did she? Maybe she hadn't realised that Sobir was more of a bouquet kind of man… or maybe a garden or two.

Thaufeega did a bit of maths. This flower picking must have been done in 1976 . That was when Kalo was circumcised. Interesting. Very interesting, since eight months later, Sobir had been banging his head on Thaufeega's wall. Quite literally.

The phone rang. Ameena picked it up.

"It's for you Zeeniya. Your daughter."

Zeeniya wondered what kind of permission her daughter was after now. (Clothes which looked like handkerchiefs. Jewellery that looked like spareparts. Boyfriends who talked like they had marbles in their mouth and walked like they had glue on their feet. Her daughter was mindboggling!)

She took the phone, an answer already prepared.

"No …. Come home before eleven o' clock… No… No… When I say 'no' I mean NO!" she yelled and hung up the phone.

"The idiots think they invented lies and sex," Zeeniya scoffed.

"What did she want?" Thaufeega asked, putting the phone back.

Zeeniya groaned. "Some birthday in a resort. Wants to stay over night." Over her dead body, Zeeniya thought.

"You are too hard on her," Thaufeega said. "So what if she wants to wear short dresses? What did we wear? I remember you wearing nothing but sleeveless sundresses which were way above your knees." Thaufeega looked at Zeeniya, daring her to deny it.

"That was different," Zeeniyaa bristled, tugging at her dhiguhedhun. Thaufeega talked too much. Damned woman did everything too much.

"Yes. Very different. Men didn't have eyes those days," Ameena chuckled.

That got them all laughing, thinking of all those times that they were sure that men did have eyes.

"Ameena," Thaufeega started, "do you remember the day we went to watch Bobby?"

Ameena grinned. She remembered all right! Rishi Kapoor was the best. She had even gone to see him when he had come to Male.

"Yes, Zeeniya had bought this lovely bells, but since she was too skinny she had put something in her back pockets to make her look more….voluptuous." She grinned. "The damn thing was so tight she couldn't even move. And when she was taking money from her pockets, the stuff came flying out. Some strip of sponge I think?"

The women nearly sprayed sooji all over each other.

Zeeniya turned crimson. The nerve of them to mention that. It was supposed to be taboo. Was nothing sacred!

"I hate you!" she declared.

No one heard her. They were too busy trying to contain the sooji in their mouths.

"Yes, it was sponge," Thaufeega managed to confirm between howls of laughter. "And everyone at the canteen had witnessed it."

Zeeniya narrowed her eyes. So it was going to be like that, was it? Two can play the game.

"What about that time when Thaufeega had gotten all those jinni moya vaa episodes and the Ibrihim Beyyaa put a thaveedhu on her?"

Another hoot of laughter.

Thaufeega gritted her teeth. She hated Ibrihim Beyyaa. Everyone had later known that the only thing Ibrihim Beyyaa had written on that allegedly miraculous thaveedhu was her name and adresss. Wise guy!

The reason for her miraculous cure had been that Ibrihim Beyyaa had told her that if she had gotten another fit, good jinns would come to fight for her. She really hadn't wanted any jinns (good or bad) around her. The only demon, which had been haunting her, was the handsome man who had taken charge of the Health Centre. The theatrics were for his benefit. To have a dose of his bedside manner.

"Did you mange to get your hands on the Health Centre guy?" Ameena asked.

"You haven't finished telling us about Sobir," Thaufeega countered. No need to tell them she had made sure the doctor got addicted to medicine only she could provide.

"Oh... where was I? Yes… I had fallen in love. I was sooo happy. He promised he would marry me. But then my father found out about it and he told mother to take me to our falhu rah. They made me stay there for a week. I had nothing but dried fish and water."

Ameena shuddered at the memory. It had been horrible. But she had hung on for Sobir.

"On the eighth day they brought me back home. And I told Kalo to take a letter to Sobir. I asked him to marry me as soon as possible. It broke my heart to hurt my parents but I had to do this to tell myself I was alive."

None of them said anything. They understood. Ameena had lived with more rules than all of them combined. But everything has a crack.

"He told me to be ready for the people to come to ask for ran. I waited and that very night, he married someone else… He married SOMEONE ELSE! I never talked to him after that," Ameena's voice cracked. She had lost everything at the price of nothing.

"He's a lying piece of slime," Thaufeega growled. She looked magnificently livid.

"Let me tell you." She banged the sooji cup on the coffee table. "Sobir is the worst scum ever. Six months after his marriage, he was after me, banging his head on my wall. Said he would leave his wife. But he never did leave her. So I came to Male and got married."

Whoa! Thaufeega stopped for breath. She really hadn't meant to rattle on like that. But men can come and go, friendship was sacred.

"So he did tie you up!" Zeeniya cried. The notion seems to brighten her universe. Heaven help her.

Thaufeega indulged her. "Yes, he did tie me up and I stayed with him till sunrise. That was when we said goodbye… and yes, he did recite poetry to me that night."

"Wow!" Zeeniyaa squealed. "It's like Amitabh."

"Yes, it was amazing. Sobir was the best." Thaufeega smiled at Ameena.

"I second that." Ameena grinned, too.

Zeeniya looked at the two smiling women, thought it was horribly unfair that she was left out.

The three of them drank their sooji silently. Life was so weird.

The phone broke the silence.

Ameena passed it to Zeeniya. "Your daughter again." She winked.

Zeeniya listened patiently to her daughter's planned pleading.

"Yes… yes… who else is going?… OK. OK. You can stay the night. Call me when you get there… and be careful. Don't do anything you regret…OK?"

Zeeniya hung up the phone. She wanted to say more… but didn't know exactly what it was that she had to say.

No one asked her why she had given permission. Even Zeeniya herself didn't quite know…

Author's note: This story is not a true story but it contains incidents from the lives of men and women who shared little bits of themselves with me. Due to the nature of the events please don't ask me who they are.

(This short story was published in Haveeru Daily, Maldives leading daily newspaper, in Nov 2002)

GLOSSARY

bells: bellbottoms
dhiguhedhun: a Maldivian national dress
falhu rah: uninhabited island
jinns: genies or spirits
ran: dowry
sooji: a sweet paste made from flour
thaveedhu: a talisman

FEEDBACK

Email me your feedback on this story. I will forward it to Nadhrath and also upload it here.

@ "Fascinating. Tying someone to the mast… hmm… Interesting concept. I particularly like the way she unfolds the story, layer by layer, and how she describes the reactions and curiosity between the girls when they converse. And it’s deliciously nasty!"--Sharif Ali, Maldives, 28 Dec 2002

@ "Deliciously naughty and first-rate humour! The writer is especially good at dialogue and characterisation. The cultural references are spot on with bell-bottoms and Hamdi invoking a sense of nostalgia for the raunchy, but spirited seventies, compared to which period post-millennial Male’ looks positively drab. But the best joke to me was to have the three women
drinking sooji as they reminisced and slagged off their past boyfriends. Nice one Mariyam!"--Ali Rasheed, Maldives, 20 Dec 2002

@ "Nadhu's fictional story based on real events was fun! I enjoyed reading it and as I was there when she first started writing it I must say it turned out really well in the end! I have loved her poems and some of her introspective essays. I think she is extremely talented at poetry and wanted to see how she would handle a story. Turns out she can dish out stories as well as poetry. Keep it up! You go, girl! "--Mohamed Hursheed, Maldives, 12 Dec 2002