Tongue (un)tied?

“Watch out, you moron!” screamed Ankit through his car window, looking at the two bikers speeding by on the highway.

‘Hmm…A Harley Davidson! Cool bike but lousy rider’ he thought. They had come real close to his car and he hoped they had not dented his ‘baby’. He braked to a halt for a closer inspection of his shining black sedan.

“Marega Sala” he cursed as he touched the spot that had been scrapped off showing an ugly mark in its place.

He got back into his car still cussing under his breath, fretting about the dent. He had driven a couple of miles, when he saw a huge crowd blocking almost the entire road. He peeped out calling for someone from the crowd.

‘Hello bhaiyaji…..Is there a problem? Why the traffic jam?”

“Accident sir, two bikers just crashed into a slow moving truck carrying heavy iron rods. Both were dead on the spot.”

Beads of perspiration started to form on Ankit’s forehead as he got down from his car and walked to the place of the accident. He couldn’t look on beyond a minute. The mangled remains of the Harley Davidson and the bloodbath around it revealed a gory story. Two lifeless bodies lay nearby awaiting the police and ambulance to transport them.

He reached home looking quite disturbed. Neha, who was tending to her garden, saw him and ran to the driveway.

“You look like you just saw a ghost. Why so pale and dull, love? Anything happened?”

He recounted the happenings of the day narrating how guilty he felt for having cursed them. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. They were not driving carefully. Maybe they would have met with the accident even if you had not cursed them. Stop feeling so guilty.”

“or maybe not…” he said eyes closed in thought.

Neha cuddled his head, giving him a hug, as he stood begrudging himself. 

“It’s ok baby…it’s not your fault.”

“It’s not a one off incident Neha, this has started becoming eerily repetitive!” he threw his jacket on sofa and slumped into it, staring blankly at the wall.

“You are only imagining things, Ankit. You cannot just say something for it to happen.”

“Oh really? Well, you remember the article I wrote about Vikram and his struggle with cancer? About how brave he was being, how he was an inspiration to everyone...blah …blah..? And what happened? He passed away couple of days after that article got published. How do you explain that? Maybe I have a cursed tongue or something.”

“He was struggling. He was dying anyway. We both know that. That article was a co-incidence.”

“Would you call Neelima didi’s bus accident a co-incidence? The bus had its entire right side ripped off. All eighteen people on the right side suffered grievous injuries. You know why? All because of this,” he said pointing to his tongue, “this damned cursed thing.”

“Ankit, my love, you did not cause that accident. You merely told didi to sit on the left side of the bus.”

“I told her, 'didi sit on the left hand side; even if there’s an accident, the impact is lesser there'. Am I a freak? Why did I have to say such things?”

“But that saved her life, didn’t it?”

“That is not the point. I kind of find that freaky. I cannot explain why I said what I did.”

“Well, well…let’s prove that all this is a co-incidence, ok? So say something just like that, umm…say that something will happen to me”, she tried to make him see reason.

“Are you trying to make fun of me? It doesn’t work like that girl. I don’t think about what I say. I just say it. Ok?”

“Say this roof is going to collapse on my head”, she suggested gesturing to the ceiling and smiling.

“Neha….”

“Hmm…..how about the gas, is it going to explode as I turn it on. Say it and let me try,” she said walking to the kitchen.

“Neha, don’t…..”

Without waiting for him to finish, she continued, “am I going to get electrocuted? or  perhaps fall down and break my leg?”

“yea, woman, go break your leg! Enough Neha, you are unbelievable.” He sighed and walked to his room.

“I am only trying to tell you that you are worrying unnecessarily”, he heard her voice trail off as he shut the door of his room.

“Ahhh…..ouch….Ankit…” he heard Neha’s blood curdling scream and the sound of something falling down with a thud. He rushed out to see what happened.

He saw Neha sprawled on the floor. Apparently with her leg broken, having slipped over, he wondered over what!

image courtesy :google