Quick-reads

It was a cold winter night, dark as hell. It stood there waiting for someone to fall for it. Such was the look of the coffee cup with a saucer. A china cup with intricate red and gold engraving. The inviting, gold rimmed lip promised an innocent sip of steaming hot aromatic coffee… with a hint of spices, sugar just right… one sip will leave you aching for more…

It was at the edge of the garbage dump that the coffee cup sat. Like a princess near a bunch of cleaners. No-one could miss it. Yet, it chose only one. The right one. The lonely one. The sad one. The lost one. It waited patiently. They will come. Anytime now.

About two hundred yards away, Asha was struggling on the staircase. It was midnight and how loathsome to be toiling with garbage disposal. Her maid hadn’t turned up for two days and Asha kept missing the garbage collector because she had to be in office early.

Asha was a journalist. She worked long hours and ate Maggie for dinner almost every day unless she ordered in. She left home because her conservative parents didn’t want her to work. She was no longer on talking terms with them. And, she had just broken up with her boyfriend of two years because he realized he didn’t love her but thought of her as a friend. Bitch!

She dragged the garbage bags – heavy because they contained a week’s supply of empty beer bottles – and dumped them. She saw the beautiful, gleaming coffee cup from a few yards away and unbeknownst to her, her steps quickened. She picked up the cup carefully because it was brimming with coffee. Who would do away with this beauty? That too with coffee still in it… She decided to keep it and left the saucer. She dumped the coffee and took the cup home for a good cleaning.

She cleaned the cup and wiped it with a dish cloth. Her heart nearly stopped when she turned to place the cup in the tray. The saucer was waiting there. She thought she had probably brought it home and forgotten. She washed it and by the time she turned to place it below the cup, she saw the cup full of hot coffee.

But how?… She was certain that this was no regular coffee cup. It had been springing surprises from the moment she set eyes on it. Something scared her guts. But for now she was taken in by the intoxicating aroma of the coffee blended with herbs, spices and caramelized sugar. She could hold back no longer. She lifted the cup and took a sip. She had never had coffee like that. A strange energy came over her as she finished the coffee.

As soon as she set the cup down, it was full again and Asha couldn’t hold back. She had a second cup of coffee. She felt like she could do anything now. So, she got down to that Business Report she had to make, then the research for the next 5 episodes of the news podcast. She then cleaned her whole house.

Just when she thought of sitting down, the coffee cup shone bright on the dining table and that, by now, familiar aroma. She had another cup of coffee. It was 3 am. She wondered if she could go dancing with someone. Maybe Rahul? That creep had been hinting at going out.

So, she called Rahul and they decided to go to a pub. She wore her mini LBD and magenta lipstick. Rahul picked her up. But they didn’t speak a word with each other. From the moment she sat in his car, she played music and when they got to the pub, Asha kept dancing on the floor, unstoppable. Rahul was left feeling like an Uber driver.

When Rahul was dropping Asha, he touched her thigh as if to move closer. She yanked his hand and pushed it away saying, ‘Thanks for the ride…’

Back home, she walked in to the same beautiful aroma but felt like sleeping. A strange tussle inside her – should she go to bed or should she have another cup of that enticing coffee? Just then, she walked past her bedroom and saw someone lying there. What! She was gripped with fear… she wished she had brought Rahul home… Who in God’s name was that person? Or was it a ghost?

She went close to them. Asha was sleeping on the bed! ….’But, but I am here…’ She tried to touch her body and her body moved letting out slow breaths. She was sleeping. Then who was this person standing in the bedroom, her head heavy with coffee?

She decided not to have anymore of that coffee – it spelt trouble. Something was strange about it. She checked her reports and research work… it was all gibberish. Useless. ‘But how can this be? I wrote it myself…’

Nothing she had done that night was anything. The house was the same mess though she scrubbed and cleaned it, her work was not usable, and she was out of her body in some kind of horror. ‘It must be the cup…’

In a fit of rage, Asha threw the cup outside the kitchen window and went to the bedroom to sleep. Within minutes, she could smell the aroma of coffee. She stepped out of the bedroom to find the coffee cup full of coffee on the dining table.

She tried everything to get rid of the cup. She hammered it and broke it but it came back.

She tried burning it so that it would crack but it was back.

She spent the whole night and the next morning trying to get rid of the coffee cup but, oh, what could she do? It always came back full of coffee.

She couldn’t go to work because she couldn’t leave herself sleeping on the bed. She refused to let the maid enter.

Then she had an idea – She picked up the cup and saucer and wrapped it up in a small cardboard box. The next day was Saturday and the rag picker would do rounds.

She called him home and handed the cardboard box for free. The rag picker took it happily.

Once the cup was out of her home, Asha could merge into her sleeping body and get a full day’s rest. Much needed.

Asha woke up around 7pm in horror. The aroma of coffee! She searched the house and felt relieved that she had no reason to worry anymore. It was nowhere to be seen. Maybe her head was playing games with her.

Just then, the bell rang. She opened the door. On the doormat sat the beautiful coffee cup full of aromatic coffee.

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