Pieces of the Puzzle

Twin-I called out of the blue, 'I have to tell you something. Promise me you won't breathe to a soul.'

 

'I promise', I said hastily without thinking obviously dying to hear what he had to say to me after all these years. It being a secret kinda escalated my curiosity to higher planes.

 

‘I am serious about this being hush-hush. If you feel like telling someone, please call me and tell me only, Ok! He seemed really concerned about trusting me. I would be too, if I were in his place. I have a reputation of having a ‘hollow-mouth’ (a Tamil saying which makes sense in a weird way). Some people say I have no mouth, its only holes.

 

‘Ok baba… if you don’t want to say it, you are free to leave me alone. You called remember’, I said indignantly, taking a great risk. The risk of actually forgoing the right to learn something dark and dirty. It better be juicy, I thought.

 

‘Alright Alright… here it is. My brother, Twin-II is going through an ugly divorce from the Bitch.’

 

I gasped. Just one year of their marriage. I offered sympathy and joined him in Bitch bitching. Feeling choked with emotion that Twin-I found a compassionate confidant in me, I offered any help I could render.

 

 

“Of course, why do you think I called you, in the first place. You said your best friend knew Bitch.. so… I thought you might shed some light on her past so that we have a solid case in court proving that she is indeed a psycho.”

 

“Wait a minute! I have no association with her. I hadn’t even heard of her till your brother got married to her.”

 

Hmm… Egad..yes! now I remember.

 

Flashback to 1 year ago. (I am in pigtails and baggy jeans)

 

Nice Guy who is a great friend of mine and a great friend of Twin-II told me that Twin-II was going to get married soon. “Why is it not out in the public yet? Is he even planning on inviting us?” I wondered aloud.

 

Nice guy shrugged and didn’t want to get into any controversy like any other nice guy,’ Don’t tell anyone that I told you’.

 

I typed a mail to our school-mailing group so that I could share this news with everyone.

 

Dear Twin-II,

My best friend, Priya has a best friend called Bitch. Priya says Bitch is getting married to some Twin-II from our school. Are you the one? If yes, wow! Congrats!

 

-Alpha.

 

He owned up and thus the entire junta knew that he got married.

 

Back to present days. (Eating left over Tao Hoo Pad Bai Kaprao and talking to Twin-I)

 

‘Oh yeah! Oops, I lied.’

 

‘You did what? Me and my family was banking on you to help us in this case.’

 

‘Sorry. Wish I could be of some help’.

 

Twin-I quickly hangs up the phone after warning me of the dire consequences of blurting out this news.

 

‘I wouldn’t dream of it’ I assure him.

 

I fought mentally and physically to stop myself from spreading this gossip. My best friend came in, I plastered my face with Band-Aid (waterproof). ‘Any news?’ she asked and I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in sheer pain. Snatching my prerogative to be the first to deliver this piece of information was the worst punishment… but I bore it all. I came out victorious for an whole hour when she told me,

 

'BTW, I’m sure you’ve heard. Twin-II is getting a divorce.’

Hmpfff!! Then I hear the same thing from 6 other people. 'Don't tell anyone , OK'.