A Girl in a Whirl

Contd. from previous issue (Part 23)\n\nTake it Sonia, talk to your mom.”, my mom-in-law handed the phone over to me after saying so. I was awestruck with a shock to see my mother-in-law’s dramatic fakepleasing rhetorical talk with my mom. What a big-time liar and cheat she was!\n\n“Sonia…Sonia…” my mom’s voice was coming. Repeating his threat, Sam signalled me to talk.\n\n“Yes mom!”, responding to my mom, I couldn’t help crying. Sam immediately disconnected the phone. I begged him to let me talk to my mom. My mother-inlaw told me if I talked to my mom showing my miseries, I wouldn’t be allowed to talk to her. I promised I wouldn’t and begged to be allowed to speak with my mom. Sam called Ludhiana again.\n\n“Sat Sri Akal bhenji! God knows how the phone got disconnected. These touchscreen phones are so useless if the screen touches our ear they get disconnected. Take dear Sonia, talk to your mom.”, my motherin-law gave me the phone. It was on speaker mode. “How are you mom?”, I asked.\n\n“We are fine, Sonia. We were very much worried about you. Why didn’t you call us for so many days? What were you doing? Didn’t you care for us at all?...”, my mom asked me several questions in a single breath. Before I replied, my sas glared at me signaling to speak as I was directed. “I just got so busy here and I couldn’t get time.”, I lied to my mom.\n\n“Sonia, I’m your mom. I can sense your truths and lies very well. Tell me truthfully what’s going on.”, my mom asked me. “Mom, I just …”, I didn’t know how to tell a perfect lie. Neither was I trained by my parents to do so.\n\nMy mom-in-law snatched the phone from me and started talking to my mom, “Bhenji, they have just come from the market. Let them have dinner. I’ll later get her to talk to you in all details. Sat sri akal.”, my mom-in-law finished the talk and disconnected the phone.\n\nBoth of them left the room. Lying on the bed, I kept crying. My stomach was aching. In a few minutes, Sam came up. His eyes were red with ire. He was looking at me angrily. He put his cell phone on charge on the side table of the bed and went to have a shower. I was having a premonition of a fight between us that evening. I was getting mentally prepared for any eventuality. I tried to use his phone but I couldn’t because it was locked. I saw a message at the bottom ‘Emergency calls only”\n\nJust then, the washroom door made a click. I kept the phone back immediately. Sam came out and slapped me very hard.\n\n“Your hands are in a lot of action these days.”, Sam thundered. I jumped over to the other side of the bed. I threatened him to face dire consequences if he moved ahead.\n\n“I’ll break your both hands today that you used to push me down last night. Sam almost ran to pounce at me. I jumped back over the bed on the previous side, picked up Sam’s phone and went into the washroom. I locked the door from inside. Sam began banging on the washroom-door and saying bad words to me relating my mom and my sister. Hearing those bangs, perhaps my mom-in-law, fatherin-law, jeth and jethani also had come up. I could listen their voices clearly. Sam was also threatening to kill me besides breaking my limbs and bones.\n\n“That’s it. I’m not going to take it anymore!”, deciding this, I called 9-1-1.\n\n“Police, fire or ambulance?”\n\n“Police” I replied.\n\n“Your name?”\n\n“Sonia Brar”\n\n“What’s the matter?”\n\nMy husband beating me.”, I tried to explain in incorrect English. The dispatcher could hear Sam’s banging at the door.\n\n“What language do you speak?”\n\n“Punjabi” I replied.\n\n“Your address?”\n\nI didn’t know the address. I tried to remember very hard, but I couldn’t. My eyes rested on the directory that I had forgotten on the toilet water tank.\n\nContd. in next issue