The law of dreams

short story by RAJ PAUL SANDHU

‘‘But Officer, this is a dream, for God’s sake; the rule of law doesn’t apply in dreams. Please take those handcuffs off me!” he almost screamed, as the officer finished polishing the mini Miranda Warning in his eardrums, while pushing his face onto the wall. *** the house on the corner, just when you turn left from ‘J’ street is scary as hell. The owner is an ancient woman who looks like Lalita Pawar crossed with John Howard. One night when we were driving back from movies, Kareena and I saw her running naked in the park. She was holding something that looked like a young baby. She stood in front of the wall and sang, ‘Kanna munna kurrr… truth is gone furrrrr’. A door appeared out of nowhere…. She walked through it, and then it went vanished…. I was frightened to death!”

As the first rays of the sun smuggled into his bedroom through the blinds, he rolled his hand across the cold bedsheet with his eyes still closed. “Where are you, Kareena?” he mumbled, extending his arm towards her end of the bed. Where had she gone? His brain tried to work it out still while half sleep.

He opened an eye and saw the alarm clock; it was 8am.

“Maybe she’s taking a shower,” he thought and fell asleep again. After a short nap, he got up and walked to the kitchen with short lethargic steps. “But today is Saturday. She sleeps in on Saturdays,” he told himself, filling a glass with water from the tap.

He looked around in the lounge, checked the garage and walked back to the bathroom, knocking on the door. “Kareena... Kareena!” he called frantically. No answer. “Where the hell …?” Now his heart began to sprint. He quickly searched the whole house again. He was now wide awake, but Kareena was nowhere to be found. He ran back to his room, picked up his mobile and dialled her number. As the phone started ringing, he followed its familiar ring tone, and found her mobile on the kitchen bench.

“Now Officer, who doesn’t have arguments? Every relationship has its ups and downs. You don’t kill your wife over a trivial thing,” argued Dev.

“Mr Dadia, would you like a glass of water?”

“Thanks, Officer.” while cleaning the roof gutters, I swear to God, Officer!”

“Perhaps Kareena was a closet lesbian. She just needed some time away from me to clear her mind. Maybe she calculated that I would be humiliated by her cheating, and get called names for turning my wife gay… Perhaps all this time she was lying to me about going to see her best friend. That makes sense because, each time we got into an argument (and she had begun picking fights more often lately), she would use this as an excuse to leave for this best friend’s house. Or could it be that she ran away with her doctor friend? Kareena, I don’t like it when you ignore me in front of your friends…”

“Dev, wake up!” The officer grabbed Dev’s hair, abruptly waking him up.

“Oh, sorry! But I’m telling you the truth. There were lots things not common between us. Arranged marriage is a thing of the past now, I told Kareena that many times. I think we were the last set of Gen Y who went in for an arranged marriage. If she comes back now I will tell her so. Who are we fooling? This is our life, if we are not happy then what’s the point of living together?”

“I love you, Kareena…”

“She shouldn’t have checked my emails. That’s just not acceptable, officer!”

“I need a smoke.”

“Perhaps like Kalash women, she’s offered herself in marriage to another man who has way more money than me.”

“But I don’t know where she is…Seriously, I don’t!”

“We have found the body, Mr Dev Dadia. You are under arrest for the murder of your wife. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a Court of Law.”

“But officer, this is dream. The rule of law doesn’t apply in dreams!”

“Kareena …Kareena!”

“This is no dream. Look in this mirror, who do you see?”

Raj Sandhu is an active member of the Australian Society of Authors

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