The Plan

Creative Writing Competition 2012 India
CODE	473
SETTING	Terrace OR Bedroom OR Living Hall
OBJECT	Any Jewellery – Necklace, Ring…
THEME	True Love Triumphs

It was silence. Outside the window was a picture of darkness. The bedroom light was still on. The clock was ticking. Even this slight sound was heard in her ears. Accompanying her was nothing more than the clinical sound of tranquil. She kept rolling in the bed. Her insomnia these few days stemmed from her planning of action for the next days. She recalled herself bringing her children to her mother’s place that evening.

“What’s going on? Why do they have to stay in my house for some time?”

She sighed helplessly, ordering herself not to think too much. She must get enough rest for tomorrow’s action. It was really time for her to sleep.

“Why does he still not return home?”

She took a glance at the clock on the bedside cabinet. It was now 11:40 pm. She couldn’t help but thought,

“Is he still angry? He didn’t return home for dinner for the past few days. He left home early and did not return until very late. In fact I was aware of his return. But I always pretended to be sleeping, as I don’t know how to face him. He lied by my side. I heard his deep sigh. I have always managed to sleep only until sunrise.”

By the time she woke up, he must have already gone to work, leaving behind only a few words on a note, ‘I’m not coming back for dinner. Don’t wait for me.’

The result was that she felt exhausted, and at the same time she got a pair of black eyes. That morning she went to consult the doctor. The doctor gave her a pack of sleeping pills.

“Sorry.” She murmured. “If things could start over again, would they be less bad?”

The woman got off her bed, and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Then she put it on the bedside cabinet and took out the sleeping pills from her handbag.

She sat on the bed, reminiscing how she met her husband while they were working in a factory.

Her name was Fong, a girl coming from a village. Not long after their marriage, her husband was promoted to foreman due to his diligence. At the advent of their first child, she decided to resign from her work and focused on taking care of their family.

She seemed to hear what her husband had been frequently telling her.

“You are always doing things so recklessly, yet you are so naïve. Promise me, think thrice before you act.”

“If I had listened to you, I should not have such trouble.”

She swallowed a sleeping pill with water.

Then Fong lied on bed again. Before the pill took effect, the sweet memories of the time just after her marriage resurfaced.

She had discovered a little secret of her husband.

“Why are there so many rings?” She discovered a black box in her husband’s drawer, inside it there were about sixty gold rings.

“Oh, it’s just a memento. This has become my habit. Starting from the first time I went to work in the society, I purchase a gold ring on the first day of salary day. It serves as a reward to me.”

“Do you see this as a kind of savings?”

“Nope. This is a hobby. I would not sell them. I would collect and cherish them.”

Lying on the bed, and thinking of this, tears of remorse dropped from the woman’s face.

Their marriage life could be said as harmonious, and their three children were lovely. When the children reached their age to study, she had more free time to get along with her neighbourhood housewives.

One day, the crowd decided to visit a newly opened casino for an adventure. Fong was interested, and so together they tried their luck.

“I won! Just as I said I was full of luck!”

The first time of winning started her future nightmare. This kind of wonderful feeling prompted her to follow the crowd to try their luck in casinos. If anyone wished to go, she would join. She had won several times in a row. Until the last time, she lost all her money. The next day, she withdrew the money which was reserved for emergency use and went to venture in a casino alone.

“Madam, your luck was bad. Need some more money?”

Fong hesitated.

“Madam, don’t you wish to try again? You may win back all.”

She walked several steps, and thought “If I make one more venture, I should win back all that I have lost.”

She turned back and walked towards the man, who lent her the money.

“Madam, your luck is not good today.”

Afterwards two men accompanied her back home. Her husband opened the door.

One of the men said “You are her husband?”

“Yes. What’s happening?”

“Oh, she is my boss’s debtor. She is your wife! So you need to pay her debt now!”

Her husband took a glance at Fong. She shamefully lowered her head.

“How much did she owe?”

At that moment they told him the amount, what Fong saw was his stupefied face.

He took some banknotes out of his wallet and handed to them.

“These are for you. I don’t have the money that much now. May you give me more time?”

“Considering this, we will give you seven days. Remember to pay the debt! We need all in cash, got it? We always have ways to make our clients pay their debts.”

After the men left, the whole house was filled with an air of stillness. Her husband told the children to go to their room to sleep.

The two, in the bedroom, sat there quietly with their heads drooping.

“It’s almost my two-year’s salaries in total.” He sighed. “I have to go out for a walk.”

“I am sorry.”

Fong felt that the effect of sleeping pill had set in. She saw her husband coming into the bedroom. She wanted to tell him about tomorrow’s plan, but she was too tired to do so. At that moment she began a trip to dreamland, she reminded herself “I must tell him my plan tomorrow.”

When Fong woke up, it was already 9 am.

“Oh, time is not early!”

When she ran out of the bedroom, she saw her husband packing things into a backpack.

She hurriedly finished her washing, and then summoned up the courage and told her husband.

“Sorry, I apologize for what I have done. Please don’t be angry with me. I have thought it through. We would leave immediately and find a place for shelter!”

“Fong, I have already…”

“Let’s get out of here at once!” She broke off her husband’s words. “If we get discovered by them we would be in deep trouble.”

She hurried into the bedroom pulling out her suitcase, readily packed, from the wardrobe.

“Fong, listen to me. I have …”

At that moment Fong opened the door. She stood still. Those two men were standing outside the door already, one of them who lent her money at the casino were smoking cigarettes, with a look as if on the prowl.

“Are you trying to escape?” He said.

Fong was so frightened that she couldn’t utter a word.

“No. We are going to pay back the debt to you. Come in!” Her husband pulled her to a side.

She saw her husband taking out a pile of banknotes from his backpack and the satisfied faces of the men. Later, the two men left, and Fong was paralyzed, still enmeshed in a fright.

Fong knew afterwards that her husband had sold all the gold rings and withdrawn all his savings. He had also gone around asking friends and relatives for money, in an attempt to repay her debt.

“Aren’t you angry with me?”

He confessed “In fact, I was very angry with you at first. But I cannot tolerate myself not being able to solve your problem when you are in difficulty even more. I don’t want you to be sad and despondent. Furthermore, I can’t bear losing you.”

She was so moved that she almost burst into tears.

It had been a hard time for them, really. Fong used the time when the children were at school to do part-time jobs to help their living. And her husband stopped the habit of buying gold rings to repay their new debts to friends and relatives. But now, after two years, they have fully paid their debts.

“From now on, on every salary pay day, I will buy a gold ring for you, my dear.” She proffers him a gold ring.

“I will do the same, my dear.” Out of his trousers’ pocket, he takes out a ring.

__END__