Sara and Kumar(Not Harold and Kumar)

It was 8:30 in the morning, the room was lit dimly, the sun managed to shine through the hazel colored blinds. Sara woke up to a subtle fragrance of her favourite kind of flowers. She moved to the side of her bed making an effort to reach for the moisture laden bouquet, under all of it was a small piece of paper that read, “Happy Anniversary love. Gone to get eggs, will be back soon!”. Sara chuckled with excitement. 

She sat before her portable computer, untangled her earphones and waited for the system to boot. Now with tangle free earphones and a fully booted computer she proceeded to listen to slow jazz while working on her final year thesis. The sound of tapping keys stayed prevalent for about half an hour, the typing halted. Where did he go? The grocery store he frequents is only a few blocks away, she wondered.

Sara walked to the door and next to her sandals were her husband’s loafers; she found this uncanny, Kumar and his Loafers were inseparable. Kumar never goes anywhere without his loafers, she thought to herself. Upon closer inspection she discovered that the loafers looked stuffed, she picked them up and placed them on the coffee table. There was a stack of dollar bills in one and a concealed drawstring bag in the other. With great astonishment she counted the cash and the sum came up to twenty thousand dollars, her eyes grew wide. She placed the cash on one side and shifted her focus toward revealing the contents of the tiny drawstring bag, somehow she cut her finger, the bag dropped to the floor, shiny rocks scattered all over. Sara flinched and sucked on her finger, she kneeled, eyes ever wider, “Diamonds? It can’t be!” she exclaimed.

Sara and Kumar had been happily married for two years, they met in highschool and had fallen in love instantly, they were soulmates. “Soul mates are a myth, soul mates don’t exist” was the popular opinion ; but Sara and Kumar as a couple always illuminated hope to those who initially held none. They were inseparable, they always held hands when they walked to places, they coexisted in a similar realm. Anything they did they did together, anywhere they went they stayed together. They were the epitome of true love. They had planned their future together long before they had gotten married, they wanted two children, one of each preferably. They’d grow old and hopefully travel to god’s humble abode together, they obviously were big fans of The Notebook.

Sara replaced the items the way she had found them and sat up on a chair, she felt perplexed and scared, she was frantic with worry. What if Kumar had run into trouble, why would he hide such things from me, she kept thinking. He hasn’t yet returned, she reminded herself. She wore her sandals and looked out the window, the glass was covered with rain drops. It was drizzling, she grabbed her purple umbrella, shut her apartment’s door and made her way down the stairs. 

She opened her umbrella and walked along the sidewalk, she suddenly realised she couldn't breathe. All that anxiety was evolving into a panic attack, she froze, she turned sideways and stared into the ocean. Flashes of worst case scenarios on what might have happened to Kumar kept hitting her like water from a faucet. Could he have died? Maybe someone killed him. She kept picturing blood, a knife smeared with her husband’s blood; a crime scene, chalk outline around his cold lifeless corpse. Sara kept thinking what life would be like for her in a world without her husband, she gripped her umbrella tighter and started weeping quietly. 

The wind was cold, her tears crystalised leaving traces of tear marks on her cheeks. Paranoia had always only come to her when she was worried about the people she cared about. She had once been close to her father and had lost him at a very young age, she had been terrified of loss ever since. She gathered her strength and turned forward only to see Kumar walking towards her, holding a carton of eggs in one hand and his umbrella in the other. He had his earphones plugged in, he was so engrossed in the music he was listening to, that he completely failed to notice his wife standing only a few meters away. Sara was relieved yet mad, she flung her umbrella to the ground and ran to him, and when he actually noticed his wife approaching him with a not so pleasant look on her face, he felt a sharp blow to his gut, he dropped his eggs and fell to his feet. 

“What did you do that for?”

“What do you mean, what did I do that for? I was worried sick, I thought I had lost you forever.”

“Relax, I had just been to the market to get us eggs, and look what you did, the eggs are all broken!’

“Enough about the eggs, you disappeared for an hour and a half, it doesn’t take an hour and a half just to walk out here to get us a few eggs.”

“But the eggs we needed weren’t available here, so I had to walk further..”

“I said enough about the eggs.”

“But I am just explaining..”

“Yes please, please explain to me why I found what I found hidden inside those loafers you're so fond of.”

“Oh, is that what this is about?”

“You think? How did you get hold of that much cash? And the diamonds, the diamonds, how? Just how? Do you lead a double life I don’t know about? Are you an illegal dealer of some kind? What do you deal with? Diamonds? Drugs?”

“Woah, woah, Sara, just come with me I will explain.”

And so Kumar and Sara held hands once again as he led their way back to the apartment, Sara remained quiet. They were inside now, all drenched, wet and cold, there was no time to dry off, Sara needed an answer right away and Kumar seemed ready to provide her with a reasonable one.

He took his Loafers, placed them on the coffee table, he reached in with each of his hands and pulled out the two items that had caused this situation in the first place. He opened up the drawstring bag, took out a diamond, and walked to the kitchen. Sara followed him without saying a word, he lit the stove, placed the diamond on a spoon and held it above the fire. The spoon started conducting heat and the diamond melted instantly. Sara took a step back to avoid the intoxicating fumes of the supposed diamond. Alas, it wasn’t a diamond at all, it was a tiny piece of plastic, it just happened to look similar to a diamond, this meant that the whole drawstring bag was filled with superfluous pieces of plastic.

“Sara, you see, diamonds don’t melt this easily, this is plastic, I wanted to prank you. I thought..I don’t know what I was thinking, I mean I hadn’t actually come up with a proper plan to prank you, but I guess it kind of did work somehow on some level as an unplanned accidental prank”, he laughed nervously.

“You Jerk!”, she exclaimed, “What about the money then? You’re going to burn that too and show me?”

“Oh, No, No, No, No, the money is a hundred percent real”, he grinned.

“What? I didn’t know we had saved that much money.”

“Well, I’ve been saving Twenty Dollars a day since three years or so.”

“And I didn’t know this, why?”

“Well I wanted to surprise you.” 

“SURPRISE”, he yelled

“Happy Anniversary, I’ve also got us plane tickets to the Bahamas”

Sara felt joy course through her veins, but she kept it to herself, she manifested her not so pleasant face to her husband. She was genuinely happy now, Kumar was safe, she was safe, she decided to subtly ignore Kumar for a while until she felt entirely satiated, he deserves this she felt.

Not long after, both of them proceeded to the main door, all dressed up and packed, ready to fly away to their designated vacation location.

Kumar had been apologising profusely to her, he was relentless when it came to pleasing his wife, he loved her, he felt she deserved the best, he never failed to satisfy.

Sara pulled out her camera and placed it on top of the television set, she ran to Kumar across the room, pinched his cheeks, “I forgive you, you big bunny”, she said. They stood there posing for the camera, the flash went off and the moment had become immortalized. 

They shook hands, hugged each other, “I love you”, they said simultaneously.

They held hands as they boarded the plane, they sat next to each other, still holding hands. The plane took off.