Starr wasn’t feeling well. Attributing it to the sudden change in temperature outside, she trudged morosely, without any feelings of productivity towards the kitchen to wolf down the three pieces of cheese burst pizza left over from last night. She couldn’t find her phone, and it bothered her for some reason, probably the absence of its familiar metal body clamped firmly between her hands. Shrugging she let the thought go astray. She would do without her device for a few minutes, no big deal, it wasn’t as if she was expecting anything to be conveyed that couldn’t wait. But what if there was something somewhere that needed to be communicated to her? From her job? Her boyfriend? Her parents?
Forgetting all thoughts about the pizza, she rushed back into her bedroom and threw the polka-dotted bed sheet to the floor, her eyes straining to catch the hopeful sound of her mobile falling on the floor. There was no sound. Frowning, she went to the bathroom half expecting to see it lying on top of the flush. It wasn’t. Frantic, by now, she gazed at the locked door on the other side of the hallway where her roommate was probably sleeping soundly. Debating about it for half a second, she leapt towards the hallway like a tigress on a mission, her hair flying wildly across her face, along with a few drops of perspiration beginning to form on her forehead. She nearly crashed into the door in haste. She didn’t care that she was as naked as a new-born baby. She banged the door with all her might, and to her surprise the door opened with ease under her force, and revealed two figures on the visible bed. Both of them were women. Starr had just interrupted a passionate session of love-making.
“Starr? What’s the matter”, her roommate stared at her from an awkward angle, her head clearly was being focused on something better. Her partner stared at Starr with animal lust. No one spoke for a couple of seconds, only their eyes roamed over each other, with each digesting every detail of the scene, including their bodies. To Starr’s utter consternation, she felt like joining them, who were clearly having a great time with each other.
“Starr?”, her roommate’s voice beckoned again. “Do you want to join us?”
“I’m so sorry. Have you seen my phone?”
“What?”
“My phone is missing”, Starr said tearfully.
“Babe, don’t you remember about last night?”
“No! What happened?”, Starr nearly shouted. She couldn’t bear it any more. She felt incomplete without her phone, it felt like a part of her family now. Her father had gifted it to her three years ago on her eighteenth birthday, as a surprise. She had kissed him in joy. What a night that had been. She had lost her virginity on the same night, to her best friend. They were still going strong, much to her peers’ surprises. She was often said she was very lucky. A liberal set of parents who had never held her back, a good school and an amazing college, from where she had graduated last year. She truly believed in life’s gifts, and behaved accordingly. She was of the opinion that there was a defined way to live life, and happiness courtesy luck would follow automatically. She woke up early everyday at six, went for a run, had a hearty breakfast, called her parents, worked from home for a couple of hours for an acclaimed film director where her role was to come up with innovative scripts, met one friend everyday and spent the evenings and nights with Sins, her boyfriend at the club, or the movies or a new restaurant. There was no dull moment in her life. At times she would become deeply philosophical, and think about life’s great mysteries, but relatively she preferred not to think too much, and rather focus on making the best use of life, which was to seek pleasure in everything.
She didn’t smoke nor drink hard alcohol, preferring to stick to two vices, beer and marijuana. The best sex sessions of her life were achieved with marijuana, and she wished that state of mind when both of them climaxed, would enable them to communicate with their Creator, such was the intensity of that particular high, that they would remain motionless in ecstasy, still intertwined in each other’s arms speaking soft words in each other’s ears about their future. Getting dressed, they would usually head to the nearby bistro to have dinner with beer. Many a times, Starr’s landlord had caught Sins leaving her flat the next morning, and would demand an explanation from Starr about their agreement regarding a strict ‘no boys’ rule. Sins would usually calm the landlord with some marijuana, away from the snooping gaze of his grumpy wife, who had a bad nose for Starr, probably because she didn’t like people enjoying their lives.
“Starr, are you alright?”, her roommate’s voice snapped Starr out of her trance.
“I’m good. What happened to my phone?”
“Starr, I’m so sorry. It was a complete chaos here last night. After Sins left, I had a quarrel with the guy who was sporting the weird beard. Do you at least remember him?”
“Ah yes, he tried to flirt with me. I asked him to keep his hands to himself”
“You mean on himself. Anyway, Starr, the scene was, he had the same phone as you. A One Plus One. The very first one which was put on the market”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
“I’m so sorry Starr”, her roommate was on the verge of tears. Starr stared at her. A faint intuition told her that she would never see her phone again.
“I was high, Starr. I had had whiskey and rum too”
“Go on”, said Starr, folding her hands. The other woman was still looking at her body with wanton lust, while her roommate’s head was dangerously close to the woman’s sweet spot, as she spoke to Starr with increasing urgency.
“I got pissed. I seized his phone and locked myself into the bathroom. I took the biggest shit of my life and flushed your phone with it”
Marijuana Maharaj 