Not Really A Funny Valentine

Most of Saturday evening was gloomy. When he called at five, to ask me if I would join him at his club, I thought it would be the usual bawdy evening with high spirits.

I found him nursing a mug of beer long gone flat, arms on the table, head down, possibly deciphering every scratch on the wooden table. I ordered a fresh round of beer and waited till I had downed my first long gulp.

“Ok, out with it,” I said.

“Huh?” he looked up.

“Hey, I expect it to be like this tomorrow but I am not in the mood for it today,” said considerate moi.

“Tomorrow, that is exactly my problem,” he gave out a long sigh, reached for his mug, finished half of its contents, “bloody Valentine!”

“That’s the spirit,” I raised a silent toast to him.

“Do you remember how I was around this time in 2009?” he popped the rhetorical question and continued, “Man, I had lost my job, my wife left me, taking the kids with her, I was down, really down. Do you know how it is like in that state? Vulnerable, oh, was I vulnerable. I could have really fallen.”

I did not interrupt.

“But, she came along, a true God-send,” he said with a far-away look. “I will never forget the Valentine’s Day that year. She gave me back my life. She taught me the real meaning of love. Two three years went so fast.”

He moved ahead with the plot.

“I got a great new job. My wife returned with the kids.”

“Aha!” I exclaimed. “And, she had to go.”

He shrugged and nodded.

“Then, what’s the problem?” I asked.

“I am doing really well in this new job; promotion after promotion, bonuses beyond my expectations; that too now, when every economy is down.”

“Uh-huh,” I preferred him down in the dumps.

“Do you know how it feels like to be Superman? Man, you feel invincible. Others feel it too.”

He was really rubbing it in, I thought.

“Ok, what did Superman do?” I smirked or snarled.

“What could Superman do?” another rhetorical question. “She came along, didn’t she?”

“The old she…?” I asked.

“No, a new one I met a year back at a conference. Circumstances, man, just circumstances…”

“Now, will you tell me what the trouble is?” I was gloomy by then.

“Well, the wife and kids are still around,” he explained.

I nodded.

“And she has turned up.”

“The old she…?”

This time, I had hit bulls-eye.

“And it is V-day tomorrow,” he seemed truly sad, “Which one, man?”

“Well, there’s breakfast, lunch and dinner…” I ordered another round of beer.

It’s nearly a tradition, to post something related to V-day on these pages:

2015: http://justoneavatar.blogspot.in/2015/02/the-day-after.html

2014: http://justoneavatar.blogspot.in/2014/02/spouse-without-benefits.html

2012: http://justoneavatar.blogspot.in/2012/02/my-unfunny-valentine.html

2012: http://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.in/2012/02/my-funny-valentine.html

2011: http://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.in/2011/02/my-funny-valentine.html