RUMA and JABARI

Chapter 3

Jabari has now been working for Ruma for two weeks. It was pleasant, but he did not like the fact that he was hiding his identity. This has given him countless sleepless nights. The real assistant is yet to show up. Ultimately, he decided to tell her the entire truth. He was confident that it would get him fired. However, he has grown weary of not telling her the truth.

On the other hand, he continued to monitor Alan closely, trying to uncover his motive. Still, nothing seemed out of place or suspicious. On the contrary, Alan has been nothing but nice and caring to Ruma, well, except for the lie. Over the two weeks, they had 3 lunches together, which were all cordial.

Ruma has a lunch appointment with Alan today. Since Jabari knew he was going with her, he decided to reveal the truth today in front of Alan. So he braced himself. Today was a busy day at the Tea shop. However, Ruma still created time to see Alan. When they arrived, he was under the hood of a car he was working on. He hauled his Hello, "come have a look."

Ruma moved closer; she could not make sense of what she saw. However, she did not say a thing and just watched him work.

"It is an oil leak problem, I fixed it last week, but it seems something is wrong," Alan explained.

"Is it that bad?" Ruma asked.

"No, I'm almost done."

"Okay," Ruma said.

A few moments later, Alan took a napkin to clean the oil out of his hand before closing the car's hood. Ruma stepped away but unknowingly hit a table containing engine oil, spilling it on herself and staining her cream blouse. On seeing that, Jabari charged in.

"There is a water hose", Alan pointed out as he went to turn on the tap from the back. Four water hoses were lying on the ground. Jabari took the first one and sprayed it at Ruma. The mouth seemed small, but the water came out hard, knocking her off before he knew it. That took her by surprise. Jabari opened his mouth to apologise. But, before he could do that, she picked another hose, drenching him as well. Seeing that Jabari fired back also, within minutes, they were soaking wet. Alan stood there looking at them like children, not knowing what to do; he reached for the tap and turned it off, concluding he had seen enough.

They looked at each other before laughter erupted from their chest. At that moment, Jabari realised this was the first time he had seen his boss laugh and carefree since he saw her again.

"Seeing that you are all wet, I reckon lunch is cancelled today." Alan said, which brought them back to reality.

"Yes, it seems so," Ruma replied.

"So it's a rain check?" Alan asked

"Yes," Ruma answered.

Jabari gathered the water hoses and put them away. Then, taking a deep breath, he approached them to tell them what he had intended.

Ruma spoke while reaching for her pocket, saying,

"Tomorrow is Saturday..."

"Yes," Alan responded

"There is this poetry thing," Ruma started. Pulling the poetry tickets she bought, which were now slightly wet. She hesitated and then asked him, "Ah how's your poem writing going?" she asked. It is also one of the few things she remembered from her past.

"My poem writing? I never wrote poems, it is not my thing," Alan said without a second thought.

"It is not your thing," Ruma asked, surprisingly. Perhaps her memory had failed her. But she still had the lines she exchanged with the mechanic. They were signed 'J.'