Death Cry They are listening...

Chapter 1

As Samantha Ray balanced her 120 pounds on her tiny Chinese-woman feet, frozen almost to death by the sight of the chocolate brown rat that sat staring back at her arrogantly from under the chair, her father’s words tolled like two heavy bells in her mind. “Remember it is the size that counts! It should be the one afraid of you. Squash the pest to the death that it deserves.”But Samantha knew she never really could. For though the creature was smaller than her, she was scared of its tiny glassy eyes, the streaks of violent black that ran across its brown body, and it’s thin, creepy-looking tail that swished back and forth on the carpeted floor. The whole scene always reminded her of the crocodiles she saw on National Geographic when they were cornered by one of those pesky show-hosts. But what stopped Samantha more than anything more to just lift her sneaker from the ground and smack the fat body of the immobile rodent with it, was the delicate movement she always managed to notice on its tiny, bloated body; the movement of its lungs going up and down, the flicker of fear that slipped into its glassy eyes the moment it noticed her, and every other movement on its tiny palm-sized body that symbolized life. In Samantha’s eyes these little movements got multiplied by the intensity of a thousand, bringing forth in her a wave of pity merged with a sublime respect for the tiny creature that was trying to survive even in the face of her mammoth figure. This respect grew with the fact that it just sat there looking at her, with a self-respect she had seldom seen even in humans, instead of scurrying away like any other pest. So, like always, this time too, Samantha stopped the sound of her father’s words in her mind and taking a deep breath took a few steps backwards and then many more in the direction opposite to that of the rat, running. Samantha seemed to be running all the time; her sneakers were her best friends, just like time seemed to have sworn to be her worst enemy. She was always late; rushing, panting, fuming, tense, and then, more late. “Young lady, finish your bacon before those feet step out of our house, or you’re going to have hell to pay.”Samantha’s mother’s shrill voice broke through the silence of the house. But all it managed to touch was the air that Samantha’s body left behind in its wake. At that moment all that Samantha cared about was getting to her office on time, or she knew, there would be real hell to pay. Her hair was disheveled and her blouse crumpled; she had not had the time to iron out her clothes or comb her hair. She had pulled on a blazer on top of her blouse to hide its disarrayed state and she would have to run the comb through her hair real quick as she sat waiting in her car for the traffic light to change. There would be many opportunities for her to make herself look presentable during her ride from home to her office, so that was not her concern right now. What made her heart beat faster and her breath come up in short gulps was the thought of the being late or more precisely, getting to her office after a certain person did. Samantha was pretty much used to this rush; so much so, that as she pulled her car out of her driveway, reversing at a speed that most people wouldn’t even dare to drive forwards, her right hand reached deep into her dashboard searching frantically for the comb that she had thrown in there just the previous day. But then she had also thrown a lot of other things in there during the day and that explained why it took her a good five minutes to finally get her hand on it. “Hey there Sam.”Eaton’s breezy voice swept through the narrow passage that outlined the 5 ft by 5 ft cubicles like a sleepy python, to welcome Samantha into the office. His voice wrapped her body like a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day. “Hey, E.T. Is she in?”Samantha voice trembled in anticipation of what could be the worst news of the day. As Eaton’s head shook in an almost
imperceptible nod all the color drained out of Samantha’s face. But then she noticed the twinkle in his eyes. “You little twerp!”What followed was what had come to be known as almost a ritual at the Public Works Department; Samantha first rushing towards Eaton in mock anger, Eaton laughing merrily and not budging from his seat, Samantha landing her 120 pound body excitedly on Eaton’s muscular frame and Eaton then playing the gentleman by calming her down. They were the two youngest members of the office and the rest of their grown-up colleagues had just come to accept this behavior as a part of working with youngsters. They had come to understand that Eaton and Samantha who had known each other since they were just days old, had no inhibitions or secrets with each other. They forgot to see the two youngsters as belonging to different sexes and treated them as the closest buddies or the best of girlfriends. It just made things a lot simpler for everyone. The chatter that followed constituted for most of the conversation that would take place in the office for the day. “Pink today huh! Isn’t this the blouse we picked up at Spencer’s? It looks much better now than it did then.”“You’re such a doll, E.T! Stop being so nice to me! It just makes me feel like the rest of the world is the meanest.”“So, did you finish your bit of the report? Oh! Did I tell you, Chandler is coming down for good? He’s finished his course and will be shifting back home tomorrow”“What? When? No, you didn’t tell me! Does that mean you’ve known for long? Why do you do this Eaton? You know you don’t have to ever feel insecure about him? The two of you are in two different leagues altogether. You are my best friend and he’s…”“Okay shut up, Sam! I just got to know this morning myself. So have you done the report?”“When’s he coming? And who told you? I hope it wasn’t that bitch, Angel! She seems to know everything about him first. Why do you think that’s so?”“Well, it was Angel and I don’t know why she knows everything about him. But something in my gut tells me that maybe it’s because they are both seeing each other. Like…duh! Sam. Stop going after goodies you can’t have.”A pause. “I couldn’t quite finish the report because you never did send me the documents and the research about the rodent infestation last year.”“Samantha, I gave that to you in your flash drive as you were leaving for work yesterday remember. ‘’“Oh Shit! Yeah. Now what?”“Don’t worry! I’ve done that bit of the report. I had a feeling you’d forget. In fact I even called your place this morning but as usual your phone was switched off.”As the sound of Samantha’s and Eaton’s chatter slowly increased in volume filling every nook and cranny of the room threatening to reach a deafening crescendo which would eventually tickle their realization that they weren’t the only ones who occupied the room, and that in fact there were twenty-five other pairs of ears keenly listening to their interesting conversation, the sound of clicking heels came up the stairs. Like a candle in a storm, their chatter abruptly ceased and Samantha slid into the seat next to Eaton’s pretending to stare into the blank computer screen in front of them. She always arrived in the same order, first the sound of her heels elegantly hurrying up the stairs, and no she never took the elevator because it was bound to be addictive; then her strong musk and spices perfume that wafted through the air of the room authoritatively occupying it’s various crannies, and then finally the sight of her, always in the freshest, neatest, most well-fitting clothes that Samantha had ever laid her eyes on in her life. Ms. Parker was fearfully revered by one and all in the Public Works Department. Ruthlessly professional, beautiful and well-spoken, effeminate yet authoritative, and a personification of elegance, she was everything their previous boss had not been. Hence, it didn’t come as a surprise to them when she replaced him. Samantha kept staring into the blank screen transfixed by a mixture of awe and fear that she always felt when Ms. Parker was around. Samantha was the same age as her, but not ever half as accomplished. And what made her feelings of inferiority worse was the look of unmasked infatuation that she saw in Eaton’s eyes every time Ms. Parker was around. He revered everything she said and did. From the way she ordered mass-exterminations of the canal pests, to the way she had sacked a couple of old and tired employees, to the way she flicked the few strands of hair that seemed to relentlessly keep falling into her eyes as she delivered her weekly pep speeches, Eaton adored everything about her. As the sound of her glass stilettos with which she seemed to climb the stairs with as much or maybe even more ease than Samantha could do so in her Sneakers, their animated conversation had faded into the air. As Samantha froze into a seat next to him, Eaton adjusted his purple tie (chosen mainly because purple was Ms. Parker’s favorite color), finger-combed his silky blonde hair into a casual yet neat style, flipped open the file that sat ready on his table and put on an expression of deep involvement on his comely face. “Ms. Ray, if you don’t mind me asking so, what exactly are you staring at?”The voice warm and firm, husky yet womanly tingled Eaton’s neck and a line of goose-bumps appeared all over his arms. Eaton thankful that he had chosen to wear a full-sleeved shirt today did not look up from his file. Ms. Parker’s voice did not have quite the same effect on Samantha. Her hands which were placed on the keyboard shivered with fright as she continued to stare into the blank screen. She dared not look into Ms. Parker’s face which in all its composure was sure to make her cry. Ms. Parker waited patiently. Finally, to Samantha’s relief Eaton’s voice broke the silence. “Good morning Ms. Parker. Samantha and I were just going over the report that was due today and Samantha is just trying to conceptualize its ending for us. She sure looks weird staring at the blank screen though.”Eaton’s warm laugh helped drive some of the fear out of Samantha’s body and she turned around and managed to smile at Ms. Parker weakly. Ms. Parker’s face broke into a casual smile which completely belied the words which sprang out of her mouth. “I hope you’re right Mr. Gray, for Ms. Ray’s sake.”As the only other door in the office apart from the main door, that is the door to Ms. Parker’s office slammed shut, Eaton’s eyes darted towards Samantha’s face. And as he had expected Samantha’s eyebrows were furrowed, her eyes were blinking rapidly, the corners of her lips were slightly lifted and her throat moved up and down as she frantically gulped at big mouthfuls of air. He knew what all of this meant. Even as Samantha’s eyes filled with tears, big large ones that began to silently make their way down her soft cheeks, Eaton had risen from his seat and begun searching for the packets of tissues that he always kept on his table for this very purpose. As Samantha rewound the events of the morning, from the moment she had jumped out of bed with that sinking feeling in her stomach of being late again, to looking at herself in her large mirror and feeling stupid and ugly, to the moment she had spotted the large brown rat which had intimidated her just like everything else on earth did, to her hurried and rash drive to office as she barely missed getting into several accidents, and finally, the verbal whiplash that had just been uttered from Ms. Parker’s lips, her tears flowed freely and unceasingly. She knew nobody except Eaton cared about her crying considering that she did it almost every other day and for no perceptible reason. Her head began to reel with thoughts of guilt, worthlessness, self-pity and pain when Eaton’s soft hands dabbed tenderly at her wet cheeks. “Come on now, Sam! Since when have you started taking her seriously?”Eaton’s voice was gentle and caring and somewhere deep within her disturbed self Samantha knew that he meant what he said as a balm for her feelings. But she was unable to control the surge of anger she felt towards him. “Since the time I realized that even you had joined her league, along with my parents and the brown rat.”She retorted and in a split second was walking away from him. As Eaton was left staring at Samantha’s disappearing behind, a huff of anger left behind where there had just been tears moments ago, the phone on his desk began to ring. “Mr. Gray, bring me the report, if it’s ready. And I’d like to see you alone please.”Shaking his head, he picked up the file that lay open on his table and walked towards Ms. Parker’s office.