Before, and Then After by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

Author:Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan [Madhavan, Meenakshi Reddy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mobilism
Publisher: Westland
Published: 2015-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

death friends forever

It wouldn’t have been so weird to see Munia after all this time, standing at Ragita’s front door, if Munia hadn’t been dead for twelve years.

‘Gosh, Rags,’ said Munia, in a strange drawling accent. ‘You got old.’

She hopped in, leaving Ragita gazing at her, and made her way into the living room. ‘Um, turn on the cooling machine please,’ she said, and lit a long, skinny cigarette. Ragita almost didn’t recognize her—was it Munia? But of course it was, there were the spiral curls, the heart-shaped face, the dimple trembling at the corner of her smile. She thought she had been slowly forgetting Munia, in fact, just the other day, she was thinking to herself how she couldn’t conjure up Munia’s voice any more, but listening to it now, her gravelly, low voice, watching her large eyes dart around the—admittedly messy—living room, seeing her perfect little nose crinkle the way it did whenever she didn’t like something, well, it was Munia all right.

Silently, Ragita closed the door and equally silently turned on the air-conditioner. The cigarette Munia was smoking was flamingo pink, and smelt like peppermint and jasmine. She looked the same as she had before she died, young skin, taut body, but her clothes were different—a long sea blue shift with beads along the neckline that looked like it was expensive. The old Munia would have been wearing shorts and a T-shirt, or the fashion of twelve years ago; this Munia managed to make her twenty-year-old face look adult. It was partly to do with the way she did her hair, long on one side, short on the other, shot through—were those stars?—with something that twinkled impossibly between curls like fairy lights.

‘I am exhausted, Rags. I mean, they warned me the trip would be rough, they did, but honestly, I thought it would be more advanced than that, we are in the twenty-sixth century after all, I said to Xidyion. And he was like, “You know it.” Anyway, can I take a nap?’

‘Munia,’ said Ragita, her voice a croak; she cleared her throat and tried again, ‘Munia, what are you doing here?’

‘Um, I came to see you? Hello? We used to be best friends, Rags!’ Munia hopped out of the armchair she was sitting in and wandered over to the bookshelves.

‘Yes, but, Munia,’ Ragita struggled to put this politely and then gave up, ‘you’re, like, dead.’

‘Oh.’ Munia looked quite stricken for a moment, and Ragita almost wanted to comfort her, but then she realized the stricken look was for her. ‘I’m sorry about dying, Rags, I really am. It was…unfortunate.’

‘Unfortunate?’ Ragita was really almost angry at this—whatever she was—Ghost of Munia or something. I must be dreaming, she thought. She remembered a bit from a book about lucid dreaming, that said, ‘First, establish you’re dreaming. Look around for the time, or a book. You shouldn’t be able to read either.’ She glanced at her phone in her hand and it blinked back at her: 1.45 p.m. Quick as paint, Munia was by her side, grabbing the cell phone from her hand.

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