"Fooo." Olivia exhaled heavily and plopped on the bed.
Staring at the ceiling unblinking, she lied on the bed like a starfish and envisioned everything she saw at the Singha Roy residence. Especially in that room. As the scene flashed before her eyes, her hand subconsciously moved across her abdomen. Closing her eyes, she took a slow, deep breath and let it out equally slowly. After repeating it several times, she took out her phone and sent a message. Almost instantly a reply came. Olivia read it and sent another message. This went on for a while.
"Owwwhhhh.." she rolled over her belly and buried her face in the pillow, yawning loudly.
It was a tiring day, and all she wanted then was good tight sleep. But her stomach seemed to have other plans. It decided to practice vocals.
'Groowl '
'Rumble.... growl...'
'Grooooowl..... growl.... grrrowOool..'
Olivia punched the pillow with a groan. She hugged her knees tightly, and curled up in a ball, hoping the growling of her tummy will stop. But her stomach was having a music concert of its own.
Gnashing her teeth she cursed in her heart, 'You God dam* whole-family-f*cking piece of rat sh*t organ, can't you let me sleep in peace? What have I ever done to you that you that you're hellbent on taking your revenge now!?'
'RRRUMBLE.... GrrrOOWllll... rrRRRUMBle...'
Her stomach cursed her back 'You female dog! You human excreta! You have the nerve to ask what you did wrong! You should ask when was the last time you actually did something right instead! You hole in the behind! You leave me hungry 99.99⁹⁹⁹⁹⁹ times and each time I have to remind you to feed me. And that too for an infinite number of times. Only then do I get some food. Even now you're planning to sleep while starving me. You want to sleep in peace? Dream on!'
And it resumed its concert.
'Argh fine. You win. I'll get you some food, okay? Now stop screaming else you'll end up waking the whole neighbourhood.' She grumbled and walked downstairs to the kitchen.
She rummaged in the cupboards to find something edible. Mrs Dey often stacked Ankita's favourite cookies in the jars. But alas! Goddess Laxmi seemed to be angry at her for some reason. All, and literally no container had anything in them, even leftover cookie dust. Olivia was speechless. Meanwhile her stomach was practicing the whistle note.
'Shut up.' Olivia gritted her teeth.
Left with no choice she opened the fridge.
'Are you sure you're going to eat something directly from the fridge without heating it? That looks suuuper cold. I'm getting an itch just looking at it!' her throat said.
'I'm hungryyyyy! Feeeeeeed meeeeeee!' Stomach cried.
'That seems like an invitation to a soar throat party!' Throat shuddered.
'I don't care! I want food! Now!'
Olivia closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, 'Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm...'
Her eyes yawned and said 'Hey, how long are you gonna take? I want to sleep.'
'You know what? F*ck all of you.' Olivia hissed at her stomach, throat and eyes.
'Stomach, I'll feed you some rice and water, be happy with it. If you want something else, screw yourself. I don't care.'
'Nooo.' Stomach screamed.
'And you! Throat, I know I catch a cold easily. No need to remind me. But I'm too tired to wait an hour to heat this thing up and cool it down.'
'No one respects well wishes these days.' Throat complained .
'And yes, eyes, I'm sleepy too. But are you gonna handle stomach's tantrums? No right? So shut the f*ck up.'
Eyes huffed and remained silent.
Olivia washed her hands and opened the refrigerator. Taking off the lid of the rice container, she grabbed a fistful of rice and rolled it into a ball. After having two or three such balls, she covered the lid back and drank lots of water, so that the rice swelled up and kept her stomach full till morning. Then, she went back to sleep.
Next morning.
Mr Chakraborty and Mrs Dey came to Ankita's room. When they found their daughter curled up in a ball like a puppy, sleeping peacefully, they found it hard to wake her up.
Trina sighed while closing the door on her way out "She was quite drained yesterday and did not even have dinner. Should we let her sleep on an empty stomach for so long?"
Subhashish hugged his wife and straightened her furrowed brows "Ease that frown, your majesty, I'm going down to make breakfast now, we'll wake her up in half an hour."
She sighed and nodded.
Ankita's eyelids twitched. Mrs Dey had opened the window opposite her bed when she came. The sunlight was shining directly on her face. Shielding her face with an arm, she cracked open her eyes one by one and glanced at the wall clock, but her vision was still blurry. She blinked a few times to clear it. The clock showed eight-thirty. Ankita yawned and twisted on the bed, stretching herself. After another big yawn, she finally got up.
Mrs Dey was reading the newspaper on the sofa while Mr Chakraborty was cooking breakfast. Hearing her daughter's footsteps, Trina looked up at the stairs.
"You're up. How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Did brush your teeth yet?" She asked, folding the newspaper neatly on the table.
"Mhm. I'm better. I came after brushing. I wouldn't want to come down and go back to brush my teeth, only to come down again for breakfast." Ankita smiled at her mother brightly and said in a hoarse voice.
"Looks like you've become sensible." Mrs Dey ruffled her hair and said.
Ankita pouted and began fixing her freshly combed hair.
"But how did you catch a cold? You can barely speak." She looked at Ankita with a worried gaze.
"Don't worry Maa, it's just a little cold. It'll go away in no time." Ankita hugged her mother's arm.
Ding Dong.
"Oh, who's that now?" Ankita asked, hearing the doorbell ring.
"No Idea. I wasn't expecting anyone. Wait here. I'll go get it." Mrs Dey got patted her head and headed towards the door.
Clack.
She opened the door and was surprised to see the face behind it.