Practical Lessons

by Sree

‘Want a condom?’ he asked.

‘Excuse me?’

‘I mean to say do you need condoms?’

‘No thanks! And why are you asking me?’ she became irritated.

‘Because ... errr ... we are running an AIDS awareness campaign as part of our CAS activity and so we are distributing condoms to spread awareness about the importance of practicing ... err ... safe sex’, He blurted out his practiced answer, barely looking up to meet her eyes.

‘Where do you study and what exactly is this CAS?’ She asked twisting the scooter key around her manicured fingers.

He was distributing condoms at the gates of a discotheque wearing his school uniform. On seeing a scooter stop, he had approached the rider eagerly. However once the helmet came off, the rider had turned out to be a beautiful, short-haired girl in her late twenties. Her male rock-star costume, complete with the heavy metallic chains and steel bracelets had fooled him and now he was caught in an embarrassing situation.

‘CAS is Creativity, Action and Service and it is a part of our curriculum in New Era International School. We undertake a social service project each month and this month happened to be the AIDS awareness month’, He explained awkwardly.

‘So you are advocating safe sex, eh? Do you even know what sex is like in the first place?’ She asked.

He dug his shoe-tips into the ground and tried to think of an appropriate response.

Suddenly she grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards the discotheque gate.

‘Come; first enjoy the life young fella! Then you can go wage a war against AIDS! What do you say?’ she said playfully.

Come, be my escort for the night and I will help you pass through those bloody guarded gates. Are you game?’ She queried.

‘I am sorry but I am not dressed for the occasion’, he offered a lame excuse.

‘Oh, don't ya worry about your damn prep school uniform. I'll cook up some story about a fancy dress theme we are having amongst us friends for the night. Awww... come on, you can’t let such an opportunity pass. Have you ever been to a happening place like this before? You are not even eighteen, I guess. So I'll sponsor all the booze and smoke for you. You just hang on to my arms and see the magic unfold. I am bored of my regular escorts anyway. Let us dance away this night together’, she smiled suggestively, playfully lisping her words while running her sharp nails against his forearm.

He tried to hide his flustered look behind an idiotic smile. This was a golden chance and he couldn't let it pass. He loosened up his tie, gave a nervous smile and nodded his head.

They proceeded towards the gates. As they were about to step in, two strong arms stopped them and they faced the raised eyebrows of one of the hulks at the gate.

‘Okay, okay, take it easy,’ She backed off. Then she turned to him and smiled a wonderfully smug smile like a school-girl caught in her act. ‘We'll find something else to do. I tell ya, let's go to my small hide-out. We’ll watch a movie on the DVD and we can dance a little too. I've a good music system. You wanna come?’ She asked.

He looked at her disarming smile and said yes.

As he rode pillion on the scooter, her fragrance tickled his senses and sent a tingling sensation down his spine. He had never been this close to a female body. Myriad thoughts raced across his virile mind. He wondered what story he will have by the end of the evening to tell his friends the next day. His heart thumped with excitement. The evening was pregnant with alluring possibilities.

They reached her small flat in the suburbs of the city. As he entered he noticed the well-kept room. A show-case filled with books, DVDs and CDs was standing against the wall. On the opposite side was a single comfortable sofa in blazing red colour with a few virgin white cushions. The walls of the room were painted in a pleasant lemon yellow. A single large painting adorned its wall, overhanging the sofa; a painting of red roses in a black vase against a window sill. She closed the door behind them and locked it.

As he settled down on the sofa, she fetched a bottle of wine and two glasses from the kitchen and began to pour the red bubbly liquid. She offered one glass to him which he took with shaking and sweaty hands. She went back to the showcase and selected a DVD to play on the music system. As the soft song started playing, she gave him an inviting look and gestured him to come and dance with her. He rose to her command and joined her, swaying slowly to the rhythm of the music while his pulse raced and his heart thumped with excitement. Being close to her he realized that underneath those loose fitting hip hop clothes she had a petite and thin body that he could easily cocoon in his athletic arms.

They danced for a while, taking breaks in between to sip the wine. No words were exchanged. The silence stoked the fire of excitement in his mind with each passing minute. Then she abruptly stopped the music, inserted a disc into the video system and sank down on the sofa gesturing him to join her at her side. He settled down beside her, their bodies almost touching each other.

As the movie played, the wine, the romantic dance and the physical closeness began to make him restless. Gathering his courage, he slowly placed his trembling hand on her thigh. She turned to him and smiled sweetly. He felt encouraged by her response. His heart-beats now echoed in his ears as he felt the warmth of her skin through the thick clothes. She took his hand and started stroking her cheeks with it. Then she spoke in a quiet tone.

‘Can I share a secret with ya?’

‘Sure!’

‘I am suffering from AIDS?’

He froze as if bitten by a snake. His hand twitched as his mind tried to assimilate the significance of the information she had shared with him. The warm romantic feelings gave way to cold fear. His body withdrew from any contact with hers. He wanted to get up and bolt through the door but he was stuck to his chair.

‘Are you serious?’ He said half expecting this to be a bad joke.

‘Yes, I am an HIV positive person’ she said in a sad tone. ‘You probably want to leave right away, eh? I know you are already running away from me in your mind.’ She stood up and started pacing the room. ‘Look, I had no intentions of tempting you into some foolhardy act tonight. I just wanted to show you the real danger of AIDS that exists in our society, the careless attitude that people in general have about its dangers. I am sorry for giving you such a rude shock but I hope this is a practical lesson for you and you will use all the precautions for your own self when the need arises. Whatever you learn in classrooms is all very good but becoming sensitive towards these issues in real life is what matters. I hope you understand that it is not about distributing free condoms, but about being responsible and being aware. Take care!’ She held the door open for him to leave.

And as he hurriedly left the house, she called out from behind, ‘Hey, can you also do something about the rotten attitude people have towards HIV positive people? Maybe you can start with yourself! You did not even thank me for the evening or mention a sweet goodbye. Anyway, Good night and sweet dreams!’

The author is a general practitioner of medicine by profession and a writer by compulsion of the muse that invades her being on and off. She is married with two kids and has an easy, comfortable life. She dreams of chaos, though.

Image Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/466713478/