Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

"...Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la. ..."

Anu hummed walking out of the elevator. She had always found that third set of Falalas difficult to get. She wasn't a Christian; but she loved Christmas and everything associated with it. And now she couldn't wait till the next day when they would go Carol-singing in the office decked up in Red and wearing Santa-caps. There was just one problem: she didn't have a red t-shirt.

Store timings: 10:00 AM TO 9:00 PM
         
Anu stared at her watch - 8:50 PM. I should have finished work early and left. She stood at the entrance of Shopper’s Stop calculating if she had enough time to grab something. She was a Libran, and infamous for getting frustratingly indecisive often. It’s too short…it’s too long…I don’t like the look of it. 8:55 PM. She didn’t have an option. It was the only store open on the street. What the heck, let’s go.

Probably the only one moving opposite to the crowd exiting the store, Anu entered Shopper’s Stop. She spotted a beautiful Christmas tree at the entrance. ‘Silent Night’ was playing on the store loudspeakers.  She smiled. She loved Christmas.

Then she remembered why she was there and moved straight to the Women’s Wear section. She looked around desperately to pick something in Red…if she could find it that is. She spotted a t-shirt. Finally! She hurried to check it out. She picked it up with a triumphant smile when she read ‘My boyfriend is out of town’ printed across the front of the t-shirt. How cheeky! Not something to wear while going Carol-singing for sure. The searching gaze returned to her face. She spotted another Red raiment in the other corner. As she moved towards it, Silent Night was interrupted by an announcement requesting customers to proceed to the billing counter. Silent Night resumed. It felt as though the announcement was directly aimed at her. But she hadn’t found what she was looking for. Just one look at that Red fabric. She reached for it – spaghetti-patterned top. Mom will kill me if she finds out I wore this. And she couldn’t even begin to think what her 85-year-old saree-clad grandmother would have to say. Chuck it! I will probably have to beg, borrow or steal. I wonder if my roomie would be willing to lend hers.

She proceeded to leave the store with these thoughts echoing in her mind when she ran into a clothes-stand. Since when did they start having protruding edges! She shook herself out of her repartee and froze. It was a gun-point…on her chest…gun-point…on my chest…Shit!

The masked guy at the other end of the gun bade her to put her hands behind her head and move to the billing counter. She did an about-turn in a robotic fashion. She frantically searched for her thoughts but they seemed to have deserted her. She started walking towards the billing counter like a zombie. She saw the store-staff huddled together near the billing counter. Just then she passed a clothes stand with a Red sweater hanging from it. And her brain ran into her thoughts for a head-on collision. Red…Christmas…Carols…Store…Gun…Masked Goons…This happens in Western movies doesn’t it!  She could see another masked guy talking to the cash-clerk. She couldn’t hear them…Of course! Carols on the loudspeaker. She was too mortified to care anyway. She had seen a gun so closely for the first time in her life. She had never dreamt that some such thing could happen in her life that was so lacking in adventure. A second later, she saw the masked guy at the counter put the gun to the forehead of the cash clerk. What did the idiot clerk say! Why can’t he just give him the money? She must have moved her head by a thousandth of a degree to see how many of those bullies were there when she felt a protruding object prod at the center of her spine. No prize for guessing what that is! Her head automatically assumed the previous position.

As she started to look back at the cash counter, she saw the masked guy shout something out as the cash-clerk fell onto the cash counter, blood streaming from his forehead. They have got silencers in their guns…who are these people! Anu had never ever seen anything even remotely close to a murder. She felt emetic at the sight of that dead man with a bullet in his head. Just then the store-girl standing next to her burst into a sprint towards the door. She probably freaked out at the gruesome sight too. Shit! What is she doing! The masked guy at the counter looked in their direction and she felt the gun at her back retreat. He must have turned towards that stupid female. The masked guy at the counter started to shout wildly and pointed his gun in Anu’s direction. What is he thinking! He can’t shoot from there. He won’t get her. Oh God! Please don’t shoot…don’t shoot…

Too late…She felt something hit her on the left side of her chest. A sharp pain started to spread all over her chest in waves; like seismic waves sourced at the epicenter of an earthquake. She could see the horrified faces of the store staff watching. The masked guy ran past her even as she collapsed to the floor. The pain was unbearable. She felt a warm liquid flow over her chest. Blood! As the last strands of cognizance drained out from her with her blood she closed her eyes, face contorted in pain. And then she saw blackness.

Anu lay on the floor a few feet away from the Christmas tree…dead. Her t-shirt and jeans were soaked Red in her blood.

9:00 PM. And she was finally wearing that Red t-shirt.
         
"...Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la. ..."
The store loudspeaker blared.

999 words