COLD QUILT

SUKESH SAHNI

"Who was it"? he asked, warming his hands over the brazier. "The same one from the opposite house." His wife, mimicking Sushila, added, "Sister, lend us a quilt. My husband's friends have come to stay for a night." Covering herself with the quilt, she mumbled, "they are not ashamed of asking for some such thing every other day. I flatly refused, saying we, too were expecting some one." "You did well," nestling under the quilt he said. "This is the only way to deal with such people." There was silence in the room for some time. "It is awfully cold," he grumbled. "My hands and feet, too, are numb with cold," the wife, moving her cot closer to the brazier, said. "The quilt is cold like ice; how can one sleep?" turning sideways, he murmured. "It really is impossible to sleep," moaned the wife. "Cold has made my quilt ineffective, too." When sleep kept eluding them for a long time, they sat up and began to warm their hands on the brazier. "May I say something? I hope you won't mind it," the husband asked. "You don't have to ask. Go ahead, speak." "It is freezing cold today. Guests have come to stay in the house facing us. They must be shivering because of the shortage of quilts there." "Yes, well?" She peered at her husband, hoping he would say what she herself wished to hear. "I was thinking....I mean....that.....we do have a spare quilt." "You have really said something which was upper most in my own mind. A day's use will not spoil it." She sprang to her feet, "I will take the quilt to Sushila at once and be back in a jiffy." On her return she noticed with surprise that he was already fast asleep. Yawning, she too crept under her quilt. It gave her a pleasant surprise to find her quilt quite warm.