Cat in a box

Sumit and Ankita worked hard and they always felt as though they never got enough rest. They came home late and left home early and it was getting exhausting. They had been married for about two years and they had, not once entertained a guest in their home. They felt awfully guilty about the fact and it always hung over their heads like a cloud of shame. All of their friends who had been married hosted couples nights every week and thankfully our protagonist couple do not attend any. Imagine their plight if they did! They would be called whatever awful names there were in the married world. So something good came out of their tiring schedules. They never saw each other, let alone socialize. Don’t get them wrong, they both loved to attend parties and meet people, Sumit and Ankita were fondly referred to as the ‘power couple’ or the ‘lives of the party’ or ‘party parents’ and so on. Those days were long gone and now they’re referred to as those people who everyone feels obligated to invite to their party, but deep down they know they won’t attend. The couple didn’t know that, they were peacefully oblivious of the fact that they were not-so-fondly called as ‘the retired couple’. This was all going to change come Friday night as they both had the entire weekend off thanks to Mahatma Gandhi’s struggles. They decided that they were going to get rid of the albatross hanging on their shoulders and finally host THE party. As Sumit and Ankita sat down with their notes app open on their mobiles, they realised how rusted they were. They forgot what it took to host a good party let alone the party of the generation. “Should we get alcohol? I mean is that still cool, do our friends still drink?” Sumit asked hesitantly. Ankita looked at him with shock and disbelief in her eyes, “are you out of your mind!” she exclaimed, “all of our friends have gone vegan, apparently that’s the new trend now. Remember not to buy anything that remotely even reminds them of dairy and meat” Ankita huffed as she went to the refrigerator to clear our all of their dairy products. “do you remember those good days, when we used to watch all our friends drink away their problems while we never had any, neither problems nor alcohol?” Sumit reminisced thinking back to all the times they laughed at their intoxicated friends acting out of their minds. “I know Sumi, but times change and we need to too” Ankita said as she threw our bars of chocolates. Sumit knew she was right and knew better than to stop her from throwing out his chocolates. Hours and a million Buzzfeed articles later, they decided on the theme and food for their party. They had only four hours to set up the place and get ready so they whizzed through the house and the supermarket and thankfully everything was set up before seven pm, when their first guest showed up. The first guests were Winston and Sheela, their closest friends and the people who still believed in showing up on time. After a few greetings and small talk about the traffic things went back to the way it used to be before Sumit and Ankita went MIA. They sat around and spoke about everything under the sun from Sheela’s pregnancy to their clashing schedules to how kids on TikTok are taking over the world. An hour had passed and no one else showed up. Winston and Sheela shifted awkwardly in their seats as Ankita made lame excuses for their late friends. After a good fifteen minutes they heard the doorbell ring and the four of them heaved a collective sigh of relief. This was going to the party of the century after all! As Sumit opened the door with a smile plastered on his face he couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of all of his friends. It was so good to see them after ages and they seemed to have aged backwards. They were all wearing ripped jeans and cropped tops and caps that said “SWAG” or “YOLO”. It was cheesy but it made him laugh so he let it slip. As they stepped inside the humble abode, they murmured not so nice things like “finally” and “I thought you didn’t have a home” and the usual “I never thought I would live to see this day” and then again Sumit resisted the urge to say something witty back after receiving a stern look from the missus. The rest of the evening went smoothly but not without snide comments from their friends but being Indians, they were used to it. After one more person made a remark about how they thought Sumit and Ankita were homeless and broke Ankita decided that they had had enough and politely excused herself to get some appetizers for the party. Not too long after she was gone, a loud shriek was heard from the kitchen. Sumit ran to the kitchen in the fear that she probably burnt herself or cut herself or worse, fallen down and broken a rib or something. When he reached the kitchen Ankita wasn’t hurt but was white with fear. Wordless and trembling she pointed towards a box that had been on the table for god knows how long. Sumit bit his teeth in anger as she had embarrassed the both of them even more. “You really need to stop being scared of everything Ankita I won’t always be there to protect you” Sumit sighed. “There-there’s a cat in that box” Ankita said still pale with fear. Sumit looked at her like she had just lost her mind but after looking at her five foot nine self shrink with fear Sumit decided to give her the benefit of doubt and opened the box. Lo, behold there was a cat in that box. Sumit let out a screech that he didn’t even know he was capable of and the rest of the company came running towards the couple checking to see if they were okay. When Sumit told them about the cat they got deranged looks from everyone, including Winston who is known for telling the tallest of tales. Finally Winston decided to take one for the team and opened the box that felt like it belonged to Pandora. As Winston screamed for his life too, the box fell from his hands the “cat” turned over to reveal a very spoilt banana. Everyone exchanged looks for horror that soon turned into fits of laughter as they soon found out that the banana had been in the box, neglected by the couple for so long it grew fur like particles which made it look like a small cat. After this day, the joke became a constant dinner party story and Sumit and Ankita finally got to host the best party of the millennium.