The key

[Jack2020]

The key
When I’m in Kottayam at my moms home, I use a local gym there, so i can continue working out without a break. I left home for the gym at 6am today as usual. The gym manager looked unhappy as usual that i left my phone all around the place. It has become a habit with me to leave the phone next to which ever machine i work at a particular time, not a good habit ..but that’s the only way I can keep looking at the workout schedule i have for the day.

While Leaving home today, i had to take the keys to both the entrance gate and main door of the house with me since my mom had her yoga day and had left before me to the school nearby. So i now had the keys to the gate and the house door in a bunch , then i had my towel , a pair of mittens and an extra pair to T-shirt to wear for walking back home after I was done working out.
The kids who come to this gym are regular middle class and highly motivated types. No show off and completely focused on the mission of getting beefed up quickly. Being in the senior category age wise, I haven’t made an effort to mix up with them. There was new faces each day anyway.. so what’s the point. It reminded me of the days in school when I’d make trips to the gym on impulse and then discontinue. Theres no one older than me in this place ..even the manager I mentioned earlier is just 30 or 35.

The better part of not getting too social is that , this way i am able do my stuff and get away without wasting time. The downside is that i might come across as haughty. But lately I’ve stopped caring of what others think..I guess that also comes with crossing over the age 40 line ... .Also there’s no way I could pair up with these young fellows who have their eyes only on biceps and chest workout. Someday maybe at a later age they will realize the value of working legs first. I am all for legs and my workout is oriented on that daily, with minimal upper body workout. I’m at an age when the workout isn’t for impressing anyone, just to stay in shape as long as possible.
So today, after I finished workout and cooled down I slowly changed in to my fresh T-shirt and stepped out to get my shoes. In this place shoes arent allowed inside. (Even gym shoes are a NO, )The rule here is that everyone had to leave footwear outside. And everyone indoors worked out barefoot.
It was a bother for me ,putting on and taking off shoes, on the soiled staircase outside. Usually I somehow balanced my self on one leg and managed to tie my laces standing. Today i had worked my thighs thoroughly and being in no shape to stand and wear my shoe balancing on one leg, i sat on the stair. Thinking quickly, to avoid soiling my black trouser, I put my gym packet (the plastic pack with all the stuff ), on the stair and sat on it, saving myself from getting a patch of mud on the trouser.
Once done, I descended the stairs slowly and walked out in the main road. There are some funny rules typical of small gyms which are managed by single owners . The bench press has to be set at a particular weight ,and one had to start with that , no other option. I once tried to reduce the weight and the weight lock got jammed. The starting weight wasn’t much, but it was welded to the bar...what’s the use of such a contraption. Then there is the hack squat machine with a weight lock which was not easy to locate. It was a latch like thing and it was unreachable while working out and when it was time to rest the weight down after working on it ! So you would need to bend down and worm through the grease with your finger to reach it, and then pull it to lock. Any one who cares about good posture work would suffer the few seconds when the spine bends awkwardly while holding all that weight , till the flimsy lock is located and then turned into place !!! Some of these prehistoric stuff should be sold in junk. Probably only the free weights are worth the gym fee. But i desperately needed to do some workout every morning, so having a gym near by is good enough and thank god for that..

As I walked out, I decided to call home at kochi and check with my wife and kids about what was happening there, so I reached in the pack to take out my phone. When i took out my phone from the plastic packet that i call my gym bag, i was shocked to see that the screen of my redmi 4 was cracked , as if something had struck it.
I went cold.. and as i walked i felt all kinds of emotions go thru me. I was furious and then sad and turned around to go back to the gym and sort out the matter. Lousy damned 3rd class gym with primitive equipment !!. My temper was on the rise now..that stupid ham curl machine which could actually damage the knee cap. The antique rusty leg press which had to be balanced on both feet, or it would topple over if the weights were above 60kg x2 ! And those young under 20 punks who kept crowding around when i did a deadlift with more than 120kg...bicep curl loving jerks who think that doing squats and dead lifts was for laborers and rickshaw pullers. Then a thought stuck me. On the previous day the manager had told me to put the weight back on the weight rack after use. I had collected a load of weight around the squat machine that day. Could it be that he had given my phone lying on one of the nearby machine benches , a light knock with a weight , when i was working out on the other side... just to teach me not to keep the phone all around ?? I cursed myself for leaving the phone around. In Dubai i had developed this habit and it had stuck with me. Serves me right i thought.

All these thoughts passed my mind in few short seconds. It’s amazing how quickly the mind comes up with solutions and answers for every problem quickly ,especially if its left free to be hyper. And add a bit of temper to this and it’s an explosive mix. My mind was already decided and final and had all the answers. I knew everything. Who the culprit might have been. I figured out the motive too. And then another part of my mind intervened. A bit of logical thinking made me take stock and slow down.
I was calmed a bit when I realized the futility of raising hell without knowing who exactly to confront. I wished there was a cctv like camera on my phone which could have picked up the face of the mysterious figure creeping close looking left and right and sticking a blow and moving away. And then I thought if that was do-able I would find that guys phone and crack it myself. Again my calm mind intervened.. urging me to avoid being wasteful with my energies..I said the Lord’s Prayer ..a plea for help...for an answer ,some guidance .. as we forgive , so forgive us..
okay forget it ! just forgive whoever did this, let god be the avenger and judge. Once again i turned around towards home and this time i walked in better state of mind, i was at peace.

Hell, whoever did it will feel sorry when I don’t react. What was it for, whom did it help, its okay I will just change the screen. Whoever cracked it thought it was an iPhone7, but its only a 7000 rupees black redmi4 which looks like an iPhone ..hell ! I will just buy another redmi , I really liked this phone. So i walked on. I must have looked comical walking with this jumble of thoughts.

At home i took out the bunch of keys and opened the gate locks. I realized I mustn’t keep the keys bunch along with the phone in the packet since it might damage the screen more. Gradually i got back to the regular things for the day and as i put the clothes into the washing machine ,i was again angry..again i made a short prayer , calmed down again, and decided to have my bath. It was the height of monsoons and Heavy rains outside and the climate was on the cooler side , but I still prefer cold water. Especially since I had worked out and was worked up a good deal too. I was calm in the cold water of the shower. I decided to say thanks to almighty for this solution of forgiveness, such a quick way to ease out of all the misery. And the moment i made another prayer of thanks i had a shocking vision. I saw myself sitting on the packet which i had set on the stairs to avoid getting my trouser soiled. That was probably the moment the glass on the phone screen had cracked by the presssure of the bunch of keys underneath ! I just stood still under the shower for a long time...Unable to make a move.

[DATo]

A short story usually doesn't have a lot of space to develop plots and characters well which is why they so often rely on a great ending to deliver a punch to the reader. I think your ending was a good one. It not only delivered a clever twist, but the last sentence was absolutely perfect in describing the emotion of shock which the subject feels as a result of the sudden realization that he was responsible for the damage from the start. Very nicely done!