I have planned this for so long now that all the steps of the plan are etched in my memory – Nita thought. I have no choice but to get this right this time around, this probably will be the last opportunity when I will have the element of surprise on my side. As time goes by, I will also lose my co-conspirators as they will start making plans of their own by then.
The plan was reasonably simple, wait until Sunil went out of the house and then put in action all of the pre-determined steps in the required order. All the preparations had been made, whatever needed to be procured had been done so and put in the right places. This time around, I will not make any mistake. After all I am smart and have learnt from all my earlier attempts.
While the first failed attempt can be put down to bad timing, the second one was unforgivable. The fact that I forgot the main ingredient meant that the entire attempt ended up as a ‘botched up’ mess. This will surely be my third, final and successful attempt. There is nothing that can go wrong this time around. She kept egging herself to ensure that she didn’t lose her enthusiasm or vigor in her planning process.
And then as pre-determined, Sunil came up to the kitchen table Hey Nita, Supriya wants me to accompany her to the boutique. She ‘strongly’ believes that I have good taste in clothes and the ones chosen by me really enhance her ‘allure’, whatever that means he smiled.
Nita didn’t say anything. She just nodded as Sunil walked out. As she heard the car start up and drive out of the gate, she smiled to herself. Everything was going according to plan, at least so far.
Nita knew that Supriya would keep Sunil engaged for at least an hour and the drive to and from the boutique would take another hour at least. The fact that she needed around 90 odd minutes to finish up the preparations for the last part of her plan meant that the plan was destined to succeed this time around.
She went by the book, following all the instructions written down by the expert, leaving no room for errors or confusion. So far so good, all of it looks as per the instructions she thought to herself.
================
Twenty years later as Nita was narrating this incident to her grandson Jim, she had a wistful smile on her face.
I heard the car door slam, and immediately looked at the clock she said. It was exactly 15 mins since the cake had been taken out of the oven, and it looked light and fluffy, and smelt divine, just as the recipe said it would.
This time around I had managed to get it right, I was third time lucky, as they say Nita smiled when she saw Jim smile at her.
After two years of trying to surprise your grandpa on his birthday, I had finally managed to do it that year.
==================
This post is written for WordPress Daily Prompts : 365 Writing Prompts where the idea is to publish at least one post a day based on the prompts provided.
Today’s post had to include the line “I heard the car door slam, and immediately looked at the clock.”
