(Due to a scheduling error, this issue will spotlight two writers on the Chalkboard.)

The Curb Dwellers
Rumjhum Biswas

     "Look! She's at her table, talking to herself."

     "So?"

     "So you know the drill."

     "Yeah I know. I've been perched here for days, watching her. I'm bored to death with her drill. Can we get outta here, please?"

     "Shh! She's thinking. There! She just got an idea. Hear that?"

     "That's the door bell!"

     "Oh?"

     "Let's answer."

     "You crazy?"

     "What's wrong with that?"

     "Curb dwellers don't do. They only talk behind scenes."

     "That's like thinking aloud?"

     "No. That's like talking behind your back."

     "How can you talk without thinking?"

     "Man! Don't you ever listen? Just listen. To people talking, to the radio, TV. Nobody thinks when they talk. You can't think and talk at the same time! You can choke on your words!"

     "That happens when you eat and talk at the same time."

     "I know what I'm saying!"

     "This is crazy!"

     "That's the curb dwellers' life."

     "Okay. So what's in it for me, eh?"

     "A good life, with all the excitement you want to watch. What more do you want?"

     "That's a good life?"

     "Why not? Aren't we watching her right now?"

     "Yea, right. We're watching her talk to herself!"

     "Isn't that something?"

     "What kinda life is that? Don't you wanna do something? Go places, see things, do stuff?"

     "Go ahead. Only don't do as in do do. Don't be in the centre. See?"

     "You mean like standing on the outside looking in at everyone?"

     "No. What I mean is you must never be in the central scheme of things. You must always be on the outside."

     "That's what I just said. Okay, never mind. Can we see something else now? Please!"

     "Sure. The whole world's a stage… Hey! She's not talking to herself. She's typing on her computer."

     "What's she's typing?"

     "Let's see… Hold me up, will you?"

     "Okay. See anything?"

     "Yea. I can make out… Oh shit!"

     "What?"

     "Shit! Shit! I don't believe this."

     "What? Damn it! Tell me, will you?"

     "This is bad. She's something else!"

     "What? Why? Will you just tell me?"

     "Shhh. She knows about us!"

     "She what? I don't believe it? How?"

     "Dunno. It gets worse. She's not just writing. She's writing about us! And then she'll submit the piece. She's going to frame us in print, man!"

     "How can she do that? What is she? A spy? Ha. Ha. Ha."

     "Ha. Ha. Ha. Think this is a joke? We are doomed. Now we're no longer sitting at the edge of her head. Man, we've been sucked into the inside of her story!"

     "Uh… um. Does that mean we're not curb dwellers any more? Or are we still the same, only inside her story? Does that mean… Hey! Where'd he go? Hey buddy! Wait up!"

© 2009 Rumjhum Biswas

Rumjhum's prose and poetry have been published in India and abroad, both in print and online. Notably in South, Words-Myth, Everyday Fiction, Muse India, Eclectica, Nth Position, The King's English, Arabesques Review, A Little Poetry, Poems Niederngasse, The Little Magazine-India and Etchings–Australia.

Her poem "Cleavage" was in the long list of the Bridport Poetry Competition 2006. She won third prize in a poetry contest run by Unisun Publishers India in February 2008. A flash fiction by her was shortlisted in the 2008 Kala Ghoda Arts Festival literature section Flash Fiction Contest managed by Caferati. Her poem "March" was commended in the Writelinks' Spring Fever Competition, 2008. She won third prize in the Muse India Poetry Contest 2008. Her story "Ahalya's Valhalla" is among the notable stories of 2007 in Story South's Million Writers' Award. Visit her website and blog.