2:57
The girls bear the burnt of their new purchase
Previously on The Red Refrigerator, Somi and Anvi bought an old fridge from their meagre savings, inviting trouble into their new home here in Part 1 - The Hot fridge.
If you haven’t read it yet, check it out for better experience
"Somi, tie your bloody hair up. They are everywhere!" Anvi was sitting on her haunches in front of their new fridge. The petite girl shuddered in disgust as she picked out a clump of hair from the middle rack and let it drop on the ground below.
Somi frowned as she came out of the room. Her braid swinged on her back. She never let her hair loose when she was working from home. So, they were only open in her room whenever she washed or retied them at night.
"They are not mine." She leaned against her door with her hands crossed across her chest.
"Well, they are certainly not mine." Anvi pointed to her short hair.
Somi rolled her eyes, slamming her door shut.
They kept finding the same, again and again, for the whole week, a clump, two or three strands, or shorter hair, like eyelashes. They had cleaned the machine three times since it arrived in as many weeks.
The fridge also seemed to function one day then stop the other. It would freeze their milk one night then let their leftovers stink the other. They joked between themselves how it was moodier than them combined. Neither called anyone to repair it.
Then began the smell. The horrid smell of rot. The two friends emptied everything and threw away most of the stuff. They even stopped buying vegetables in advance. There was no chance to keep fruits fresh. They never had any leftovers because they knew it would stink the next day.
They had to make regular trips to buy milk, egg, or anything else they wanted to use. There was more stuff on the kitchen counter than in their fridge. The whole house smelled of food even when they kept the kitchen door locked.
Anvi's stomach flu worsened. They had to take her to a doctor. She was weak with it. She only ever ate anything outside the home.
The worst was the low hum of the appliance. It never stopped. At night, when the world was quiet, it grated on their nerves.
Somi was irritated and perpetually tired. She started dozing off while standing. One day, she was boiling the milk and didn't realize it ran over the rim till Anvi switched off the gas.
Anvi shouted at her half-heartedly and told her friend not to enter the kitchen if she couldn't keep it together. Somi just nodded her head in a daze before she went to sleep at two in the noon, logging off her meeting without excuse. It was the third time in the week.
Anvi was the first to realize the fridge could be the root of their problem when she saw it shaking one night.
She tried to make Soni believe. The engineer didn't because it never happened in front of her. Anvi stayed up all night the next one, and it began shaking again.
The next night it did the same thing at the same time, 2:57. It would do so for ten minutes or so, then stop. She made sure to wake Somi up, and make her see it too.
The tired girl rubbed her eyes, not seeing a thing, and yawned, "I will call up a guy tomorrow. Maybe, he will stop this dance at night." For now she just wanted to go back and sleep.
The repairman was old. They wondered how he carried around his toolbox. It seemed to weigh more than him. He came, inspected the fridge, banged it from every side with his large hands because "Indian tv and fridge only need a good bang regularly" then packed up his toolbox with a self-satisfied expression.
They told him about the nighttime problem. "It happens sometimes. Otherwise, it is as good as new. They made tikau things back in the day." He patted it on top like one would a son who made him proud. He left two hundred rupees richer and none the wiser.
"I told you there was nothing wrong with it." Somi chided Anvi for wasting their time and money.
She only started believing it when one night she opened the fridge, and found it empty of their stuff, but a lifelike boy doll with open eyes on its floor. She shut the door tightly while letting out a shocked scream. She shook her head as if to get rid of the image.
Anvi came running at the sound, "What happened?"
Somi could only point at the fridge, her back to the wall in front of it.
Anvi opened the fridge. Everything was alright.
Somi rubbed her eyes before she stammered, "There…there was something in there."
"Go to sleep, yaar. I have office tomorrow."
Her friend got angry, "I am telling you there was something right there."
"I told you not to watch the horror movie, Didn't I?" Anvi rolled her eyes, "Go to sleep." She didn't have the energy to deal with this now. Her stomach was empty, yet she couldn't even think about eating something here without disgust. She just wanted to go to the office to have a sandwich.
Somi told herself Anvi must be right. But she began to only open the fridge whenever Anvi was home.
It felt like she was attuned to it. She would be awake till it would start shaking at 2:57, hear it stop, never gathering the courage to step out and see for herself, then keep wondering the whole night if what she saw that day was real or not.
Somi kept missing too many meetings and logging off without excuse because she was sleeping or didn't realize the time. The whole day, she only waited for Anvi to get home so she could open it, and make sure what happened that night was a one-time thing.
Nothing more than the usual happened for a while till that day a month later.
They were in their drawing room. They had not slept at all last night too. They didn't want to go to their separate rooms. They were staring at the tv screen with nothing on. Anvi was hungry yet nothing sounded appetizing to her. After a while, her friend gave up trying to get her to eat something. She just laid down.
"Somi, could you make me a sandwich?" Anvi could barely open her mouth for the request. Maybe she shouldn’t have.
Yet, Somi believed it was the best thing that happened to them.
Next on The Red refrigerator,
