The Bet by Anton Chekhov

The Bet by Anton Chekhov

(Adaptation by Vivan Kamath)

As I picked up my jacket from the bed and walked to the door, I kissed her and said nothing more. Nothing more had to be said. I recall the day still – it was just another night with everyone at the house, filling up the house with smoke and the distinct smell of rum. There was a great debate, one that we often got ourselves into, about whom of the two thinks about sex more, men or women. I never truly thought that it was a sort of thing you could generalise and was more of an individual character. Regardless, I kept my loyalties where it belongs and fought ruthlessly on the side of my fellow men. Most of us treated it as a jokingly friendly duel of wit and in that spirit I cheekily remarked, “Personally, sex isn’t that a recurring thought in my mind on a daily basis. I would much rather know about her feelings and all that other stuff.”

“Hah!” exclaimed one of the opponents who coincidently happened to also be my girlfriend, “let’s not get carried away with jokes here. We all know how incredibly in love with sex and the thought attached to it you are. Majority of what you say has some sort of innuendo attached to it.

I grinned at her for knowing me so well but then again, I wasn’t all that discrete with my sexual connotation jokes friendly enough to be in the room that night. I suggested a bet. I proposed that all the people in the room would participate in a social experiment where in no one, not even couples could have sex for the next one year. Great laughter broke out in the room till a few noticed that I was being serious. It was even more hilarious because it was coming from me and no one would ever have thought I would ever be able of such a thing, not even her. In all honesty, even I didn’t take myself seriously. It was just a game to tell stories about many years from now when we were old. What made it fun was that no matter how unsure people were about whether they could do it, they weren’t worried about being the first to quit with me around.

It was decided that everyone would be honest in their participation or failures as it was a little too personal to investigate into everybody’s affairs and anyhow, the company I kept was more than willing to talk about their most recent escapades and wouldn’t give up a chance to gloat. Since we couldn’t really think of any suitable prize for the winner or winners, we agreed that a suffix of ‘the legend’ would be added to their names and would only be referred to in entire title at all required times.

Two of the participants lost that night itself after a little too much found itself in their system. Another more inexperienced member of the group gloated widely that who would surely be the winner considering he had never managed any sex at all until then and didn’t see it happening in the near future either. He was awfully wrong because a month later he found himself lying next to a girl under some very undressed circumstances and decided that no suffix was worth giving up that opportunity. He apparently examined the girl from head to toe once again before coming to a definite decision to disqualify himself for what he called the ‘greater good’. By the sixth month, we were down to five people, four females, one of them being my girlfriend and to everyone’s huge surprise, me. If it weren’t for me, the gender debate would have been put to rest but the bet would have continued nonetheless. My girlfriend would often tease me with sly messages or taunts using language she would otherwise never speak. But I would keep cool, thanked her and move on to work. I don’t think I had got better grades in my work ever before.

Funnily enough, I started noticing a lot more things as well. It was like I was so caught up in trying to get her out of her clothes that I never paid attention to how good she looks in purple or how often she wears green. I never knew she listened to Devendra Banhart or even spoke Spanish. She wasn’t very good but it was enough to notice. We spent the next five and a half months together and it was great because now we were actually together. We didn’t rush things to go get into bed every second, we saw more movies and plays than I think I had ever watched in my life. I learnt more Spanish than she knew just because I thought it would impress her. It did impress her. The others who were disqualified continued with their promiscuous lives which I would have to hear about constantly from one source or another and I realised how much I used to do that and how stupid I must have sounded. My mother and her spent time together properly for the first time and she stopped treating her like the girl who corrupted her little boy.

My friends couldn’t believe I had managed so long and other people who heard about it would come and ask me if it were true. When I told them it was, they behaved as if I had been holding my breath this whole time. I told them it wasn’t all that hard and joked about how it was easier once she stopped taunting and teasing me.

A day before she and I were going to earn our titles of honour, a party was being planned for us with again, a lot of rum and the same friends along with the girl my friend gave up his shot at the title for. She was his girlfriend now. A little before the party started, I was getting ready with my bow tie on and picking which hat to wear for the ball. She came and asked if we could talk, she started tearing up and looked shrivelled and scared like never before.

“There isn’t easy way to say this so here it is – I’ve been sleeping with someone else for the last two months. I’m so sorry” bursting into tears of embarrassment and what seemed to be untameable regret.

“I know, it’s alright.” I told her in a far easier way. “I figured it out when you stopped teasing me with the raunchy messages and all that. I think it made it easier since I had gotten to know you so much this year.” Shocked by what I said, she stood there mouth wide open. I told her that I had realised even before all the cheating started that this relationship wasn’t meant to be romantic and that I mostly only liked spending time with her because I liked spending time with her. I just kept the whole thing up because I didn’t want to make it uncomfortable for anyone. I knew everything was going to be alright soon enough. I kissed her and said nothing more. Nothing more had to be said.