SONA MANIAR - THE DIY WALLET

Sona Maniar is a chemical engineer from UT Austin and a MBA from INSEAD (France). She’s currently working in strategy for a large engineering conglomerate. Her short fiction has appeared in print and online magazines such as Foliate Oak Literary Journal, Woman’s Era, Jellyfish Review, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Quail Bell Magazine, amongst others.
​More on her website: https://sonamaniarblog.wordpress.com/

​THE DIY WALLET

​Nina selected 2 cds from the cd rack.  One carried the Beatles music, the other Queen; both favorites of David.  And hence, Nina had no qualms in treating them like junk. That would be her revenge, a blatant display of her wrath. She placed the cds on a mustard colored felt paper, cut out pieces in shape of the discs, super glued the shapes onto the cds and then placed a zipper around them.  The result was a little pouch that could carry coins, earrings and other tiny knick knacks.  She looked at it triumphantly but in a flicker, the sense of triumph turned into dismay.  She realised this is not what she needed.  Not another pouch to carry coins or her jewellery when grander things were falling apart and she was scampering to hold them together – her marriage, for instance.  She needed something solid that could bind David and her tightly together.  This pouch was something Jen would carry and she imagined David and Jen together, lips interlocked, bodies bound in unity.   Why did she even bother to make this, she questioned herself.  She tossed aside the diy wallet, and with that, an hour and half of effort and a glimmer of happiness vanished swiftly.
David stopped by the apartment that evening while Nina was still at work.  He surveyed the empty house that at some point in the past had been witness to much happier times.  On his way out he spotted the discarded diy pouch by the bedroom door.
Nina came home late that evening and upon entering, she instantly realised that David had been back; the smell of his musky deodorant hung heavy by the living room entrance.  She missed his presence, their intimacy.  Her attention immediately went to the centre table where the pouch was placed in a prominent position with a note attached to it.  Look inside- the note said.  Nina gingerly opened the pouch.  A small shriek escaped her lips.  David’s wedding ring lay inside.  It was then that the true purpose of the wallet dawned upon Nina – it was to contain the end of her marriage.