“The Red Bump,” by Anu Kandikuppa, issue 21

1/25/24: Into the Archives staff member Olivia Reiman on  “The Red Bump,” by Anu Kandikuppa

I recently decided read a short story from the 21st edition of Prism Review. I was flipping through the book, skimming some stories, when “The Red Bump” by Anu Kandikuppa caught my eye. The quick progression of the story really kept me reading and wanting more. How it went from an unassuming little story to a big issue with what seems to be hidden layers. The inner dialogue of Shivaji Shinde was written very well and added depth to the issues at hand. Kandikuppa utilizes tension, tone, and setting to create an engrossing story that makes you question what she is writing about.

“The Red Bump” is about a phone boy, Shivaji Shinde, who works at a luxury apartment complex. He helps carry the residents bags, he cleans the lobby, and calls cars and their drivers for the people living in the apartments. As the story progresses, one of the women who live there, Mrs. Sherma, raises her voice at Shivaji, and he contemplates that interaction for the rest of his day. As the day goes on, Shivaji notices a large sore on his leg that is progressively getting worse, to the point where he can’t move. At the end of the story we see a new character take Shivaji’s position as phone boy, but none of the people who live at the apartment even realize that there is a new phone boy.

When Mrs. Sherma raises her voice at Shivaji and asks, “Are you new here?” That really has a deep impact on Shivaji, for he spends the rest of the day thinking about that comment. He remembers all the times he has helped carry Mrs. Sherma’s groceries, and how many times she has tipped her. He is so confused as to why she doesn’t remember him, because in his words, “Who did [she] think had been carrying her bags up for six years? Even the great lady must know the bags hadn’t walked up by themselves!” During this, Shivaji noticed a large red bump on his leg that was oozing pus, he put lotion on it and called it good. But an hour later, he noticed it kept getting bigger and worse, and by the end of the day his whole leg was swollen. When one of the lady’s came back to the apartments that night, she called out to Shivaji to help her carry her bags up to her apartment. But Shivaji said that he couldn’t, because of how bad his leg was. He leaves for the night, and never comes back.

The ending of “The Red Bump” really caught my attention and made me think. After Shivaji leaves, a new man takes the position of phone boy at the apartments. The residents don’t even realize that he is new. They keep calling him Shiv (Shivaji) even though his name is Salim. But as Salim keeps working there, he eventually becomes Shiv. This is interesting because it makes you realize that people often overlook workers of lower status, that they all are the same, and eventually in the case of this story, they do become the same. The tension throughout the story really adds to this ending, and makes you question what really happened.