two stories of marriage

chapter 24

Ishyant had just boarded their return flight. Ishita was agitated after listening to purvi's voicemail. She knew she was going home, and she would very soon be there for her sister, but that still did not help the nail biting.

'ishita, breakfast ke baad hi itni bhook lag gayi ki nakhon khaane pad rahe hai?' asked dushyant amusingly, very well aware that she had a tendency of over thinking.

While ishita, who was too lost in her maze of nightmares, came back to earth with this remark.

'huh?' she said, the nail still between her teeth, while dushyant smiled as he pointed towards the thumb's nail she was biting.

'oh...uh..woh main bas, dekhiye, purvi na kabhi aise nahi karti hai, kuch serious hi hoga of course, par usne kuch bataya kyun nahi!' said ishita, expressing her worries.

'ishita, yeh toh na main jaanta hoon na tum, ki usne kya batana hai aur usne phone pe hi kyun nahi bataya, lekin, what i do know is, ki iss flight ke land hoti hi, main aapko wahan chod aunga, aur aapko saare sawaalon ka jawab mil jayega. Lekin, filhaal, humein thoda wait karna padega..ok?' explained dushyant very calmly, with his hand on her cheek, with that 'trust me' waala look, to which she nodded with understanding.

Although she might not be very outwardly worried now, she was not escaping the maze of nightmares soon.

                                                          ***

She might not have expected this, but reaching closer to her home made ishita more worried. This was not unnoticed by dushyant, who simply held her hand and gave her an assuring look, that everything will be alright.

The driver stopped the car outside ishita's home, as she still sighed in relief that she was finally here.

'jab wapas aana ho call kardena, main aa jaunga pick karne. Filhaal main jaata hoon singhania se milne, bhagwaan karein kavin ke gaaliyan bhul jaayein yeh!' said dushyant as ishita nodded and got out of the car, leaving only after waving goodbye.

                                                                   ***

The sound of the bell caused purvi to jump from her bedroom to rush to open the door. She opened it to hug her sister in relief, who she was dying to see.

'thank god aap aa gayi, meri jaan hi nikli hui thi...' said purvi as she separated from the hug.

'arre meri jaan nikal ke rakh deti teri voicemail ne...ab bata hua kya hai!' exclaimed ishita.

Purvi, just grabbed ishita's wrist and pulled her to their room, just making ishita more worried.

'purvi! Kuch batao toh sahi!' commanded ishita as purvi locked the bedroom door.

'di, i'm pregnant.' Informed purvi as she let out a huge sigh, while ishita just blankly stared at her.

'di, yaar kuch toh bolo!'

'how do u...'

'woh nausea sa tha, toh doctor ko dikhaya, tab pata chala...'

'toh mummy ko...'

'nahi pata...'

'kavin?'

'samajh nahi aa raha usse bataon ya nahi...'

'oh god, kuch aur bhi hai?' said ishita as she looked up at purvi's face.

'you know that internship ...' said purvi as she looked down at her foot that was making circles around the floor.

'you got selected...' finished ishita, making purvi nod in agreement, who was about to break down.

'di, main kya karoon?' said purvi with such teary eyes that ishita had never seen before.