Ahalya dumps another ladleful of curry in her plate and mixes it with the rice. She keeps her concentration on the laptop screen. She doesn't care that she's eating in the kitchen. Or that she's standing in the moment. There's uneasiness in her, watching them talk for a long time.
She holds a piece of potato to eat but stops. Vishwa has turned towards the camera. The gesture feels like a warm embrace to her. He smiles, and she understands. A weight has been lifted off her consciousness. She sighs and eats the potato piece. Chewing. Thinking. Chewing. Thinking. Swallowing. Thinking. She wonders what happened. What changed his mind?
Behind the laptop, Vishwa's notebook lies on the table. She's the only person who knows of its existence. A perk of being a writer's wife, perhaps. It's a collection of his poetic scribblings from when he was a teenager. She made a habit of reading them whenever they fight. She never expected Vishwa would write poetry. When he first mentioned it, she was genuinely surprised. She presumed he was too in his head for something like poetry. God, is she wrong!
Some days like today, she couldn't read past the first page. The first poem. It was in the messy, cursive handwriting of a sixteen-year-old Vishwa, which makes more sense than their love story. She stares at the page, half-reading, half-caring.
Having (A poem by Vishwamitra)
I have a mother
Just like
I have water to drink,
air to breathe
and a planet to live
They don't go anywhere
if i don't need them
Somehow, it isn't enough
Having is a minimum
Having is an obligation
I have a—
heart?
Ahalya wonders again: What calmed him down?
YOU ARE READING
One Foot In The Grave
Mystery / Thriller[In the middle of a rewrite] He tells a lie. She tells the same lie. Their reward is a devil. Ahalya and Vishwa, popular Instagram comic artists, go on a vacation to Vishwa's birthplace, a Village named Aranyavaram. In the absence of the internet, t...
