After The Rain

Chapter Six - Shattering Firmament

there is pain here and they tell us not to touch it.

but either way, we feel it.
it festers behind the clouds.
builds, shakes the ground.

oh, we are well-versed in thunder.
by now we know lightning by name.
but we still do not touch it.
we still do as we're told.

hear me out: what if we weren't afraid?
we flee at the sight of rain but what if we
huddled closer? pressed ourselves tighter?
didn't allow it to part us?

I would whisper you this secret:
the sun has never healed us quite like the storm.

- Rachel H (The Storm).

~

Arnav Singh Raizada sat with his back pressed against the front of his car.

The storm was raging around him—the wind was cruel, and the rain was hail pelting on his skin—but neither did he move, nor did he flinch. Instead, he closed his eyes and turned his face skywards, willing himself to feel the pain that the rain brought in the hope that it would overpower the mental torment that was ransacking him. He hoped, perhaps even prayed to a God he did not believe in, for the wind to drown out the words he heard an eternity ago.

But alas. With every passing second, he only heard it louder and clearer—a story that baffled the remaining peace in his life and a tale that threw his mind into chaos, with no way out. It sent him flying back into time to the night where amidst the music of festivity and laughter had echoed the sound of death, a scream that shattered his world into pieces. Up until this moment, that scream was accompanied by the sight of his mother laying in the pool of her own blood with her eyes—so kind and loving as he was used to seeing them—shrouded in an eerie stillness. But now, that memory wavered and changed. One moment it was his mother, and the next, his sister.

With a jolt, Arnav forced his eyes open. His vision blurred, partly due to the water splashing into his face and partly due to his own tears.

He had refused to believe it. The moment Khushi had uttered his Jija-ji's name, he had been convinced that she was either pulling a cruel prank on him or she was a victim of some horrifying misunderstanding. For a second, driven by the habit of blaming every single unpleasant thing on her, Arnav was even struck with fury at the possibility that she was stirring up some false tales. But his mind froze in the middle of coming up with reasons he could not fathom for why she was tarnishing Jija-ji's name the second his eyes fell on the screen of her phone.

Arnav groaned, feeling nausea sweep over him in a powerful wave as he remembered the sickening image of his brother-in-law standing next to Khushi, grinning all while she looked downwards, clearly traumatized. Instantly, his mind had gone into overdrive. He revisited the words that Khushi had uttered before dropping Shyam's name, the words he had momentarily forgotten and try as he might to deny it, he found her story fit perfectly into the puzzle that he had not been aware always revolved around his beloved brother-in-law.

In the three years of his marriage, Shyam spent no more than a few months with his wife before going off on various work-related travels so he could make an honest living and, in his words, give his sister the life she deserved. Yet, Arnav had never seen him use his own money for anything. His sister depended on him even after her marriage and over time, he began taking financial responsibility for his brother-in-law too. The demand of Shyam's work had even rattled his sister but Arnav had always consoled her, reassuring her that she should be happy she had a hard-working husband. Now, Arnav wanted to kick himself for not having looked into that more. He had been selfish, thinking that Shyam's travels meant that his sister wouldn't have to move away from him. It's only now that Arnav realised that under the pretext of work, Shyam had been leading a double life and had most probably betrayed his sister with Heaven knows how many women.