Kumudini's Husband

Three

"Why is this thing not moving?"

"What?" He said. "Wait...."
"How will it move? Your foot is on the ground."

"Oh," She jumped back on her bicycle seat, while he had held it in position by the back carrier.
"You leave it, I'll do it on my own."

"Sure?" Prithwish confirmed.

"YES!" Kumudini replied back.

Then she went around cycling, first slow, then steady, while her husband walked towards where she was struggling with her bicycle.

"THANK YOU FOR THE SHOES!" She shouted from a distance.

He didn't reply. Rather, he laughed a little.

"AHHHH"

His dear wife crashed on the ground, with the bicycle over her.

He ran at once to help her.
"Rani, are you okay?"

He was just a couple of steps away, when she screamed, "Why did I fall?"

"You know that better, I should say," He said, while lifting the bicycle off her.

"No...I fell down because of you."

"What? Because of me?" He said. "I was not even close to you."
Hues of perplex had engulfed him by now.

"Yes...That's what. Why did you leave me?"

"Because you told me to."

Kumudini was now sitting on the ground, with her injured leg stretched out and Prithwish was dusting away the dirt from her saree and hair.

"You shouldn't have listened to me. I am silly," She said, pursing her lips. "See...How I fell down."

"Oh, my precious..." He tugged her into a tight embrace and kissed on top of her head. "You're not silly. Not at all. I have told this to you many times. But I am telling you again that you don't need me to be safe. You are strong enough to protect yourself. You know that. Stop thinking that you Silly or incapable."

He lifted her face by her chin. And spoke again, "You cannot be a damsel in distress. You just cannot. You be the Queen. Rather, the 'Woman King'. You rule the empire. I will just love the empire and it's empress, always. Be 'the knight in shining armor' to the oppressed. Emancipate them. I know you can do that."

On one extreme of the large king-sized bed, lay the young doctor of law and beside him his dear injured wife. He had supported his head by crutching on his elbow such that his visage faced hers.

Prithwish was drawing circles on Kumudini's cheek with his fingers and planting soft flowery kisses across her face and sometimes on her neck.

"How do you look so beautiful every moment?" He asked.

"Oho..." she giggled. "You always tell that..."

"That's because you are beautiful, my precious," He nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck, inhaling her morning shampoo.

It was a lazy summer afternoon and Kumudini was laying on bed with her lover, when he was showering her with all his love. Oh, the light hearted moments of a marriage!

"Does you foot hurt a lot?"

"No...I'm better now. I think in a couple of days, I should be fine."

"What about the article that I had written?" She murmured, yawning.

"I had submitted it to the newspaper office," He answered. "Let's see what happens..."

He laid on her chest for quite some time.

Then she spoke up again, "Don't you think that I have gained weight?"

He looked up, an unexplainable expression on his face.

"I mean, I do look fat. I feel nauseous too at times and a little dizzy..." she said.

"Are you thinking that you could be...?" Pregnant he wanted to say. But the words didn't find their way out. They remained inside his mouth but she could hear it all.

"Yes. I am," Kumudini replied. "But..."

Were there droplets of water in their eyes? They couldn't tell. Perhaps, there were.

"Even if you are pregnant, Rani, that is not something unnatural. I mean, you can be pregnant but only that the vaid said that there could have been difficulties in conceiving the child." Prithwish explained. "You want to visit the doctor, don't you?"

She nodded her head, her heart thumping at the possibility.

Kumudini
"How did my world change so fast? Even a month ago the people were taunting me for being Barren, for being a bad omen. Why did the Lord bless me so much? I am a mother now. Oh Durga, you are karunamoyee!"