THE LADY IN THE RAIN

RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL

Pari falls asleep after continuous tears. Ritwik  looks pityingly at her and stands before his mirror. He looks at himself. He notices the drastic change that he has undergone within these few weeks.
‘Rubel left his childhood habitat forever because I hurt him. Emma left this world forever because I hurt her. That means I am that bloody asshole who is responsible for all these?’ Ritwik  asks his reflection nonchalantly.
‘Yes, I am responsible for everything. How could I deserve to live in peace? I lost both my best friend and love because of me. Yeah! How could I forget about Tham? She is dead because of my dumbness. I am responsible for all. And I equally deserve a punishment.’
He takes out a solo-cutter from his drawer and attempts to slit his wrists. He closes his eyes and touches the cutter on his wrists, when suddenly he is interrupted by Vani.
‘Are you nuts, Fuchu? What are you doing?’ Vani shouts.
‘Come with me,’ Vani says on seeing Pari sleeping peacefully. She takes him outside the room.
‘Honey, you are not responsible for all these.’
‘I am. I hurt Tham, Rubel and Emma. I did everything. They had to sacrifice because of my stupidity. Pihu and Rubel are right. I let my ego come between every relationship. My impulsive nature hurts everyone. And this is the root cause of my demolition. I don’t give a shit to understand their feelings. They have always wanted the best for me. But I had always wanted the best for me. I have realized it, Maa. And now I deserve one punishment, death,’ he declares.
Vani slaps Ritwik .
‘Running away is not the way of repenting, my son. If you really want to repent and pay for everything then you will have to be alive. Emma will definitely forgive if you keep her last words. All you can do is to care for Pari. Do you think that the  little innocent life, Pari, deserves all these? I mean if you...if you...then what will she be left with? You are the only one who is left for her in this world. She is scared of us. She trusts only you. She wants to explore the world by holding your hands. Don’t you want that little being to be happy?’
Ritwik  pauses and thinks for a while.
‘You are right. I was being a stupid. I swear never to do anything like this again. From now on, I will look after Pari. She doesn’t deserves a traumatic and a lonely life. She deserves to be cherished. I promise.’
Vani hugs her son.
‘Now go and sleep.’
                                        ********
‘Ritz!’ Pihu pats on Ritwik ’s shoulder. Ritwik  is reading a book. He gets shocked on seeing Pihu.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Came here to see you. When I learnt about Erica Ma’am’s sudden demise, I was worried about you.’
‘But you broke up with me. Both you and Rubel...’
‘Some relationships can never be broken despite of zillion flaws in it. Some relationships are of hearts. No power in the world could break it. Ours is that one. And Rubel is trying to contact you.’
Hearing this, Ritwik  is on cloud nine.
‘Are you serious? I mean I had tried to contact him several times before but he never answered.’
‘Yes, he was upset. But he is not anymore. He says he misses you a lot. What about a video call?’ Pihu suggests.
‘Sure. Wait.’
‘But before that I would like to say that I am proud of you.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s because you’ve decided to take Pari’s responsibility throughout your life.’
‘I am destined to do this. I have wronged both her and Emma. And this is the only way to rectify my sins.’
‘Thanks to aunty who explained you things on time. Or else you’d have ended up in killing yourself.’
‘Oh damn! Did Maa say this to you?’
‘Yep. Promise me that you won’t do anything like this ever again.’
She extends her palm to him. He keeps his palm on her and smiles.
‘Promise. Double promise.’
‘Good.’
‘By the way do you know that nobody was aware regarding Erica Ma’am’s address. In fact the surprising fact is that even the neighbouring houses were unaware regarding the existence of Erica Ma’am and her daughter. They thought that the house was empty.’
Ritwik  nods nonchalantly despite knowing everything.
‘Now let’s call Rubel,’ he changes the topic.
He takes out his MacBook and switches on to Skype with Rubel. After waiting for a few seconds, Rubel answers them. Ritwik  and Rubel both look emotionally at each other for sometime.
‘If you guys are done with your bromance, then shall we proceed?’ teases Pihu.
‘For what?’ asks Ritwik .
‘I mean if you guys keep on staring at each other like this, then we won’t have a proper talk. I mean Internet sucks. It may go off anytime.’
‘Okay. So, how are you, Rubel?’
‘Better. But not the best. You know I miss you guys immensely,’ Rubel confesses.
‘Why don’t you pack up everything and come back?’
‘Not possible, bro. Baba's business is well settled here. If I ask him about moving, then it won’t work. He’ll finish me up. He is already upset with the matter that I am a gay.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘No. I’m done with these repeated sorries. Now no more sorries. Anyway they are coming out of all these slowly and trying to accept my reality.’
‘What about Prithvi?’
‘He has moved on. We are not together anymore. Leave my topic. And say how’re you doing?’
‘Yeah! Good.’
‘I know time is not in your favour now. But you’ll have to cope up with everything and try coming out of it.’
‘Sure. I am trying.’
‘I am jealous. You guys are not letting me speak.’
‘Pihu, stop irritating. You are just disturbing us,’ says Rubel.
‘Fine, I’m leaving. Enjoy your romantic video call.’
She gets up. Ritwik  holds her hand and pulls her down. She sits down on the bed beside Ritwik .
‘Just shut up and sit, okay? I know you keep on blabbering nonsense with your gossip girls!’ teases Ritwik .
Pihu looks at Ritwik , peeved.
They gossip for a while. Suddenly, the network goes dead.
‘Fuck!’ smirks Ritwik .
‘Network sucks, I told you.’
‘Whatever!’
He switches off his MacBook.
‘By the way, I have an important announcement for you.’
‘What?’
‘Naveen Sir has paired you and Anaya for the Physics project.’
‘What? How wasn’t I informed?’
‘You didn’t attend the Physics class. You were not feeling well. So, you took a half day leave.’
‘Yeah! But I don’t think so that Anaya will agree. She is fucking upset with me.’
‘No. You won’t believe but she was switched with Uday. On her insistence, you became her partner.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yep. She loves you like a mad, bro. You must make a move with her.’
‘I don’t think so that I’ll ever be able to love anyone after Emma. Anyway, how many members for each team?’
‘Four. I, you, Anaya and Sahil are in a team.’
‘You’re in my team?’
‘Yes.’
‘Wow! Amazing.’
‘And yeah! We’ll be doing our project at Anaya's house. She has a big space over there. We’ll have to make a smart city after all.’
‘Not that bullshit again! I’m done with the same thing again and again.’
‘Sir told us to do that.’
‘Bullshit!’
‘Well, I completely forgot to congratulate you.’
‘For what?’
‘For your basketball match.’
‘Oh thanks! You know I won the match only because of Emma. She was cheering for me. I saw the spark in her eyes. She had high expectations from me. How could I had let her down? I decided to win the match at any cost only because of her expectations for me,’ Ritwik  says with a gentle smile.
‘Your love is genuine. She was really lucky to get a lover like you,’ Pihu says.