Forget-Me-Not: Taste of Freedom

Chapter Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Eight

       The best things in life come unplanned.

      Vidhi, however, was a firm disbeliever of this statement. She had always been a meticulous planner, always tried to think of the right thing to do at the right time. When she was twelve, she'd decided how much she wanted to score in her board exams. When she was sixteen, she was already dreaming for a big post and a personal cabin and lots of money. When she was twenty, her sole aim in life was not to get laid, but to work for a big company. She'd been an intern at various firms, had learned all the stock market tricks at her father's friend's broking agency, and had been determined to live it big. For her, 'impulse' and 'desire' had no meaning. God was in the small details was what they said, and it was true.

      Everything had always been about the money. Maybe it was because she'd always had so little of it. When she was smaller, she'd always felt like the odd one out. Born on the other side of the tracks. Even though she had a love for numbers, her last job hadn't been about her passion for it; it was about comfort. When money had started to flow in, she'd been determined that it could solve all her problems. And for a while, it had. Her father's medical bills got paid on time. They could afford a nice house with a garden in a decent area. She could indulge herself by buying little things for herself that she liked. But in the end, what was all that money worth if she couldn't remember one single memory in her adult life that could fill her with blood-bursting energy and thrill?

       Sitting with her legs crossed in Dia's dimly lit room, on her unmade bed while Dia and Geet stared at her, Vidhi finally realized how empty her life had  been till then. Sure, there had been no heartbreaks, no major pain. But there had been no real happiness, either.

      "So?" Dia asked, raising her eyebrows. "What do you say? Are you guys coming with me?"

      "This is crazy," Vidhi whispered, "You can't be sure about this."

       "I am. I'm going to Goa, and I'm putting myself out there. I'm going to let the whole world know that I'm not afraid anymore, and that I want my husband back. I don't care what he thinks, as long as he forgives me."

       "And if he doesn't?" Geet asked.

       Dia paused for a moment, and then whispered, "Then I'll just give him the benefit of the doubt."

       The thick, creamy curtain billowed in the wind, and from somewhere, laughter floated in. Suddenly, like she'd been electrified, Dia jumped out of her bed and began pacing about her room.

      "I need to do this," she kept saying to herself. "I can't sit here waiting around for him, while he might be on some beach, or some resort enjoying wine with a woman who already left him before. I'm not going to let my fear of being a disappointment ruin my life."

       Geet stared at her friend, stunned at the determination she saw in her face. "What are you going to say to him? Have you thought of that?"

       Dia whirled around and faced her. "I love him."

      Vidhi and Geet sat up straighter.

       "I love him," she repeated. "I was such fool, fighting it at every turn, when I should have known! But this is about my life. The life I want, the life I was too scared to allow myself to have. Now no more."

      Somehow, her bold declaration set things into motion. Geet got up, grabbing her shoulders, and said, "When are we leaving?"

       "Tonight."