Vishnupriya

21

It was already late night when the two cousins reached the door of Vrishabhanu Dulari's bhavan which was closed.

"Are you not going to come inside, Madhav?" Arjun asked when his cousin stopped midway. "No Parth." Madhav shook his head. "But why, Madhav?" Arjun questioned.

"I shall only enter when my Yashaswini welcomes me in herself leading me by holding my hand." Arjun shook his head hearing his cousin. "Just come already." he pulled his Madhav by his hand and the two were busy playing pull back and forth like little kids.

"Yashodhara! Yashodhara!" Arjuna called while pulling his cousin. "Shh! Shh! Parth!" Krishna resisted and pulled him back once again.

Upon hearing her name being called Vishnupriya who was busy in her room holding the locket close to her quickly stood up and rushed towards the door. "How did it slip from my mind that Rajkumar Arjun hadn't returned yet." she facepalmed herself as she rushed towards the door.

As Nar and Narayan outside heard the door being unlocked both their eyes widened. "Yashodhara look-" just before Arjun could finish his sentence he was pushed infront nearly falling face first on the ground if it wasn't for Yashodhara who caught him.

"Hmm?" she was surprised as she caught him. She noticed how his hand was rough opposite to that of her Shyam but felt familiar as she noticed some faint red alta stains on his hand. 

She looked up to face the rajkumar who looked back behind him annoyed. "Rajkumar? Are you okay?" she asked and Arjuna faced her nodding. "I have a friend who is very dear to my heart. She too used to slip and stumble wherever she went." Vishnupriya spoke fondly about her sakhi Brihannala as she let go of his hands., "Whenever I meet you, you are always falling and stumbling. Is it a habit now?" she laughed.

"N-no. It's nothing like that. It's just that....." Arjuna trailed of thinking of an excuse when their attention was caught by a monkey hanging by his tail on the tree laughing.

"Dadhilobha!" Vishnupriya rested her hands on her hips. "That monkey was bothering me." Arjuna quickly said, it wasn't exactly a lie since Dadhilobha had nearly pulled his wig along with his real hair off during his time as Brihannala.

Dadhilobha's smile instantly fell and looked at Vishnupriya shaking his head. "Don't mind him. He has always been like that. Troublesome. Not getting food for the whole day tomorrow will fix his brain." Vishnupriya shook her head. "Please come in. It's getting cold now." Vishnupriya said leading Arjuna inside.

Arjuna looked behind him once more finding the troublesome monkey Dadhilobha making some crazy hand movements to the Keshava standing underneath the tree as if expressing it's distress and complaining.

Arjuna squinted his eyes at his cousin who had once again escaped using him as a scape goat. Arjuna moved inside to his own pavilion to get some rest shaking his head as he sighed.

After a while Vishnupriya returned back to the door to close it. As she looked outside she stood there unmoving, staring off into the distance. She leaned against the door frame as she got lost in her thoughts. Sighing she slid down and sat on the door threshold leaning her head on the frame of the door.

The air had grown colder and her feet had gone numb resting on the cold marble tilted floor. Yet she stayed there. "Will he come?" the hope once again rose. "But..... I haven't done my shringar.... What will he think when he comes and sees me like this." the list of her concerns were endless. "No..... no, stop it Yashodhara. It's fruitless, you doing shringar is of no worth. He won't come." she shook her head as she stood up from her place.

She headed back inside as she closed the door and back to her room. She rubbed in face in exhaustion as she entered her room. Her eyes immediately fell on the dressing table where she used to sit and get ready for her Shyam everyday.