The wedding decorations were still on the house even though it had been months since the daughter-in-law was brought home. The veranda was now filled with gifts that took various shapes and sizes. She admired the almirah her parents had gifted her for this new house.
Although not a love marriage that Malti dreamed of, she was still happy with the man of her choice. He was the son of one of the members of village panchayat and it was his 4th marriage. She felt the heaviness of his connection when the whole village showed up at their wedding and in the barat. She had met him only twice and the wedding was fixed. Oh how the good old days pass. As she felt sick to her stomach, she reminisced about the wedding and the wedding night. There were a lot of people in the house still but they were left for themselves.
Malti was told to experience pain and not express it. She was told and told that no matter what happens, it is a painful experience and nothing can be done about it so she should not share that with her husband in case he shared his ire back to her. She managed to live with the new pain.
They were at the doctor's today and the belly would be growing is the last thing she heard before bed today. Everybody in the house as well as the village, already knows by the time they reach home. Malti feels like she's in a whirlwind and her world is about to change through pain again. The mother-in-law for the first time took care of her, the elders of the house demanded less of her, and her husband was giving her undivided attention.
She fell on a rainy day and on her stomach. Nobody else was in the house besides her mother-in-law but enough of a commotion had been created that neighbours also joined to help Malti up. By the time they reacted, they saw that blood was running down Malti's saree, widening and darkening red. The mother-in-law asked the neighbours to leave.
" Bury it in the backyard."
Malti couldn't comprehend the sentence that came out of her mother-in-law's mouth she stared at her in between painful yawps. Even though she did not move and lived through another pain, the rain eventually washed the blood of the house. When her husband finally saw her lying on the floor unable to move, looking like she had passed out. He asked his mother what happened. He then asked the servant girl to clean it up. "bury it in the yard. Take her to the storeroom and lay a mattress there."
The girl did as she was asked. Malti woke up finally when the rain had subsided and the pain had become the new normal. She cried and wailed, clenched at their clothes and feet, asking them what happened. Nobody looked her in the face, they just told her to forget the whole thing and start again.
"Start again?" she was about to lose her mind when a newly dug ground in their verandah caught her eye. The sight of which made her sick, and yet she saw it every day for the next few years until she heard it call her name. She heard it giggle as she walked by and heard the running of chubby feet when she was alone. Her eyes were red, and she thought she might break anytime.
Asking her husband for help, she pleaded with him for some peace. She couldn't share with him that she might just go crazy. He heard her pleas to leave her alone and they were now starting to sting. "What kind of a woman have you brought for me?" He screamed in the direction of his parents. "She doesn't even let me touch her so we can have another child. " His eyes full of wrath walked out of the house.
"Why are you so selfish and hellbent on ruining my son's life??" Echoed the mother-in-laws.
Malti, at her feet begging for forgiveness was given a ultimatum, "do as he says or leave the house." She pushed Malit hard enough for her to get knocked to the ground. She was too broken to get up instantly. She was bawling lying on the verandha floor and through her misty eyes she finally started noticing the uneven bumps all throughout the verandah, new and decades old.
