MANGO MILKSHAKE

Chapter 9

The exhaustion of yesterday has not settled yet. Nisha reappeared in my already lamentable life and I don't have a great feeling about it. I didn't know about her presence in Yaseen's life but she knew about me beforehand yet she chose to show up. I wonder if it'll alter the happenings in my upcoming days. I couldn't bear to hear about Nisha's resilience at work and how sweet she is, that too from my dear future husband. Even after seven years, Nisha still looks the same. Her golden complexion and large doe eyes have not got enough justice due to her uncoordinated facial features. Her brownish hair is straighter than a betel nut tree but her figure isn't taller than three corn peppers stacked one upon another. In conclusion, even if she has beautiful features, it doesn't make her a beautiful person overall. If one could see through her deceptive behaviour, they would probably run away from her faster than a headless chicken. She's a concern but Raya is a responsibility and a responsibility is always more important than any kind of concern. Which is why I'm standing in front of Raya's house, tapping on the door very ardently.

"Aunty! Where are you? Your second daughter is here." I cried out impatiently.

After a few seconds of silence, a rash voice of feet falls started to appear. With a big smile on her face, Ritu aunty opened the door for me.

"Ayat ! How are you beta? You were too busy yesterday. I couldn't even talk to you properly." Aunty hugged me and held my shoulder to see my face.

"Sorry aunty. I didn't give you enough time. Is Raya home? I needed to talk to her." I awkwardly stood there and peeked behind her to see if anyone else was home.

"Yes beta, come inside. She's in her room doing God knows what." Ritu aunty cheerfully took me inside.

Aunty is quite an interesting woman for her age. Unlike most Indian women in their fifties, she doesn't have any complaints against her life. Her only daughter's debatable life choices never bother her. Lack of immediate worries, makes her look younger than other women of her age. Her curly hair looks like a mixture of salt and black pepper. Her height is something my mother would be envious of. Even with osteoporosis, she's firm and as tall as I am.

"Ray! Ray! Your one true love is there. Open the door." Aunty teased in a playful tone. Soon the curved wooden door opened with a hasty jolt.

"Mumma please! It's been years now. Stop embarrassing me." Raya whined. "What's up babe? You didn't tell me you're coming over."

"Well, it's kind of an urgent deal." I tried to hide the obvious fact of me being paranoid over a trivial matter of her not saying goodbye to me before leaving yesterday.

"Oh! Really?" Raya frowned as her loose bun which is minimally held by a pen threatened to fall apart. Her mid length artificially straightened black hair holds more personality than a lot of the men in this country.

"It's about yesterday, I kind of needed to talk." The hesitation took over me as a side effect of forced confession.

"You two talk inside the room, I better go and cook all of Ayat's favourite dishes." Aunty left while humming some kind of holy chanting under her throat.

Raya's room is filled with queer stuff including framed memes that she once liked too much. The soft grungy aura resonates from her room. I comfortably burrowed myself in the middle of a pile of pillows while Raya just stood there with both of her hands in the pockets of her trousers.

"So? What's your query this time?" Raya asked. "Are you there only to dictate over my house including my mother?"

"No. You left yesterday without a word." I sighed.

"I needed to send a file to the studio. It was a sudden situation." Raya looked unbothered.

"And then you-" I tried to argue