wooing Meera Rai

a story

"I am out of stories, meri jaan. Is there something else I can say that will help you sleep?" 

Eight year old Shenaaz looked at her Choti Ammi with hopeful eyes. She held Meera's hand in her little ones and smiled. 

"Is it okay, if I tell you this time?" 

Meera furrowed her eyebrows, holding Shenaaz close to her heart. "You want to tell me a story?" 

Shenaaz nodded. "Please, Choti Ammi. I never get to tell my stories."

So it was decided that for that night, Meera was going to sleep and Shenaaz would tell her a bedtime story. They took their places. Shenaaz seated on the bed with her legs folded whilst Meera lay on her back. Shenaaz tucked her aunt with the soft covers and held her hand ever so fondly. 

"You have to close your eyes and sleep, okay?"

Meera immediately shut her eyes, holding Shenaaz's tiny hands in hers and wondering how long would she have to pretend to be asleep. Lately, sleep and peace weren't Meera's companions and she had forgotten the last time she ever lay in the bed, without a monster. It had been a year since her divorce, a year since she had escaped the clutches of a demon and a year since she had been suffering and dying. Each night she'd sense him beside her. Each night she'd have to stay awake, fearful that he might come get her. Each night she'd fall asleep when her body gave up.

That night she had Shenaaz over after a long time. Inayat wasn't feeling herself and Meera decided to take Shenaaz away, so she could rest. Shenaaz was fond of her aunt and agreed readily to spend the weekend with Meera. It reminded of the days she spend with Meera, after her father's death. 

"This story takes place in the year 3000." 

"It's from the future?" Meera asked.

"Is the year 3000 not happened yet?" Shenaaz asked, confused. 

"No, baby. That's more than 900 years ahead."

"Whoa. But, I love the number 3000."

"That's okay, you can tell me the story from the future." 

"Alright then, it's the year 3000. 900 years in the future where we have flying cars and talking dogs, ice-creams that never melt and chocolates that never end." Meera shut her eyes, her loud heartbeats making it impossible to listen to anything the sweet girl was saying. "And then there's you, me and Ammi. It's our re-re-re-re-re-re-incarnation." 

That was the first time in years when Meera smiled. A small smile, but a smile nonetheless. 

"And how are we related in this re-incarnation?" 

"Um... I am the mother and you and Ammi are my daughters." 

Another soft smile. Meera could finally hear Shenaaz's peaceful voice and put her anxiety in the backseat. 

"So you are the in-charge, huh?"

"Yes. I am the parent. You two are the one who have to listen to me." 

Meera opened her eyes and was reprimanded by Shenaaz at once. She apologised shutting her eyes again and asking the little girl to continue narrating her story.

"Meera and Inayat would often land in mischief and trouble and always worried their mother. That is me." Shenaaz continued, her loud tone echoing in the lonely house - filling it with the magic of her childhood. "And no matter what Shenaaz their mother would say, Meera and Inayat never did what she said."

"Oh, so Meera and Inayat were bad kids?"

"To the world, they were very bad kids."

Meera smiled. "So what does Shenaaz do about this? Does she punish her kids? Does she ask them to write lines over and over or ground them?" 

Shenaaz shook her head. "No. She doesn't do anything. 

"Why?" 

"Because Shenaaz knows that Meera and Inayat are good girls. And that everyone didn't know how brave and nice the girls were. And that if Shenaaz was their mother, she'd hug them every night and tell them stories so they'd go to sleep on time. She can see them not sleeping. She can see them twisting and turning and worrying and crying." 

Meera's eyes watered. She didn't dare open her eyes because she didn't want Shenaaz to see her in a vulnerable state. Shenaaz's voice put all her demons back in hell. She was healing something she never broke, whispering words of comfort her own mother never did. How in the world was she so lucky to get Inayat and Shenaaz as her girls?

"If Shenaaz could punish all the people who hurt her girls, she would. But since Shenaaz cannot do that, she will have to keep her daughter's close to her and be with them." Shenaaz wiped Meera's tears with her tiny hands. "And she'd never let them sleep alone. She'd always love them, just like they loved her back in 20X0, when she was a kid and they were her mothers."  

Meera opened her teary eyes and met Shenaaz's sad face. "You are just a baby, you are not allowed to grow up so fast." She touched Shenaaz's face and brushed her thumb over her cheek. 

"You are my baby too!" Shenaaz defended, teary eyed on seeing her aunt so vulnerable like her mother. "So what if it is in the year 3000. That's not that far away." 

Meera hugged Shenaaz, wrapping the tiny frame of the little kid with her arms and shedding a few tears. It was stupid how she was acting in front of a kid, pitied herself for not being a role model that Shenaaz deserved. 

"You deserve the world, jaan." Meera said, kissing Shenaaz on the top of her head. "You truly are my little baby."

"I am your first baby right?"

"Yes."

"So as your first-born and your mother from the year 3000, I declare you go to sleep right now." 

"Okay ma'am."

Meera slept that night, holding Shenaaz close to her heart and letting her gaurd down for the night. 

"Choti Ammi..."

"Hmmm..."

"I love you." 

Meera snuggled closer, tucking Shenaaz's hair and patting her chest softly. "I love you, too." Meera watched Shenaaz quickly fall asleep after that and she smiled at her kid. "Thank you Maa, from the year 3000. I needed this today."

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