...Hauntings..

...The Secret...

THE SECRET                                                                                                                                           Delhi, India (2014)

There are a lot of people in this world who keep secrets. Secrets either destroy or surprise the family. But there are some secrets, which people wish to keep, as they are either unexplainable or devastating. The story of such a secret is the one that unfolded between my friend and his wife a year ago

Mudit got married at twenty-nine. He was not forced into it. He really loved Aradhya. They had met in college years ago. They had been with each other as partners and it was evident that their courtship would materialize into a marriage. After the wedding Mudit shifted from his ancestral home in west Delhi to an apartment on the ground floor he had bought from himself in Noida. It was a cozy two bedroom apartment, one, that you would expect a middle class white collard professional to poses. Aradhya was only too happy with her new home; she was already making plans of redecorating it.

Mudit was showing her around the house, when the couple came across a small door that opened into a store. Aradhya asked, "What is in here?". Mudit seemed to be feeling nervous, the fingers of his left hand were tapping on the knuckles of his right fist "uh...nothing.... its.... just uh storeroom" he replied with a bit of uncertainty in his voice. Aradhya smiled "What are you hiding, my darling husband". Mudit said "nothing.... nothing". Aradhya pushed the door open and what she saw inside, made her eyes wide with surprise...

The storeroom had actually been converted to a baby room filled with soft toys and a small bed. Most of the soft toys though old, were maintained beautifully and on the bed was kept a small yellow bouncy ball with a smiley painted on to one side. Aradhya walked back and hugged her husband "You have prepared for the baby already, I love you so much", saying this she jumped into her husbands arms. Mudit held her lovingly but his eyes were transfixed on the bed in the room and the ball lying on it.

That night as the couple sat for their first supper in the new home. Aradhya decided to break the silence between them. "I absolutely loved the babies room, though somehow I did not like the pink color of the wall, but do not worry you have made the room so lovingly that I will cover all the things and get it painted in blue in a way that all that you have collected from your childhood with so much of love shall not even have the slightest spot". Aradhya was waiting for a reply from Mudit but Mudit kept eating his dinner in utter silence.

Aradhya could not understand what had transformed her chirpy boyfriend to this silent and worried husband. She slowly crept between his arms and kept her head on his broad chests as they were lying at night. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked looking at her husbands face. Mudit was still preoccupied with something, not sure what, but he was. Finally he mustered the courage to tell his wife something that he hoped he would never have had to tell her. "Aradhya, can we leave that room the way it is.... I mean it has been there a while and I kind of like the color too, a change right now would be too intense don't you think?". Aradhya smiled "so this is what was pinching you, oh my darling husband you should have told me before...relax, I will not change a thing" saying this Aradhya hugged Mudit and Mudit did the same and the couple slept soundlessly through the night.

The next morning Mudit was getting ready to go to the office ad Aradhya was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. She had taken a week off to reorganize the new home. After breakfast Mudit left for work and Aradhya went back to the bedroom to set the bed right. She had just entered the room when her eyes fell on something lying on the floor next to the door, it was the same yellow ball, she had seen on the bed of the toy room. The smiley face was facing her. Aradhya picked the ball up and went to the toy room to place it back on the bed.