Parivara: Story of a Family

14 : A Decision

Warning: Mature Content

After washing the colors of Holi off of herself, Aditi dressed in her dinner attire, an elegant red lehenga (Indian dress). She decided to leave her hair open so it could dry, and wore only plain jewelry. Then, her guards and ladies began escorting her to the dinner hall.

As they walked, a whistle pierced through the air in the tone of Aditi and Vishu's secret whistle, and sure enough Vishu appeared to walk beside her. "May I escort Her Majesty to dinner?" He asked, holding out his arm.

Aditi took his arm and her servants walked a step further behind them. Vishu had escorted her to places many times before, but for some reason, she was nervous this time. Her heartbeat was irritatingly fast, and she found she couldn't look at Vishu without it speeding up even more.

"Aditi, what did I tell you?" He whispered to her as they walked. His tone was playful, like it always has been, and he was smiling his usual charming grin. "Breathe. Relax! I can feel your heart beating throughout your entire arm!"

Aditi quickly snatched her arm out of his and blushed deeply. Vishu chuckled heartily, and went back to whistling a jolly tune. Aditi scoffed and retorted, "How could you be so... normal, when you know what I'm going through?"

"Kya (what)?" Vishu asked, looking at her sideways, his tone still playful. "What're you going through?"

"You know," she only responded, stomping like a child instead of walking now.

Vishu chuckled, again, and told her, "No, I really don't. Because, for me, the answers to all your worries are so simple. So I don't understand why you even are worrying so much."

They had reached the dinner hall entrance by this point. Aditi stopped and motioned with her hand for her guards and ladies to stay far back. She turned, almost angrily, to Vishu now, and said, "And what're the answers? Huh?"

Vishu smiled, sweetly this time, and not his usual jolly grin. Quietly, he answered, "Me. I'm your answer. Just think about it." He tapped Aditi's forehead with his finger before waltzing into the hall before her.

She stood outside, confused, for a moment. Then, she figured she may as well go in. She beckoned her servants and made her entry into the dinner hall.

Of course, it was filled with lords and ladies, all gushing and glowing, but Aditi saw none of that. She also didn't see her eldest sisiter Divya making eyes across the room to her father's trustee, Rakesh. And she definitely didn't see the longing way Payal stared at Abhay while he made it a point not to look at her.

Aditi was lost in her own world, and all she could see was Vishu. Playing with the kids in the room, eating food with her father, making her mother laugh, bowing graciously to the guests. Vishu, so annoying and too outgoing, but also sweet, and the only one who ever understood her. Inside a palace where her two older sisters vied for attention and received all of it, Aditi had always felt invisible. Not as pretty as them, not as smart or graceful. But Vishu had seen her. From the moment he came to the palace, he'd seen Aditi and only Aditi.

And suddenly, Aditi couldn't remember what was worrying her. She had her answers.

A dancer was entertaining the guests, swaying her body to make beautiful pictures as she glided around the hall. As she danced, she sang a song about the springtime, and birds of a prey and things like that. But Aditi caught the hidden messages from the song, which she guessed was really about secrets. Secret lives, secret desires, and secret sweet nothings whispered between secret lovers. And it was almost as if the song was all about Aditi.

If the other sisters were listening as closely as Aditi, they would've guessed the song was directed at them. But everyone in the hall was so caught up in their own secrets, that the dancer's song only serenaded the thoughts already racing through their minds. That night, the dinner hall became the hall of secrets, and everyone was caught up in it.