Daastan [#MissionDesi]

Chapter 18

I turned around and stood there looking at Sujatha. I felt a stab of pain and all the ghosts of the past came floating in front of me. The pain moved upwards from my heart to my eyes, threatening to spill out. Of course they betrayed me. Traitors! They were taking no prisoners today. And the tears came down one by one, escaping the hell they've been living in so far. Time for their nightmares to end, they slid freely. I stood there looking, just looking at her.

My eyes just saw, they didn't analyse, didn't register anything. Everything got wiped out from around us. Only left was Sujatha and I. I don't know how much time had passed, not that it mattered as they say time is just an illusion.I wondered if she was an illusion too.

Hiya's fingers linked with mine and I snapped out of my reverie. I saw Sujatha frozen in time. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. That's when I noticed the man beside her. He had concern written all over his face. One thing I knew for sure, I'd never seen this man before when we were married. She must have got to know him after she moved here.

Vinayak stood by my side while Rama went to talk to her. Realizing what a mess I had become, I jerked my head away and wiped my tear streaked face with a shivering white handkerchief.

Rama brought Sujatha to meet us. She introduced us to the other guy who turned out to be Sujatha's ex boss from coffee house/recent best friend.

He looked from me to Sujatha and back again, clearly confused. A hundred questions hung on his face as he tried his best to put the pieces together.

Hiya took Sujatha's hand, at the same time not leaving mine. Sujatha looked down, avoiding my eyes.

Rama introduced us to Sujatha's friend, "Anil, this my husband, Vinayak. My daughter, Hiya. And Arvind, my brother."

I don't know why but Anil seemed to relax, as if he'd been expecting something else but his eyes still held some kind of fear in them and it made me uneasy.

"Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm not planning on standing here all day long!" chirped Hiya.

Vinayak threw a look at Hiya and getting the hint she talked no more, her grip on my hand more firm than before.

"Its ok. She's just a little girl," Anil cooed as if singing a lullaby to a baby. Charming, wasn't he? Hiya smiled a little, careful now, remembering her father having told her not to talk when two elders are talking as its bad manners.

I felt anger towards Sujatha's friend. He was a stranger to me and why was My Sujatha with him? And now, he was trying to charm my niece too.

Sujatha's eyes hovered over me, taking in everything, absorbing as if keeping it tucked away in her brain which now stored new memories, to rewind later on at night, when she would get into her bed, looking at the ceiling, thinking of me.

And as her eyes were pulled to my eyes like magnets by a strange force, our eyes latched onto each other. "Sujatha..." the man standing beside her called her and our moment faded into a deep void.

He mumbled something like 'Nice to meet you all.'

Sujatha talked with Rama for a second and then she was gone but not before looking behind once again, and I caught that look in her eyes, the same look years before when I had left for Geneva, one week before her accident.

"Don't go please," she had looked at me with pained expression.

"Hey hey! Don't worry. I'll be back in no time. Till then you have Amma keeping you company," I had said wiping away her tears.

"But no one can take your place!" She had said.

Why did her look remind me of that day? Was she still missing me? Is that what her moist eyes tried telling me?

Later that night when I lay in bed, the day's events going through my head like a video, stopping at right moments, her pixie nose, fuller lips painted pink, kajal under her eyes, her hair which were shorter now, almost shoulder length although I must admit they suited her petite frame, her neck...My thoughts hovered over her neck more than they needed to. And then something snapped inside me, a realisation. What a fool I had been!

My subconscious mind had innocently picked upon a minute detail carelessly, as if out on a stroll and watching a bird fly into the sky without having given it another thought until now...The Mangalsutra wrapped around her neck! Of course! I still had hope by my side. And for the first time in two years, since she left, I smiled,  a deep content spreading across my features.

P.S.A Mangalsutra is a beaded necklace worn by Hindu women. Its considered auspicious, signifying a strong and revered symbol of wedlock.