You and I - a pranushka tale

chapter twenty-two

Wedding preparations were keeping everyone busy in the house. Due to the marriage only being a number of days away, there was not much time for the families to rest. Rana and Thara however were on cloud nine. The adults didn't let them to do anything but ask them to give their opinions on how they want their wedding to be. So as everyone else did one task or another, the young pair spent their time alone, away from the rest of the world.

Mithrah was trying to spend the next couple of weeks in ignorance, trying not to remember the impending deadline that was on her leaving to Hyderabad. When it came to keeping her mind occupied, better than the preparations was Prabhas who was gifted in this section.

"Did you eat the last vadai? After I claimed it?" She asked in an accusing manner, raising her finger at him angrily.

He shook his head with an innocent smile. "I didn't eat it." He replied calmly.

"I know you did!" She exclaimed stepping closer with a glare. "Don't lie Prabhas."

With the same expression, he shook his head with a smile, annoying her in measures she didn't know existed. "I didn't eat it Mithrah. I would never lie to you."

"You're lying to me right now." She replied trying to appear calm as half her family was watching their interaction trying not to laugh. "Just own up that you ate it and that you're a demon for it and we will call it a day."

He stepped closer as if about to tell her a secret. "I didn't eat your vadai Mithrah." He repeated, his previously calm smile cracking as if he was about to laugh. "But I did take it and give it to Rana."

"I am going to kill you." She growled before chasing him around the room causing him to laugh and run.

As Mithrah chased Prabhas, Radha leaned back in her seat, a smile settling on her face as she remembered the first time she met Veeraiyandi. Her eyes fell on her husband who at the moment turned to look at her with a soft smile as if remembering it himself.

The Madurai sun bore deeply into Radha's skin as she walked behind her father and mother, her eyes trained on the floor. Emotionally she was distraught and she wanted nothing more than to be in her room alone, unbothered by everyone.

"Radha, at least try and smile." Her mother whispered after glancing at the forlorn expression on her face. "You're not going to a funeral."

Her eyes lifted from the ground to glare at her. Of course, it wasn't a funeral to her mother. It was only she who mourned the loss of her future as her father betrothed her to a man she most certainly was not in love with.

Bhavani she thought bitterly. A man who had only desired money and power. But that was until he came to her father and asked for her hand in marriage. Although she wouldn't use the word asked as demanded may have fit the situation better. From then onwards, no matter how much she protested, her voice became meaningless. In a week's time, her fate was to be sealed in his hand.

Radha attempted to leave the caged surrounding of her family and at least go pray alone but they didn't let her move a step further away. The warm temperature didn't help as she felt her cheeks redden in the heat. "Amma, it's too hot." She mumbled. "I need to go and rest under a shade. I feel lightheaded. You don't want Bhavani's bride to faint in a temple do you?" She asked, watching her mother's expression change at the sound of his name.

With a worried expression, she nodded. "Okay. Go and sit under the shade for a while but take someone with you."

She nodded and walked away with one of her cousins by her side. Her eyes were wandering around the whole temple making her cousin, Soundarya, look at her with caution. "Radha if you're planning to run away now, take me with you. They will kill me if you left under my watch."