aurore - an unusual love story √

part five

Raghav Raichand paced up and down the garden making several phone calls one after the other. Siddhi Raichand had just been injected stress relievers because she was losing it completely.

Making calls to every possible space on earth Jai could be, Raghav looked at Maya, who stood with a stern expression at the gate.

" Maya, I think we should call the police. It's five thirty. "
Raghav said anxiously.

" He'll be home soon. Stop overreacting dad. You're not Mom. And he's not a kid. " , Maya talked in a deep low tone.

" I know beta. But I'm more concerned for your mom. "

" For her, medicines do the job. " , Maya kept staring outside the gate.

Raghav Raichand knew there was no use unless she decided herself. He stood quietly beside her staring outside the gate as well.

An autorickshaw stopped before the mansion. Jai got down. He looked pale and tattered.

A smile crossed Maya's face. Raghav joyfully opened the gate and walked out.

" Hey Hey! My boy! Where have you been? "

Jai faintly smiled, holding his dad's hand as if silently conveying something. And then walked straight to Maya, hugging her tighter than ever.

A startled Maya slowly hugged him back.
" Easy brother, easy. Something wrong? " , she asked.
Raghav too was quite surprised at this.

Usually Jai and Maya didn't hold the sibling equation much. Rather Jai respected her immensely like a guardian. And Maya was far from being a usual woman. A withdrawn self, one could never understand what was going on in her pretty brain. She was graceful, yet not the one you could approach with just anything whenever you wished.

But did that mean she didn't care? She could be the first to give away her life for her parents and her brother. That never meant though, one could get to hear beautiful words of affection from Maya Raichand.

Hence, a hug from Jai to Maya was indeed surprising.

Jai got the awkwardness and broke the hug. Maya kept staring at him, though he looked down. Raghav stood silently trying to judge the pale looking face of his son.

" Jai, look at me. Where had you been throughout the night? I and dad reached home around 3 from the airport. The rain had almost stopped then. Where were you caught up? "
Maya asked in a single breath.

Jai looked at Raghav instead.

" Actually, I...my car stopped... I mean the engine broke down on Dhara road.. I.. I couldn't possibly do anything cause it was a devastating night.. I...spent the night in the car, and when the autos began running, I caught one and left the car there itself..... "

Jai Prakash Raichand couldn't possibly tell that he spent the night at the dwelling of a Muslim woman of his age, to his family, who were born judgmental.

Raghav and Maya exchanged looks of which Jai hardly made out anything. Most importantly he didn't want to, he was extremely tired.

" Mom? " , he asked Maya.

" Has been put to sleep. Was exhausting too much. " , her low pitch hardly reflected anything she felt regarding anything.

Jai walked upstairs. The huge mansion he dwelt in suddenly felt meaningless. Before his eyes floated a single choking grimmy room, in which a woman spent her life with a seven months old baby that could share nothing of the sorrow her mother had seen.

Jai stood for a moment before his mother's room. Through the half closed door he could see his mother sleeping. He pushed it a bit, alerting the nurse who stayed twenty-four- seven.
He gestured to let his mother know of his arrival when she woke up.