Southern Avenue

Chapter #19

Chapter #19

"Look they are all done!" Sharanya exclaimed and clasped her hands in happiness looking at Nikki and Jimmy who looked fresh as daisies; happy, running around in circles with wagging tails and their tongues hanging out as they kicked and played with the balls. Sharanya could possibly even think of them as freshly baked cakes with fresh icing, even if it was a rather odd comparison.

"Did you think of my kiddos as cakes right now, Sharanya?" Ranvijay hid the glint of the smile on his lips and looked at her with a frown. She had actually spoken her thoughts out loud.

"Um, no, not at all," She shook her head sheepishly. Embarrassed then she walked down the stairs quickly before he could and waited for Ranvijay to change into his own clothes to bring those two little beings who were with her now, playing around on the lawn.

Sharanya walked out of the gates, letting the dogs play, on the pavement to see those things that had changed in all these years, but the planned and designed lanes of Southern Avenue remained the same. There were a lot of things that had changed in all those years but yet all of it looked known, similar, rugged, rather touched.

She placed her hand over the name Shangam Villa and then smiled at it. When she'd come to the house for the very first time, it had been MahaShikshya, named after Ranvijay's grandmother. The meaning of the word Shangam in Hindi was deep; it meant union. Very apt for the relationships that the place held.

Craning her neck towards the avenue crossing, that was somewhat visible from that house she saw the same crossing on which she'd lost her way and had met Ranvijay for the first time. Not that she knew it was him at that time. Yet now that she had remembered it all again that memory looked so vivid.

"Why are you smiling to yourself?" Ranvijay's voice came from behind and both the puppy's barks made her break out of her reverie to look at them.

"Just going down the memory lane," Sharanya shrugged and opened the door of the backseats where Ranvijay placed the puppies. "Should I sit at back and take care of them?"

"And make me look like a driver? Absolutely not," He stifled at her while she looked at him stunned thereafter rolled her eyes.

"Then let me drive your car once. Not now, later." Sharanya gave him a look.

"We can see to that if you can take care of my baby. She's precious." Ranvijay said thoughtfully.

"Sure, sire." Scoffing the words she sat on the passenger seat while Ranvijay took up the driver's one this time around.

The journey back to Sharanya's apartment wasn't of much distance and as soon as the pets walked inside the new environment of the lobby of the apartment building, their barks filled the silence making Ranvijay and Sharanya laugh at their over energetic presence. They could easily liven up the mood of any place.

"Look who's here!" Hridya's voice jingled as she herself opened the door, while Jimmy and Nikki swayed their tail looking at Sharanya's mother and barked happily at the older lady.

"Maa! You should be in bed." Sharanya gushed at her, angry to bits. Of course, she was overly worried about her mother, who was out of bed in the condition she was in. The doctor had told her strictly to rest on the bed as much as she could.

"She's right Hridya maa, see, we even brought these two here." Ranvijay bent down, caressed both of his puppies' heads and whispered something to them in their ear.

Had anyone ever told humans that dogs exactly understood their emotions the best? They did. They did, and even better than some humans did. They barked happily at Hridya's direction before following her into her room accompanied by Ranvijay and Sharanya.

"Oh, come on! Let this old lady do a bit before she dies." Her mother cribbed and went to her bed, where Ranvijay placed the pets beside her before unleashing their leashes from their necks.

She caressed their fur gently as they cuddled towards her purring happily. His babies didn't even try to paw at her for once, maybe understanding that the lady was not strong enough to put it up with both of them together but they remained close to her.

"Maa, dare you say that again!" Sharanya said, huffing.

"Sorry Guriya, but that's the truth," She said and looked at Ranvijay who stood by Sharanya, holding her by the shoulder and looking at her with a similar expression as her own daughter's, "Take care of these adorable furballs. They are amazing."

"We will Hridya maa, now stop saying other stuff," Ranvijay bit his inner lips then looked at Sharanya who looked slightly distraught by her mother's words, "She'll be fine." He whispered to her.

It was all wishful thinking because both of them knew, it was just a bit of reassurance and nothing else. There was nothing else that they could do about the nearing time other than giving each other reassurance. Everything had its own time to extinguish into nothingness and her mother's time was also nearing.

Sharanya felt that she was having some of her precious moments of life right there locked into herself when she saw her mother giggling with Ranvijay's pets and suddenly she felt like she was watching her mother laugh after a decade. It felt as if she was never going to see her mother laugh like that again.

Yes, they'd thrived through a lot which had made her and her mother strong not only from outside but inside as well. They were good at taking shocks and the ups and downs of the world unlike some, but they'd both always had a positive attitude and that itself made them happy. Her mother had always kept alive that optimist yet realist outlook of her life alive. She had been touched with the same outlook as well.

While the thought of her mother leaving her life left her distraught; she also knew that she would survive life.

"Good night, Ranvijay." Sharanya smiled at him as he placed with his kiddos in the backseat again, leaving for the day. Being little energetic fur ball puppies even those two were tired of all the action of the day. They had played more than they did in a long while which had drained out their energies and they were close to falling asleep on his car's backseat. He had asked for his driver to come along because he was tired as well.

"Good Night, Sharanya." Smiling sweetly at her, he pulled her closer to place a soft lingering kiss on her forehead and caressed her cheeks. Sharanya slightly blushed as she placed her hands around his waist, supporting herself.

None of them needed the reassurance that the other would leave at some moment because they both knew that without each other's support their lives would become the same old not-so-lively void that they'd been living in for all the years. Having someone else in life felt way well than they had thought for it to be; then she bad him a quick goodbye.

Walking into the room, Sharanya laid with her mother listening to her own childhood stories and laughed at her little younger self's deeds. The topic of her father did come up, after all, it wasn't like that her father wasn't a part of her childhood, it was just that he became distant as soon as she reached the age of seven years or so. She had never understood what had actually happened for her father to become so distant and become abusive. It hadn't been like that always.

Her father had always been domineering over her mother, that she had known but he hadn't always been abusive. Also when she had been younger, her father had actually loved her. That had been also one of the reasons she had been the only child. Yet the absurd change had happened which almost had seemed like some switch had gone off.

"Maa, do you miss Papa?" Sharanya hushed, placing the blanket over her mother and wrapping her up for bedtime, after dinner.

"Sometimes, your old Papa, who didn't drink, who loved his daughter and hadn't been abusive," Her mother smiled, "But he's been gone for a long time now, and when he died a few years ago... I forgave him you know."

"That's why you're the strongest person I'll ever know." Sharanya bent down and kissed her mother's forehead, while she went back to her room.

Dreaming wasn't her sort of a thing but that night she dreamt. Of a happy life together with Ranvijay, after her mother, for she was practical and knew that her mother didn't have much time left. Her mother had made her strong with the help of Ranvijay's grandparents, they had made her strong enough to be self-dependent and she wasn't going to stop living after her mother. She dreamt of having someone more in her life, someone who cared for her, someone called Ranvijay.