All the while she thought, "Am I falling in love? Is it safe to do so with this man?" But inside she could feel it as a wonderful and terrifying sensation. "Yes, I'm in love with this boy," she said out loudly in amazement, because she knew that this was a life changing thing and life changing things should be said aloud. "I'm in love," as it reverberated inside her head. And it was the truth. Plainly she was besotted by him as a girl........a young girl and she was falling in love for the first time. Atleast there's someone whom she could call her own.......and atleast there is someone who loves her.
She could feel him borrowing into her heart. She already knew that her heart called out to his and his to hers. The portal that connected them was strong and primal.
After a couple of hours of collecting her pile of firewood on her head, she reached home totally exhausted. She rested for a while on her charpoy(bed) sipping the tea and munching some rusks. The whole day passed with the household chores and then it was night-a time to sleep, but unfortunately she couldn't as her heart was beating faster than it should with the thoughts of meeting Ramu the next day.
Her old charpoy was creaking and suffering under the weight of a restless woman. The next morning she woke up after only an hour's sleep with the ringing of the temple's bells. This was the second consecutive night where she had not slept properly. Dark circles under her eyes sank deeper and deeper into her skull, in contrast to her pale skin which was an undesirable resemblance to a fresh corpse.
She again lay down in her so called bed and never stirred. To move hand or feet and even so much as a finger was an exertion to her frail structure. She was so tired, so stunned, that she thought that she never slept at all; her feverish thoughts passed and repassed the boundary between sleeping and waking. As she lay engulfed in her thoughts she heard the voice of her father.
"Taraaaaaaaaaaaa, Taraaaaaaaaaaaaaa, you bitch, will you wake up now and come out of your miserable dreams to work and finish your chores, or will you just keep on sleeping when the whole world is wide awake."
She immediately jumped out of her bed, ran outside and started sweeping the floor and mopping it. By the time she finished she realized the dusky winter sun moving up, indicating it was going to be noon. Suddenly, she remembered that she had a date with Ramu. Refreshing herself and taking a glass of tea with some rusks, she rushed out with the axe in her hand to collect the firewood.
Collecting the wood was just an excuse and she started walking in a brisk manner towards the pond where she was supposed to meet the man of her dreams. In another 15 minutes she was over there. From far she could see a human form sitting on a rock throwing pebbles in the water. Panting and gasping for air she reached him from behind and gave him a surprise by pricking his neck with a twig. Ramu was elated to see her. He raised his hands and pulled her close to him.
"I thought you won't come," Ramu said complainingly.
"Why not?" Tara started crying and with tears in her eyes muttering softly, "I feel so alone and unwanted in my life and in this world. Even I have come to not love myself or even like myself and I also know that with this thinking it has casted an aura over my spirit that people stay away from me and I can't maintain or even have a relationship with a man. But then, I found you. You are such a nice, honest and a human full of compassion who has ever come into my life. Maybe, you are god sent, although I don't believe in God. They say dreams come true and I never ever believed in dreams until you slowly walked into my life in a most unexpected moment. It was just like two strangers walking from two different worlds, who met and ended falling in love."
Hearing all this, Ramu took her tightly in his arms and said, "Maybe it's your smile or maybe the silent vibes I saw in our beautiful eyes or is it something more powerful that I reached to the bottom of your heart to find the truth behind the secrets of your soul."
Ramu pulled her into his lap. Tara's whole body sank forward into his arms. His lips moved against hers, exploring her mouth gently. She tried to mimic his movements slowly until she didn't have to think about it all. It just felt right. Ramu let out a soft moan at her reaction and cupped his hands behind her head, pulling her closer until she couldn't tell her where her mouth ended and his began. A liquid sensation swooped throughout her stomach. It was the most amazing thing she had ever felt, and it kept growing, the vibrating heat expanding outwards. Suddenly she jerked out of his strong arms.
"Now, now, wait, are you going to love me like this forever?" she whispered in his ears.
"After what happened just now? Yes, probably." Ramu grinned and tried to pull her back. He took his finger and started stroking her cheek. "You do realize that would require spending the rest of your life with me," Ramu smirked.
The gold in his eyes was sparkling and jumping, so Tara knew he was being serious.
"But, but!! Ramu I am of a low caste and will your family accept me to be their daughter-in-law," she murmured out of desperation.
Internally she believed that people born to low caste families were meant to suffer. That was their Karma. She had heard from the old women folk that those who indulge in sinful activities in their previous birth, especially those who humiliated others would be reborn to low caste families. She firmly believed also that one has to suffer until the sin was paid for through sufferings and good deeds.
Ramu started laughing at her thoughts. "Like you, I have experienced abandonment in many different shapes and forms. Like you I have suffered terribly as a result of it. But today, I want to provide you with something proactive, something that will empower you to take your life in your hands again. I will marry you and that's for sure, whatever the views of my family. You know, I don't have a father. He had died after a few months of my birth. So, my mother is the only family I believe in and she will definitely agree to whatever I do."
The sun had started leaving long shadows of the trees surrounding the pond, indicating that soon it was going to be evening. Tara suddenly jumped to her feet with a start, chill running down her spine with the thought of being so late getting back home without collecting the firewood. She grasped Ramu's hand nervously and said that she was going back home and would now be meeting him exactly after 2 days at the same place. Her going left a tinge of sadness in Ramu's eyes and brought out tears of nostalgia of the moments spent together.
Tara started running home in a jiffy, just to be in time before her father returned from the nearby village where he had gone to sell the wood.
YOU ARE READING
THE UNWANTED
Ficțiune generalăA nobody, nothing, she was nothing but an unwanted girl that is, until Ramu came into her life and rescued her from others, not to mention, herself. He gave her a purpose in life and will do anything for her. She had known the feeling of hatred and...
