The Desert Lily

Chapter 9:Nightmares and Felicity

Praniti stood on a railway track, staring at the train that was speeding towards her. She felt her legs numb.She wanted to run away, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything.

She heard a loud cry of an infant from her right.

She heard her husband scream from her left.

The train neared her, veryfast.

Praniti gasped and woke up, covered in sweat. The nightmare had scared the hell out of her. She touched her stomach to feel her child. Nothing had happened to her or her unborn child or her husband who was sleeping beside her.

She layed back on the bed and tried to sleep. But whenever she closed her eyes, the distinct cries of a baby and the screams of a man filled her ears. She felt tired and exhausted.

She stood up from the bed and took out her diary from the small cupboard in their bedroom. It was the same diary her father had gifted her when she was fifteen. He had asked her to write down only the most important events of her life in it.

She sat on an easy chair near to the cupboard,took out a pen from the nearby shelf and started scribbling down something.

After writing whatever she wanted to,she settled down quietly on her side of the bed after staring at the sleeping figure of her husband for a few minutes.

She had seen a lot of men in her life as a gynaecologist. Men who care for their wives and the ones who don't.Men who love their wives like crazy and men who marry women for the sake of having kids.
Lastly, men who love their wives even after their death. Men who cry,hugging the lifeless body of their better halves. And men who live only for the kids their wives had gifted them before death.

She knew, Ayush belonged to the last category. He would crumble down like ashes. He would be broken beyond recovery. If something happens to her,he would definitely try to kill himself.

She knew that he was madly in love with her.She knew that he would not be able to imagine anyone else in her place. But she wanted her husband to enjoy his existence, she wanted him to enjoy each and every moment of the journey called life.

What about the baby she was carrying? It will have to grow motherless if something happens to her. She knew how painful it is to live without a mother.Growing without a mother's love and touch is an absolute misfortune. She wanted to give her baby to someone who would care for it. She was sure that Ayush would be able to fill the space of a mother but she wondered if that would be enough. Ayush himself was a very emotional person and she could guess his state if she dies.

She wanted to entrust them upon someone before separation knocked her doors.

More than that, she wanted herself to survive if death comes face to face with her. She wanted to live.

'Nothing will happen to me. These are just my mood swings.'she whispered to herself again and again,making herself believe those words.

But every second,a what if  rang loudly from a corner of her heart.

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Samaira stretched her body in exhaustion.She was on her flight back to India after spending about nine months in The United Arab Emirates.
Her debts were kind of settled but still she had to finish off the loan.
Though the loan was remaining, things had fallen in the right places. She was leading a calm life with both her angel-like kids.

This return to India was for her beloved friend who would become a mother anytime. It was Samaira who was more tensed about Praniti's delivery. This best friend of hers had been calling her up at nights, blabbering something or the other that is very disturbing.