Dusky Moonlight

Chapter- 19(2)

As the Rain continued in the night the place becomes too cold, her father in law gave sheets and shawls for her to cover and ignited the fire in the inglenook at the center of the wall. After having her dinner, Rathi felt somewhat better but she couldn't fall asleep and sat looking at the Rain through the window beside her.

"If you kept thinking about what happened, you can never fall sleep?" her father in law commented from the other side of the room sitting on his mattress. He gave his bed for Rathi and he's lying on the floor. She didn't answer him and stared out as it's the truth she's still pondering about that King.

"You are hating us, aren't you?" he asked that calmly after a moment.

"You want to hear my answer, then yes, of course, I hate everything here," Rathi said looking at him. The only source of light in that place is the fire from the hearth, equally spreading the bright light across the room.

"I don't know what really happened but you should have trusted my words before taking that decision. Ending your life isn't going to end anything,"

"But I think it's so better to die than being here," Rathi answered lethargically.

"As far as I know, no one ever talked this way here. We never confronted what our elders said to us. You shouldn't talk this way Rathi at least, for your own good. For your future,"

"Future? Do I have one? I don't think I will be alive after giving birth to this child."

"Why do you say like that?" her father in law asked.

"Because I never saw my future with his child or out of this place in my dreams. I tried but I didn't see anything."

He didn't reply to her statement; he fell into deep thinking. Aadhavan's still young face doesn't have any resemblance to his son. But Aadhavan has similarities to his father and great grandfather. That felt strange for Rathi.

"Don't believe what you see in your dreams. It just shows you one side of the story. If you accept that as the truth, then you can never know the other side of the story. And you will think the victims as criminals."

"Your dreams are something that Aadhiyan possess. But it's tricking you, Rathi. It never showed you the exact things," he confused her and Rathi knotted her eyebrows to understand what he means by that. "So you're telling me that what I saw are all untrue?"

"No. what you saw is true but your dreams don't show you the thoughts we had and the pain we have gone through at that time and it's won't project you the whole thing."

"Then tell me why did you throw your child into the fire. How can you do that?" Rathi asked and that staggered him.

"I know what I did was a sin but I was compelled to," he said right away and Rathi heaves a sigh unable to accept that.

"You're too young and lived all your life in a place where you can do anything and you call it freedom." "You don't know how we have strived for all these years, if we have started rioting against these principles then you won't be sitting here and asking questions. You cannot live here asking questions against our God."

"We have someone as our god, who's not only in the temple and literature. He's here watching us all the time, hearing whatever we think and even he might be listening to our conversation right now."

"But we have someone above all who's greater."

"Who is that?" she asked curiously.

"This land. This place is our God. It's protecting us from all the natural disasters and giving us food and water to survive. Out of all, I believe this place has some mystic powers."