Lumanti (Memory)

The Voices

Aaron was on his flight to his family home. As he sobered up from night before, he realized that he couldn't get to tell Lumanti about him going to Adelaide. Throughout his flight, he tried to put the pieces of last night together. He remembered his fight with dad and some harsh words he blurted out unintentionally to Lumanti. So as soon as his flight landed, he wanted to call her but with his dad around him, he wouldn't be able to properly converse with her so he just texted her immediately.

When she didn't reply anything, he got worried if she took his words seriously. Whenever he tried to call her something would come up. The entire ride home was silent and discomforting. Meekha would look at his brother with concern over her face but wouldn't say anything in front of their father.

Aaron tried to close his eyes but he was haunted by the last conversation he had with Lumanti. After an hr drive, they finally reached home, his mother was waiting for them to arrive. Her eyes were filled with great concern in her eyes, in contrary to his expectations. He thought his mother would be very unhappy and disappointed at him. She hugged him tightly than she normally did and let him go. She told him while moving towards the kitchen, "I have made your favorite dish, go freshen up."

He nodded and headed towards the bathroom. While he was in shower, he could hear muffles of voices coming from kitchen from his family members. When he appeared at kitchen, his mother had prepared and plated for him his favorite wo: pancake, made out of lentils. She kept it in front of him with some soup.

Meekha had already went to her room to freshen up and their father immediately left the room when Aaron came in but mom stayed in front him and nudged him to eat something. She looked up at her and then he noticed dark circles around his mother's eyes that showed that she hadn't slept as well.

"Mom, why don't you go and rest."

"It is alright. I am fine. You eat and we can talk."

"Can we not talk, right now, please?", he insisted.

"Ok, if you say so. I am here, whenever, you feel like talking to me." And she put her hand over his reassuringly.

He nodded. He was surprised to see the calm side of his mother. She was not passing snide remarks, she was not asking too much questions.

He calmly started eating. He realized how hungry he was when the first bite reached his mouth. He finished everything and went to his room and laid down for a while. He then called Lumanti.

She picked up his call on the first ring. She was checking e-mails from her Uni about her recent work submissions' result when the phone started ringing. 

"Hi, you okay? What happened last night?", She hurriedly got up from where she was sitting.

"Nothing T. I just had a bit of a argument with dad, that's it," he replied.

"B, what happened?" she asked impatiently.

"Well, we had a lovely hearty talk, my dad and I," he said sarcastically.

"What? why did you need to leave, just tell me what happened there?"

"Gosh, It is nothing, I was drunk and I lashed out at him. Its nothing really. I will explain everything, trust me on this."

"Why did you drink so much?"

"You told me to listen to my voice and my voice told me to drink to numb my pain away and why do you care?"

"Why do I care? What do you mean why do I care?"

"Didn't you tell me that you would be ok with any answer that I bring to you."