*CHAPTER 3*
As soon as Arnav and Khushi entered, Payal rushed to Khushi and hugged her. Khushi said nothing, did nothing. After the hug, she went upstairs without a word to anybody. As soon as she entered the room, and closed the door behind her, tears flowed easily. She let out a small squeal, as her hand touched the gash on her wound on her neck. It was bleeding badly.
Arnav watched wordlessly as Khushi walked upstairs, and Payal gazed perplexed. Both of them were shocked. Arnav had expected Khushi to smile at least now that her Jiji was back to normal with her. Avoiding Di's questioning gaze, her flew upstairs and saw the door to the room closed. He reached the door just as he heard Khushi yelping. He threw open the door.
As soon as she felt his presence, she hid the bowl under the table and sat on the recliner, with her head tilting slightly toward the side of her wound; she put on her pokerface again.
Arnav saw her hands a little wet, and noted the awkward tilt of her head. Her face was twitching. "Khushi? What's wrong he asked?"
Khushi shook her head. "Nothing." she muttered.
Arnav looked at her, and a red spot caught his eyes on her yellow blouse's shoulder. The spot seemed to grow bigger every moment. "Khushi? What the hell happened?" he asked annoyedly.
She remained silent, and he remembered the seat belt and her whimper. He yearned to comfort her, but he controlled himself. He saw as Khushi pulled out a bowl of water from under the table with a white towel dipped in it. The water was pink with blood. He was anxious now...Since when had she been bleeding that she had lost som much blood?! He saw another towel's corner peeping out from behind her. He walked to and pulled it. He gasped. That had stains of blood. "What the-!"
"Woh, maaf kar deejiyega...hum dho denge...{I am sorry...I will wash it off later}" Khushi murmured. He looked at her strangely. His what the- was meant for the amount of bleeding, not for the dirty towel...
She silently got up and emptied the water in a the sink, and filled it with clean water. She took out Dettol from under the cabinet and put two cap-fuls in water. She dipped the towel again and nursed her wound. wincing at the burning.
"Khushi, give it to me...I will do it for you..." he said, not being able to see her wince.
"No I will do it Khushi, GIVE IT TO ME!"
"Kis haq se aap ye maang rahe hain {With what right are you asking me this?}" Khushi asked softly.
"KI MAIN TUMHARA PATI HOON! {That I am you husband!}" Arnav roared.
Khushi looked up. "If I remember correctly, we are supposed to be non-existant to each other in 'these four walls" she said, and continued nursing her neck...indeed as if he weren't there...
Arnav stared at her stunned...
That Night-
Khushi silently sneaked to the mandir in RM, when everyone was asleep. She stared at Devi Maiyya's idol. "What haven't I done for you? What have I done to others Devi Maiyya?" she asked. "Everything in my life has gone wrong since I met him, but I still began to-" she stopped. She did not want to say it. She couldn't. "The day I met him, Jiji's marriage broke... because of that clip he released, I got insulted by everyone, and met that disgusting snake... then I came to Delhi... Again things went wrong...Babuji fell ill, and I had to get engaged to that very snake... and now..." She couldn't go on anymore. She sat at the foot of the idol, and cried. "You have turned everything I believed in, into a joke..." she sobbed. "I am a married woman for six months! This mangalsutra on my neck...the sindoor in my maang, are all signs of a contract... I don't even know why he married me... So much happened, and you watched it all...You knew this was going to haooen, and you let me fall in-"NO! That was past...NOT true anymore. She got up, and told the idol. "From today, I shall never talk to you ever, or even utter your name... He was right...There is no God...From today on, I shall not step into this mandir again..." She muttered, and turning her back to Devi Maiyya, she went back to her room, unaware of the pair of eyes that followed her...
As Kushi went back upstairs, she saw Lakshmiji. How wonderful it would be to be a goat...I could just chew grass all day, she thought. She sat on the stairs, hugging Lakshmi. "You are the only one who isn't angry with me..." Her voice broke. "Amma...Buaji...Jiji...Naniji...Di...Everyone...everything is gone... everything..."
The pair of eyes still watched her... the brown warmth in them boring through her...
The Next Day-
At the breakfast table... For the first time, people noticed Khushi missing. "Where is Khushi bitiya?" Nani asked emotionlessly. No one in the house had forgiven either of them except Anjali...Even Anjali had been able to forgive only Khushi... Anjali could sense something very very wrong... "Naniji, Khushi Didi went to the temple in the morning itself..." HP replied, as he served breakfast.
Days passed into weeks... One month was almost over since that night... Khushi was still the blank poker-face she had been... Now everybody was growing worried about her...she had lost her glow and become pale. She hardly ever talked. She answered questions in monosyllables only, and had not spoken in sentences for days... She would disappear in the morning and come back towards ten in the morning... She would help in the kitchen, and did the chores; not uttering a single word the whole time. Then she would retreat into the bedroom...
Meanwhile, Anjali was sure something was wrong. She could not erase the last conversation Khushi had had with her Devi Maiyya... True to her word, she had never stepped into the mandir again... How could she forget that night...? The night when she decided to talk to Chhotey about this, and very quietly entered Chhotey's room... she had felt stunnned when she saw Khushiji sleeping out, a white band around her neck...It had struck her now why Khushi had been very very cautious, and always covering her shoulder with dupatta or pallu... Too stunned to say anything, she had just walked out of the room... Chhotey, waht DID YOU DO.
Arnav watched as his wife fell asleep under moonbeams... She had grown thinner and paler... He had not heard her laugh or see her smile for days... And most importantly, she hardly talked to anyone.
He woke up next day, to Khushi's voice. Immediately, he got up and looked around. Khushi was on her knees, hugging Lakshmi. "Its been so many days Lakshmiji...I want Amma. I miss her...I want to talk to her..." she wailed.
Arnav felt a pang of guilt, but it disappeared as soon as it had appeared on remembering that fateful terrace scene. But he stopped dead in his tracks at Khushi's next words...
Edited by Dynamix215 - 12 years ago
Marathi TV
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