#2 SS|TheContract+HerConditions|Link to New thread - Page 31

WEEK 4

DAY 8- Kusadasi, Turkey

Kusadasi was a lovely city located off the bay of Turkey. It was quite quaint, with lots of places to see, and mostly the historic sites were ancient Greek or Roman, for the Hellenistic Culture was quite prevalent in Turkey at one time.

The buildings were pretty and almost every house had a garden or at least pots of colorful flowers hanging off of the balcony, depriving the town of its monotony and making it look colorful and pretty.

Also, it was famous for its Turkish Carpets, which were hand-woven and amazingly intricate.

They rode to the carpet center in a bus. The bus was a luxury bus, and had three-seaters on one side and two-seaters on the other side of the aisle. Akash and Payal sat behind Arnav and Khushi.

Akash was explaining to Payal about the historic and cultural importance of the town to Payal.

Khushi sat by the window, wordlessly. Arnav assumed she was mad at him until Payal leaned forward and asked "Khushi, you are alright na?"

"Yes Jiji'" she said in choked voice.

"Khushi, what-" Arnav started.

Payal smiled. "It's not much to worry about Arnavji. She has got motion sickness. She can't stay in moving closed places, she feels nauseous. She generally sleeps it off' See?" With that, Payal leaned back into her seat.

Arnav turned to see Khushi's eyes flutter close with her hands around her tummy and her head against the glass.

He watched her sleep, and her head kept jerking forward, waking her up again and again. Arnav sighed and slid his hand around her shoulder and brought her head onto his shoulder and rested his head on hers to support.

She fell asleep soon.

Half an hour later, Arnav woke Khushi and she woke up with a jerk, hitting Arnav's chin.

"OW!"

"Sorry!"

"It's okay. Let's go'"

They headed into a building which looked like a large multi-storey apartment. A woman in formal clothes greeted them and asked them to follow her.

They were made to sit in a large room, which was bordered with a meter-wide mattresses covered with a white bedsheet. The tourists were made to sit on that, and in the centre was a loom, behind which sat a veiled woman.

They were served with fresh orange juice, and a tall man entered the hall with a friendly smile. He began to explain the different type of knots and threads used in the weaving of a carpet.

About half an hour later, he led them all to a gallery where carpets of various types were on display. He said that they were for sale and left the tourists to examine the carpets.

Khushi walked around the gallery, looking at the carpets in awe.

Arnav watched her stop in front of a few carpets, examine them and shake her head. She finally came to a halt in front of a pale blue carpet. He walked a little closer and saw that at a different angle it looked dark blue. When the carpet was pale blue, the flowers and wines looked bright red and when the carpet looked dark blue, the flowers turned pale pink. The carpet was bordered with a golden threads. Khushi ran her fingers over the carpet, slightly gaping. He saw her lips move and whisper 'Beautiful'' Her hand moved away suddenly, and her face looked wistful. She sighed and walked ahead.

Arnav turned to a man who was wearing a Red T-shirt with the yellow logo 'Al-Shaheen Carpets'.

"Could you please pack that one? That blue multi-colored one?"

The man smiled. "Sure sir."

*

By evening, the ladies were so exhausted that Akash and Arnav decided to just board back the ship as they couldn't dilly-dally around looking for a 5-Star hotel in a stranger city.

The night passed by without much event, as everyone hit the beds and fell asleep instantly.

Arnav hid the roll of carpet in their luggage; knowing Khushi, if she found out he had bought it for her, she would return it back the shop. So he had to be careful not to let her see it until they were well beyond Turkey.

DAY 9- Kusadasi, Turkey (Ephesus)

Their guide for the tour of Ephesus was the local Turk woman Evru. A typical Turkish name. She had said that quite a lot of people couldn't pronounce it the right way, and so they called her 'April'.

Crumbling pillars lined the side-walk of what was once the main-road of the historic Ephesus. April pointed out to a large, almost-in-ruins building and said that it once was a public bath. Adorning the entrance was the sculpted bust of Medusa, to ward off perverted eyes.

As they reached an intersection, they saw a statue of Nike, a form of Athena that represented victory.

They saw the theater Odeon, and the main citadel. Their last destination was the legendary Library of Celsus, whose only remains were its grand faade.

Arnav was annoyed, that every minute or so, Khushi would stop at some building and stare at it like a person seeing sunshine after a decade. She would keep muttering architectural stuff and keep spouting facts like an encyclopedia once in a while. He wondered suddenly, whether this was how his family felt when he talked business at home. Uff, definitely not a nice feeling… he thought grimacing.

He heard her mutter something again wistfully. "I wish I could see these gods!"

Crazy! He thought.

April led them towards the exit, where there were small stalls for hungry tourists.

Half an hour later, they were in the bus, on their way back to the Louis Majesty, where they were to spend the night.

*

On the ship, the four of them sat on the sun deck, admiring the night sky. Khushi was fiddling restlessly with her phone and Akash sat reading a magazine. Payal sat next to him, resting against his shoulder.

Arnav was simply gazing at the stars, wondering whether his mother could really see him… Was she happy with him? A part of him told not, as he saw Khushi flipping her mobile in her hand.

Suddenly, a cell phone rang. "Excuse me…" Akash muttered, and got up to take the call.

Arnav continued to keep looking at Khushi, who was biting her nails and pacing a few meters away from him.

Suddenly she marched up to them. "Jiji, you have Akki's number?"

"Er, no…" Payal said.

Arnav felt irritated. Why would she want to talk to Akshay on their honeymoon!

She turned to Arnav. "Arnavji, he is your friend right? You probably have it!"

"I don't…" Arnav lied smoothly.

"You only have all unnecessary things!" she grumbled. "Jiji, Amit Bhaiyya's number?"

Payal got up and kept a hand on Khushi's shoulder. "Khushi, why do you-"

"I want to talk to Bhaiyya!" Khushi snapped.

"Khushi, why are you suddenly so-" Payal started.

"Jiji, do you know what the date today is?" Khushi asked softly.

"It's 25^th January…" Payal frowned.

"Five more days…" Khushi said.

"That would be 30^th Janu- Oh!" Payal said.

"This would be the second time he is away!" she said, and walked away.

Payal sat down again and sighed. She looked up to see Arnav's curious gaze on Khushi.

"Her parents were killed on 30^th January… My Chachaji and Mausi…." Payal said and added " AND She is talking about her brother…." Payal said.

Arnav sat straight. "Chacha and Mausi?! She has a brother?!"

Payal frowned. "She didn't tell you?"

Arnav shook his head. "What about him?"

"Well, Babuji's brother was married to Amma's sister. And Ashish Bhaiyya has been gone from two years. He was broken after Dee went missing, and then Muskaan Bhabhi died. That was too much for him to take. He just left…"

Arnav blinked. "Dee?"

"Yeah. Bhaiyya's daughter. Bhaiyya has never contacted any of us since…!"

Arnav felt angry. "What about Khushi? How could he just leave her like that!"

Payal smiled sadly. "Don't judge him too harshly! He loved Bhabhi too much…since they were kids… He left Khushi with Amma and Babuji and me… He felt that he was too broken to take care of his baby sister… He needed time to heal. He has been keeping tabs on her though. Through Amit Bhaiyya…"

Arnav frowned. "Where does Amit fit in all this?"

"H-He was Bhabhi's younger brother and a good friend of Ashish Bhaiyya…"

"How did-" Arnav started to ask.

"Arnavji, I don't know why Khushi did not tell you, so I cannot go into the details of why's and how's..." Payal said apologetically. "All I can say, is that they were fighting a lawsuit. Bhabhi was a reporter, and she had found some footage and documents that could have won them the case. But the defense lawyer found out and got her killed. In fact, it was him who was involved in Dee going missing too. Bhaiyya wanted to stop the lawsuit, but Bhabhi had said that Dee was gone. They had nothing to lose, so they had gone ahead with it. We lost Bhabhi…" Payal said sadly.

Akash walked in, before Arnav could question Payal further. And Arnav tried to think back to where he had heard the names Muskaan and Ashish before.

DAY 10- Patmos

Patmos was a tiny island, with quaint white buildings off the bay of Turkey. It was also a popular Christian pilgrimage site, as it was believed that St.John had spent his last days here up in a cave where he had written of the Apocalypse, dictated by God. Apparently, here is where the Trinity was discovered as well, and had first communicated to the holy saint.

The gullies were narrow and winding in a confusing maze. This was a strategy to ward off attackers who would invade the holy Monastery of St. John nestled on the highest point of the island. Much of the monastery was not visible, but the large brown-grey walls and bells were quite intimidating.

The cave was low-ceilinged and its front was embedded with a blue door. As they stepped in, it was cold and quite small. The guide showed them three cracks converging into one on the ceiling and explained that this was where the walls had cracked when the Lord had spoken to John, and these three cracks represented the Holy Trinity.

As they walked back down from the cave, they saw colorful flowers of exotic varieties. Flaming orange flowers with tints of yellow and orchids were the most dominant.

IMPORTANT NOTE BELOW!