Hey Guys!
Victory's Song
Lost and lost through life,
I'd wandered lonely for long
Until you came breezing by
My love, my victory's song!
Singing its way into their room, cool summer wind splayed across them even as the streaming sunshine basked the huge bed that contained two beings entwined in each other and intertwined with each other.
The sun beamed gloriously, high up and above the snow capped peaks in the distance, itching to spread its rays across them. And finally, did succeed gloriously.
Maan stirred an inch as mild sunshine hit his face, caressing and teasing at the same time just like his woman had some hours ago. Crinkling his groggy eyes open, he stared down at the woman in his bed.
His wife.
His Geet.
His victory!
The sight of her bosom springing out of his oversized shirt started doing its wonder down his southern anatomy while he kissed her lightly on her lips.
"Ummm...Maan"
"Yes baby"
"Lemme sleep. There's no work to do here"
She said turning to her side.
"Oh there's a hell lot of work to be done Mrs. Khurana"
He hovered whispering in her ear, pulling his wife to his chest as he plunged back on the bed.
"You didn't even let me sleep last night...I'm sleepy"
She almost purred and that had its effect on his erection.
"And what exactly did I do last night that didn't let you sleep?"
Maan asked amused, teasing her.
She shot her eyes open even as her cheeks blushed and lips curved.
Oh the Man's audacity and her stupid reaction! She pulled the duvet over her head in defiance. Maan surprised her by going inside, cuddling deeper with her under the duvet.
"Oh you're telling me underground? Go on"
Maan fooled and Geet pushed the duvet off exasperated. Her tendrils flying as she threw caution to the winds. Before she could get off the bed, Maan was above her pinning her down and kissing his way down her neck.
Geet laughed lightly as his stubble tickled down her bosom.
"So did I do this?"
Maan asked sucking on her nipple over his shirt that she wore. Geet gasped in surprise.
"Or this?"
He bit the bud with a smug grin.
"Or did I..."
His sentence was left incomplete as in barged a little, fair, brown haired creature and Maan immediately got off his wife while Geet adjusted her shirt and the duvet.
"Daddy"
His little girl yawned with a purple monkey stuffed under her arm. Geet and Maan straightened up, Maan reeling while Geet laughing. The little one climbed onto the bed as Maan opened his arms wide for his toddler to settle in.
"How's my little star this morning?"
He cooed kissing her cheek as she settled on his lap. His hardness forgotten, their morning session forgotten; Maan started listening to his little girl rant.
"Daddy Huppa wanna go garden. Me too"
"Let's go garden Daddy. Pweese"
And Maan laughed at her baby language. Since last night when they had driven to this cottage in Manali, his baby girl wanted to play in the garden but Geet had refused out right. It was dark after all. And there could be insects and rodents in the garden. He too wasn't in favour of her going there in the dark, even if he and Geet accompanied her.
But now it was morning and he would take his daughter to the garden. His little girl loved to run and there would be plenty of gardens for her to run and play in, he thought remembering the place he had once planted meticulously. It had been destroyed then but years after, a miracle had happened. Geet had happened to him and her efforts had bloomed his garden again. Their joint ventures in and around the cottage had made it home again. And this was the first time he'd got his little baby to the cottage. He would make sure she enjoyed and laughed and played all she wanted.
"Say bye to mumma"
Maan said lifting his girl up in his arms and climbing down the bed.
"Because we are going down to the garden."
And she giggled in his arms, tightening her hands around his neck, crushing her monkey in between. Geet laughed and waved as both father daughter dashed down the room into the cottage garden.
Maan stood in the porch, overlooking his garden which had once been barren. It had been nothing but an empty land with a worn out broken house. Destroyed by rains and heat, frozen under cold and hail; it was ant-infested and covered in pits that day, six years ago when Geet had brought him back. It was not the place they called their home today. True, it was a holiday home for them until their daughter was born. After her birth and mild complications in her delivery, Maan had banned any long journeys for the three of them until she turned four and Geet finally convinced him to come here.
Now, he couldn't be more thankful to Geet as he saw his daughter run around the place plucking leaves and flowers, giggling loudly as cool summer winds blew her hair. He smiled at the irony; six years ago the season was different, winds were different, time was different. It was cold and harsh then, life was empty and lonely; but today was a different day. With Geet and their daughter.
"Brush your teeth you two"
Geet came down the stairs and into the porch slinging her dupatta loose over her shoulder. Maan looked back at her invading his thoughts. Off course, more than welcome she was because all his thoughts only contained her and now a part of her too, he thought looking back at his daughter who was sitting over a muddy sapling, digging something out.
"God Maan! Stop her"
Geet said from behind while he continued watching her bemused as she dirtied her hands and clothes with mud all over.
"You dirty girl! Leave it there"
Geet shouted at his little girl and she froze mid process.
Looking over her shoulder, his girl just knew what eyes would do the trick. And Bang! She made the cutest bambi expression in the world. Maan laughed, Geet frowned.
"Spoil her all you want"
Geet reprimanded Maan in her usual 'wiffy-mocking-tone' while Maan continued to smile.
"Come on Geet! She hasn't bathed yet. Let her get dirty then we'll clean her up"
Maan stated the obvious casually.
Geet was about to give him a piece of mind on health and hygiene when their daughter tugged at his tracks, attracting both their attention. They narrowed their eyes down to this little cute procreation of theirs, in pink night clothes stained in mud, bare feet soil clogged and her fair face showing signs of soil invasion while her fists were behind her back as she gave them an 'I-have-found-a-treasure' smile.
"Look what I found"
The little girl opened her tiny fingers beaming from ear to ear. Her petite soft hands opened to green glossy beads, winking under the sun. And Maan froze.
They were marbles; Scattered in this garden years ago, abandoned with anguish and found again with love. Maan had once again scattered them when he had found Geet. They were remnants of his plight even though Maan had found a way out and meted his darkness with light; they were Marbles all the same. And they didn't lose the opportunity to taunt him yet again. Even if his shock was momental, even if the grief flickering was distant and far off; it was grief all the same.
"Daddy"
"What are these?"
He heard the excitement in his daughter's voice and turned towards Geet with pleading eyes to take over. But Geet shook her head at him, telling his eyes to battle it himself. She had promised to be by his side, to stand behind him when he looked back; but some situations were for him to confront. And this was the most important one. She blinked her eyes reassuringly at his lost look and Maan finding no way out and his daughter's hold around his leg getting tighter; turned around with a sigh.
"Are these snake eggs"
She asked wiggling her little eyebrows.
"What?"
Maan was genuinely bemused now.
"You know teacher says that babies look like their parents. Like you say I look like mumma so these look like snakes?"
And Maan burst into laughter. This surely was the most cute and innocent girl in the world. But then every parent thought all the same about their kid.
"No darling. These are glass balls"
Maan kneeled down to her level, now more at ease with the situation. Geet looked on as Maan took one from her palms and examined it over mild rays of dawning sun. The bead glinted bright green as Maan rolled it in his fingers, a practiced move which he had enjoyed so much previously. His little girl looked on in awe at the bead in her father's hands as he rolled it shimmer a spectrum of blue-green shades. And at the giggling that echoed from her chest, Maan knew for a fact that he still enjoyed this; all the more because his little girl was giggling.
"Now that's what you do with them. They're called marbles"
Maan said putting the marble back in her palm full of others in different shades and pulled her in his arms as she looked down at her palm full of marbles in awe. Maan offered her his cheek and knowing their ritual full well, she put a wet noisy kiss on his stubbled cheek sprinting back to her marbles admiring session. Maan left her after pecking her temple and she ran off, examining her latest treasure under the sun.
"It wasn't so difficult now, was it?"
Geet asked as Maan stoop up.
"No, I guess. It was easier than I'd ever thought"
Maan answered pulling Geet by her waist, placing a gentle kiss to her fresh lips. Geet responded seeing her daughter busy from the corner of her eye. The kiss was no passion, no intimacy, no sexuality; it was pure undying unflinching devotion and love. Love.
"Brush your teeth."
Geet admonished as they broke off and Maan smirked.
"Daddy look what they say"
"We live on a ball"
His little girl came running down to him with an oversized picture book in hand. For once Maan couldn't make out which of them was bigger.
Switching the television off, Maan picked her up onto his lap and she straddled him with the book in between them. Flipping it to the page of 'Our planet' she showed it to Maan with wide brown eyes; pointing to a big coloured picture of Earth.
"See"
"Yes darling. We live on planet Earth. And it is round like a ball, you see"
"But we fall down"
"No we don't"
:Why?"
"Because you see it is a big big round and we take very little space. Does an ant fall down from your ball while crawling?"
She wiggled her eyebrows and looked in the distance as if contemplating and then shook her head in negative.
"Then! We also don't fall off"
And she grinned her toothy smile. Getting down from his arms she ran again to the garden with her book. Now Maan had to strangle Geet for buying her such a heavy baby encyclopedia. She was so full of questions and at times took him up for a ride. Thank goodness he knew the basics!
And suddenly something flinched inside, something deep down. He narrowed his gaze in the distance as he recalled how desperately he wanted to explain this to someone once; how eager he was to tell someone that how Earth was round and how it changed seasons. A smile crept up his lips as he saw his daughter lying on her tummy, looking at the pictures from the book in the garden. She was bringing closure to things he had forgotten to tie, things that had haunted him at a deeper unconscious level.
Suddenly he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. Maan looked up to see Geet standing there smiling at him and a sense of dj vu struck him. Wasn't life playing things again, albeit with a better tone underneath? Wasn't he finding closure to his nightmares here in this very house?
And it was all with his daughter and wife.
He smiled up at Geet, an understanding running so deep, a love rising so high; he had reached his destiny! His destination had been his destiny; one of those few men who found what he wanted.
"Kia Maan Singh Khurana, for the last time. Get up and come to lunch"
He heard Geet shout over to his daughter buried deeply in her picture book and butterflies; and his chest swelled as she rose and scuttled into the house chasing butterflies on her way. Years ago Kiara Singh Khurana had made this house and today, years later, Kia Maan Singh Khurana's giggles were making it home.
Geet was his victory and Kia was his home. He was the most triumphant and happiest person alive he knew and his mother would bless them from the heavens forever he knew!
He felt a lone tear prick the side of his eye as Geet squeezed his shoulder affectionately. He looked up once again seeing her love filled eyes as she bent down to kiss his temple.
"We're home Maan."
And he knew nothing had ever sounded more truthful.
They were home!
Too sugary, I say!
See, I can give happy and very happy one's too!
So now leave me your likes and comments and criticism because that makes me happy.
Until next ch. in Back to You,
<3
Frosted Starlit.
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