Chapter 11
Shiv turned to see his wife looking down at him from her perch atop a very tall ladder that led up to the shelf, which held his daughter's supposed book, "I should have known."
"No," she replied, "we both got tricked."
"Does this book even exist?" Shiv asked his wife.
"I think it does. Now that I think about it, I saw Vivan in here the other day struggling to put some stuff away on this shelf. I should have figured."
Shiv shook his head, letting out a sigh. "My brother too?"
Gauri began descending downward when suddenly the unstable ladder began shaking and she screamed out, "Shiv!" closing her eyes as she lost her battle with gravity and headed towards the hard wooden floor of the attic, awaiting the sounds of her cracking bones.
The sounds never came. Before she hit the ground, a pair of strong masculine hands reached out and broke her fall. Gauri opened her eyes to see Shiv looking into them intently.
They stayed that way for a long moment staring and searching into each others eyes but soon Gauri came back to her senses and broke the spell. She squirmed her way out of his arms saying, "Sorry I must be crushing you under my weight."
Shiv put her down but kept his arms around her, "Gauri…"
Gauri pulled away from his embrace and said, "Shiv you don't owe me any explanations. I get it. It's not me, its you. Or rather it's Ipshita. She is the love of your life and you'll never get over her." Gauri turned to her husband and continued with a smile, "Its fine Shiv, the children and their unconditional love is enough for me."
Shiv stood there speechless as he watched his wife make her way across the room toward their extra storage refrigerator. "Since I have no idea what exactly Aaliya's plan is or when she is going to let us out of here, I suggest we get comfortable. So…" she asked looking up from the contents of the fridge, "You want a soda or beer or something?"
Shiv mutely shook his head. Gauri shrugged and much to Shiv's surprise got out a can of beer for herself and plopped down on a cushion nearby. Gauri noticed Shiv's look of shock and shrugged, "I am over twenty one you know, it's legal for me to drink."
Shiv couldn't help the smile that came to his lip at Gauri's remark. Shiv watched his wife gulp down the chilled beer and thought, there was so much he didn't know about his wife. He just assumed that she was a certain way based on her outward appearances but watching her chug down her beer, Shiv remembered Ipshita telling him once that Gauri was the one always playing the pranks and getting everyone in trouble and then covering up her mischief with her innocent looks and traditional clothes.
*START FLASHBACK*
"You know what Gauri did today Shiv?" an annoyed Ipshita had claimed from the passenger seat as he drove her home from college.
"No but you are going to enlighten me very soon, right?" Shiv asked smilingly looking over at his fianc.
"You know my mashi, Anita, who has come from Kolkatta for the wedding? Well she has been getting on all our nerves lately. She doesn't do anything useful, all she does is complain. So anyway I guess Gauri and Prosenjit decided to teach her a lesson and they put some kind of laxative in her morning tea. The poor woman barely left the bathroom all day. And because of that I didn't get a chance to put on my sunscreen before I left and now look I have this ugly sunburn. When I told Ma about it, she couldn't believe that sweet old Gauri would do such a thing and instead unleashed her entire tirade on poor Prosenjit. I swear that girl could get away with murder."
Shiv looked at Ipshita incredulously; even he found it hard to believe that the shy, conservative Gauri could actually be capable of such devious mischief. Ipshita saw his look and said, "I knew it, you don't believe me either. Well spend more time with her and you'll find out the hard way that she's not as innocent as she looks."
*END FLASHBACK*
"So how are we going to pass the time?" Gauri asked, her voice jarring him out of his memories. "Especially since you find it hard to even look at me, let alone actually have a conversation with me," she continued.
Gauri looked over and saw a goofy smile on her husband's face. "What?" she asked him.
"Nothing…just something I remembered."
"Well you plan on telling me or am I just supposed to read your mind?"
"I remember Ipshita telling me once that you are quite the prankster. Anita mashi ring any bells?"
Gauri looked away blushing and said, "Yah well that was a long time ago."
Shiv heard the wistfulness in her voice and was immediately struck by a jolt of shame. He realized that the cause of the wistfulness was him.
At that very moment, the door opened and Dadi burst in through the door. "Shiv….Gauri…" she called out.
"Over here Dadi." Gauri immediately replied.
Dadi hurried over to their corner and said, "As soon as I heard of Aaliya and Vivan's plan, I rushed over. Are you okay? I can understand Aaliya she is just a little girl but Vivan, he is a grown up, he should have known better, how can they just lock you up in this old, stuffy attic? Come on beta lets get you out of here. Come on Shiv."
As Shiv stepped out of the room, an anxious Aaliya hurried over to him and asked, her voice hopeful, "So what happened papa? Did you talk? Do you like each other now?"
Cricket
Anupamaa
