FF: Flowers of Despair Last part 13-pg17 - Page 11

Part-12

"I would ask for still more

I would ask for still more, if I had the sky with all its stars, and the world with its endless riches;

But I would be content with the smallest corner of this earth if only she were mine."

"Lolita…" jai yawned seeing her stand on the entrance of his door, his eyelids ready drop and return back to sleep… …

"Jai…come…" Lolita pulled his hand…leading him towards the terrace… …
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Jai rubbed his eyes…

"Lolita…what is it early this morning, it's not even sunrise…what do you want to talk…" jai said in between yawns and sighs… …

"Jai…let's get married…" Lolita looked at him straight… …all the sleep in his eyes flew away at once…he gaped at her open-mouthed…

"What????" jai shouted…

"Ssshh…" Lolita signaled…

"I mean…what happened… …?" jai asked shocked out of his wits… …

"Nothing…I have realized what I was losing… …"

"Too early Lolita, it's just two days before marriage, you should have told me on the wedding day…" jai said sarcastically… …

"Stop it jai…please…"

"Is it a joke…?"

"What do you think jai, two days before my marriage; I will call you early in the morning to joke… …"

"Does badima know…?" Lolita glared at him…

"She will kill me…"

"Err…I…are you sure..."

"Of course… …"

"But how Lolita…"

"I don't know…just do something jai…I don't want to lose you…" Lolita clung to his arm… …

"Okay fine…I will send you my message… …now go…"
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The first morning sun ray hit his face as he leaned against the brick wall… … couldn't think of anything else except for what Lolita had said… …Was it right?? He questioned himself again and again… …Bani…he would talk to her… …
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Bani sat staring at his back as he narrated what Lolita had said… …bani controlled herself from crying… …instead she started nibbling her nails… …

"Tell bani please…" jai pleaded her…

"I don't know jai…I don't know about these things…just do what your heart says…" bani finally found her voice…jai turned around; he bent down to her level…

"Thanks…thanks a lot… …" he smiled at her, and she instantly knew he wanted to marry Lolita…whatever be it, he had always loved her… …and she was nowhere in the picture… …

"Tell her to come to the Chamundeshwari temple in the village at 4'oclock… …" jai told her before leaving enthusiastically… …

Bani could barely nod her head… …
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Her nostrils puffed as she spoke angrily… …

"What does he think of himself…?" bani muttered…looking at the stray dog lying on the ground…without a reaction… …

"Is he mad…?"

"God, she is all wrong for him…the girl is so confused, she thinks hundred times before deciding to eat a sandesh or roshogulla…she herself does not know what she wants…"

"And what does he think, she will let him do what he wants…the social-service and at all…she will make him sit at home…"

"She is all wrong…she will drive him mad…"

"Why is he not understanding… …stupid fellow… …" bani slammed her head with her palm… …the dog silently left…bani looked at her only mute audience… …she huffed with anger… and pelted a stone in its direction… …the dog barked back…
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Bani walked to and fro, pacing the length of the room… …contemplating whether to pass on jai's message to Lolita or not… …After an hour of brain-storming she decided to tell Lolita…her conscience didn't allow her to do such a big injustice to jai…after all loving was not only taking but giving as well…and she had already got so much from jai, a new life and a lifetime of memories… …
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"Bani is this right…" Lolita asked her again and again, as she sat twiddling her fingers… …bani stuck out her tongue, of course standing behind her… …she felt like abusing her and giving her a nice dressing down… …but controlled her raging sentiments… …

"I don't know…if you feel it right…then…do whatever your heart says…" bani uttered…

"I…I…feel as if I will lose jai if I get married to girish…" Lolita said…

"But why do you want jai…is it because you don't want Girish…or something else…"

"Actually…when I saw you and jai together, I felt something inside…"

"You…you thought I and jai are… …" bani said amused by this new discovery… …

"Jai has a soft corner, he is too nice…he is nice with you also, I don't know…now I realized his importance…" bani's face fell…probably she was right, jai only had a soft corner for her, pity or sympathy…which she mistook as love… …what was happening was right, jai and Lolita were meant to be together… …and she was just a means of bringing them together… …

"Lolita get ready, we have to leave…" bani said and left dejected… …
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"Bani…where is he…" Lolita asked, searching for any sight of jai… …but he was nowhere to be seen… …

"He will come Lolita…" bani said in a bored tone, sitting on the steps of the small temple… …

"You know he is like this only…" Lolita fretted…

"He never comes on time…" she continued…

"It's over an hour bani…God!!!" Lolita groaned… …

"He is so unreliable…that's why…that's why baba doesn't like him…he never takes anything seriously…I…just hate him…" Lolita got up…bani looked surprised… …

"Where are you going…??" bani asked bewildered…

"I am going back…it would be better if I marry girish…jai is just hopeless…" Lolita stomped her foot and walked away… …while bani stood there clueless… …

Somehow bani didn't feel like going back… …she waited for jai… …
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It was partially dark…with the last rays of sun diminishing… …when she saw a faint image running in her direction… …she got up hastily walking towards the panting man…it was jai…

"Where were you…???" bani shrieked… …jai inhaled deeply…

"I…the fisherman was caught in the tide; we went to rescue him…" jai said breathlessly…

"WHAT!!!" bani shouted… …

"Jai…are you mad…Lolita was waiting for you and you went to help somebody…." Bani said…jai stood still…remaining quiet…

After a long pause he spoke up…

"I thought she would understand…it was a case of somebody's life… …where is she…I know she must be waiting…" jai said with a hopeful sound… …

"She left…" bani said as softly as possible so that he couldn't hear, not able to envisage the feeling of hurt in his eyes… …

Jai took a deep breath…turning around he walked towards the river bank… …

"J…" bani couldn't utter anything… …
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Finally, she found him, sitting against a solid rock…he was sitting motionlessly, drenched in water… she bent down sitting beside him…

"Jai…"

"Probably this wasn't meant to be…" she tried her best not to be sympathetic, but her heart went out to him… …at the same time she felt extreme anger rise inside her for Lolita… …suddenly she felt him lean towards her… …

He buried his face in her shoulder and she felt a tremor running up the sinews of her back. Slowly she pulled his wet body still closer, trying to warm him with her arms. She could feel the dampness seeping through the folds of her dress.

"She couldn't wait a few hours for me…just a few hours… …" he said voicelessly…

"Jai…it's okay… …" she whispered…

Her mind brimmed over with wild imaginings of what he must think of her as she held him so close… …
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god bless
Dhani

P.S.: is the forum closing!!! Well, I think this will get finished, at max two parts!!!