ff: ''a many splendoured thing', update pg. 102 - Page 27

prem rested his head against the window in the flight, grateful for the cold against his skin. it was nearly two weeks that he had taken the first flight out of home, and it felt like he had been in the air for all the time since then. every day had started with a morning flight, and ended with an evening flight. sometimes there had been shorter flights in between as well.

prem knew that it had all been for a purpose, and he knew the purpose was being met. every evening, he had a conference call with pari and shakti, where he passed on the minutes of each meeting that had taken place that day, and exchanging notes for the meetings of the next day. and every evening, shakti and pari had no complaints to pass on about anything. he knew it was all working. but he was still not really thinking about anything deeper than what he was to say from one minute to the next.

it had been his mother's call three days ago that had caused the first ripple in his cosy blind equilibrium. since preet had come back, he had been spending a lot of time on fine-tuning the blue prints for the cathedral. by the end of the week, he had called an informal meeting of the board to present the blue-prints. prem was the only one who had not been able to make the meeting. in fact, he had not been able to take preet's calls after the presentation as well, so packed was the schedule that he had been carefully packing together.

of course, gayatri was smarter than he was when it came to tracking him down.

his mother had checked his schedule, including flight times, with pari and shakti, and timed her call so that he had no easy excuse to not take it. he had seen her name flashing on his phone and contemplated ignoring it. but his mind was as tired of running as his body was, and the horror of having to come up with an excuse later was tremendous. prem juneja was realising slowly that there was a limit to how much he could run away from those who loved him, without explicitly hurting them.

she had not been irritated. she had not asked him any questions. but then prem juneja's mother was not like that. she had calmly started by telling him that she had spoken with his staff, and checked his schedule. and that he needed to be at home for the unveiling of the project that had been his father's life-long dream and ambition. and he had recognised that it was not really a request, more than a statement of fact. put that way, there was no way that he could have refused.

instead he had pushed harder to pack more of the meetings that he had set up for the three days that she had asked of him. the excuse was that he had to get them done. his reward was that he ended every day so physically and mentally exhausted that he did not have the spare capacity left to even dream. if he had been in the thinking mode, he'd have been ecstatic about having discovered the way to to not be with heer in his dreams.

so curiously enough, he was more at peace on this flight back home than he had anticipated. the only thing that he wondered about was whether it was natural to be so hot. he was pouring sweat, while all his fellow passengers were huddling in their pullovers and trenchcoats. at the airport terminal, he wondered at the strange look tha traj gave him as he helped him with bags. and then he wondered why raj was not keeping up his usual stream of chatter on the drive.

the sun had not yet begun to show the orange-red hues that it took on while setting as the car pulled up at the brownstone. prem knew that heer had been working at the brownstone everyday since he left, because gayatri had taken the trouble of informing him about it. not that it mattered to him, thought prem. but he suddenly felt a great reluctance to go up to the den, where he knew that preet would most likely be working on fine-tuning the presentation of the blue-prints.

instead he walked through the office, nodding at everyone's surprised greetings, past heer's desk and through to the prototype in the garden. he could see that the structure had taken more firm shape while he was away. the walls were nearly all done and the top was taking shape. he squinted at it from the brownstone. was it going to be a steeple or a dome? he couldn't tell. it was going to reach fairly high up compared to the magnolia, he thought. and he didn't tihnk about how heer had dropped on him from those branches such a long time ago.

going closer, he ducked and walked in through the door. he stumbled a little, holding on to the column holding the beginnings of the ceiling up while his head stopped spinning. it was cooler at the edges of the structure, but the sunlight was streaming into the center, through the panes of what looked like sheets of glass and something else that was much less transparent. it was not complete, and he squinted wishing that the throbbing in his head would go away, so that he could figure out what the beginnings of that center looked like.

heer went still the moment she saw him there, when she came in through the door. she stood watching him with a tumble of emotions that she could not define. she did not want to disturb him, so much did he look just like the figure who had been haunting her dreams, filling her visions whenever she started to sketch or paint. and yet she ached to go to him, hold him tight, have him hold her back, feel him take her soul with his kiss.

while she stood there, her eyes roaming over him as he leant against the column, rajat and soni came staggering in with the box of panes, grunting with the effort. she watched prem turn with a start. she saw him wince before his eyes caught sight of her, standing quietly in the corner. then she saw his eyes go fierce for a moment, before his lids came down over them.

and then he was going forward to help the guys lower the box gingerly on the floor. she leant back against the wall, loving the way that the light glided over his hair as he bent to help them, fiercely suppressing the urge to walk over and run her fingers through their denseness. she thought he looked exhausted as rajat caught him a bear hug and soni clasped him on the shoulder.

''did you just get in? where have you been?'' soni was happy to see him. ''you've been missing all the action on this piece, prem!''

prem's smile was genuine. ''yes, i can see that. maybe i should stay away more often -- you guys get a lot more done when i'm away, i can see.''

''see, rajat? i told you that it was a plan!'' soni turned triumphantly to the older man, who was wiping the sweat off his face. ''they are actually taking turns to vanish, so that they can escape doing the work. first preet disappears for a week. and now it's prem for two! i wonder if harman is going next, and whether he'll be away for three. hey!'' soni's face shone with mischief even in the gloom of the interiors. ''do you think that we should run a bet on this??'' he asked rajat hopefully.

rajat was looking at prem, observing the pallor of his face, and the careful way that he avoided looking at heer. ''is there anything wrong between harman and the girlfriend?'' rajat asked abruptly.

soni frowned. ''not as far as i know. in fact, shakti was telling me how harman was talking about putting the down-paymenton buying a flat together. why?''

rajat sounded thoughtful. ''because i think there is a strong between girl trouble and a juneja boy vanishing. what do you think, prem?'' he shot at prem who had just pulled off his tie, and was now trying to undo the buttons at the neck of his shirt.

prem said, grunting with the effort, ''i had not vanished. i just had a heck of a lot of meetings to get done before the holidays. meetings for projects that keep your wages coming on time.'' there was a silence as they stood watching him pull at the shirt in frustration.

soni was puzzled. what was eating prem's goat? suddenly, he too noticed the silent figure by the door. maybe rajat had a point. soni nudged him, and said a little too loudly. '' rajat i heard john-uncle call for tea as we were walking in. let's go get washed up and head over for some?''

they both practically ran out through the door, soni barely missing knocking himself on the low door beam as he left.

prem watched as heer pushed herself off the wall, and came towards him. he felt her cool fingers, brush against his as she gently undid his top button, and the next, and one more after that. and then he was spinning as he felt her brush aside the cloth and press a kiss in the hollow at the base of his throat. and then another on his neck.

and prem juneja reminded himself that he was not thinking when those cool lips reached his and he opened his mouth with relief over hers, drinking deep and hard.

it was she who pulled away first, abruptly as the heat off his skin reached through the fog in her mind. ''prem?'' he didn't see her frown. her kiss had made him more light-headed than he had been feeling earlier. he could feel her move back, and swayed after her, his hands feeble as they tried to pull her back to him. he felt her hand on his face, and turned his head blindly to bury his lips in her palm. she felt so wonderful.

as he lost consciousness, prem juneja finally permitted a thought. and he told him firmly that he should stop thinking about heer that way now. that he could not think about heer that way now. and that actually, he could not think about heer at all.