When they knew (drabble series)(3rd pg13 27/4/22) - Page 4

Hello folks! This series has been on hiatus for the longest while, but I'm finally restarting it. I wrote this piece in the last hour, and am not completely satisfied with it, but I'm still posting because I wanted to get things moving.

In my head, Suman is always gray, so you might see hints of that every here and there. Also, in the hands of a good writer, I always imagined Raavi would be her favorite bahu with her perfect moral compass and her soft diplomacy.... Sigh, the things that could've been.

When Suman knew...

It was a fact well advertised that Suman Pandya had always been the most intelligent in the family. Whether or not people believed it, was a completely different thing. Most people simply saw Dhara handle a family of six and one store efficiently and forgot that Suman had done all that and helped establish a store in her heyday as well.

Now, why would anyone question such a woman's intelligence, you ask? Because her youngest son seemed to have forgotten the history of both her intellect, and his impossibility to keep secrets from anyone. Especially from her. A mother always knows.

So did she. Especially when it came to Shiva. After all, he was the son of her heart, he was. Gautam, Dev and Krish all took after different aspects of their Father, of her husband. Gautam with his natural diplomacy, Dev with his rules and books, and Krish with his careless playfulness. But Shiva? Shiva took after her. He took after her with his ability to get the job done, and his heart that felt too much but didn't say enough.

And so, when one day the house was supposed to be empty and she was supposed to be at Kanta's house, when she had come back early and heard the sound of laughter and giggling from her aangan a while later, she had slowly maneuvered her wheelchair outside her room. Krish, she had been able to make out, but who did that strong laugh and those tinkling giggles belong to?

She had stopped abruptly, frozen by the sight that had been waiting for her, and thankfully hidden behind one of the pillars. Shiva. Her son Shiva was sitting there beside Krish, clutching at his stomach in unending laughter and head rested on the lap of the girl sitting opposite him and giggling away merrily. She heard Krish whine about something, words too unclear for her now old ears, and moved her eyes to where he was sitting beside Shiva and facing the girl before letting her eyes shift back to her other son. Had she ever seen him laugh this freely after the loss of his Papa? Of her Darshan?

She waited for the girl to turn, to confirm her suspicions of the past couple months. That light pink kurti certainly seemed too familiar to her uncanny memory now, and just as she'd expected, the girl tilted her head to the side, her hand raising to card itself through Shiva's jet black hair, and Raavi.

She kept silent, watching, as Krish grumbled out a "Kyun mere saath hi humesha aisa hota hain?". She watched as Raavi placed a light tapli on his head weigh her free hand. A "Phir kaunsi ladki itne lambe baal dekh ke impress hogi?" as it's accompaniment, and heard a, "Kya, Raavi, tu bhi na?!" from Krish in response. Before he could put out another word, Krish had received a much stronger tapli on his head, but from a hand with a trishul bracelet on instead of delicate pink choodi.

He turned towards the owner of that hand with an annoyed huff, and threw a "Kya hain Bhai?!" at his now sitting up brother. "Aye, kitni baar bola hain tujhe? Raavi nahi...?", Shiva trailed off with an expectant look towards Krish. "Raavi bhabhi?", he muttered. "Hmm", he hummed, his eyes glinting in a certain male satisfaction. "Kitna accha hain na sunne main abhi? Aise hi bhulao usse jab sirf hum log hain tho. Samjha?", he said, voice stern and playfully threatening. Krish humphed, nodding at Shiva before getting up and moving towards where she was hidden.

Her youngest son froze in place as he saw her, now himself out of sight of the apparent lovebirds in her aangan, and about to open his mouth and alert them. She placed a finger upon her lips, daring him with her eyes to make a sound, and he stood there silently, his knees jerking and fingers tapping nervously at his inability to stay so still, as she stretched her body as much as she could to look around him.

She watched as Shiva, the son of her heart, lay his head back on Raavi's lap. She watched as Raavi raised her hand to his head again, running her fingers gently through his hair over and over again. She watched as Raavi whispered something nearly inaudibly, and she watched as he closed his eyes as stretched himself out on the kaat they were both sitting on, his lips stretching in a light half smile. And she watched as Raavi watched him, an adoring look in her eyes that Suman had spied for months now from both sides.

She was already fond of Raavi, and Shiva finding his happiness was something she had waited for for a long time. Happiness bubbling through her at the glimpse of young love, she turned away then, looking to Krish and his frightened expression. Well, a mother may not always know completely, but she could find out, couldn't she? After all, blabber mouthing sons had to be of some use at the end of the day.

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Reviews are much appreciated, and lambe comments give me ultimate khushi!