Maryada: Vidya-Gaurav FF - Updates. p. 145 (6/29) - Page 20

Originally posted by: saomom

You're making me think, and I'd rather not right now. 😡 😆 hmph.

I may be the only one, but I'm not very sympathetic towards Salome. She's probably got a tragic background, yada, yada, but I don't like her. I'll tolerate her, because you will make her tolerable, but she's not a fav. Bring on Vidya! ( and some random man to cause Salome to forget Guarav. 😃 ) Okay, fine. Write the story the way you want to. 😆

Originally posted by: bushrayou

LOVE IT! totally agree! lol!!! i DON'T want to be sympathetic towards Solome! I am in Vidya's party!!

Originally posted by: saomom

Phew! I thought I would be the only one... It may just be us two, but at least we have each other!😆

Go Vidya!

Originally posted by: arabianpaki

Is there room for one more person, cause I would like join the club. Its not that I highly dislike her..but as you said, no sympathy for her!

Chapter 22: Inertia

That night when she retired to bed, she did not find him in their room, nor did he come after a half hour had passed. She could not fall asleep; too much had happened during the day. After tossing and turning for a bit, she decided to give her mother's age-old remedy a try – a warm glass of milk. As she walked out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen, the scene from earlier that day returned to her and she rued the absence of any external distractions to occupy her mind. The image of her husband rushing out to the front garden to grab her hand in his and run back into the house and up the stairs while she was drenching wet was imprinted in her mind's eye with such depth that it would not allow any other thought within ten feet distance. She closed her eyes to escape the thought, except that only improved the quality of the mental image with better precision. She had never realized that a friendship as genuine and nurturing as the one that she was developing with her husband was possible with a husband. And she wondered how much of that was precisely because of the fact that there were no other confusing emotions involved.

But is that really what she wanted out of a marriage? What had she dreamed and hoped for? Those questions all seemed somewhat de-contextual to her now. She had never been someone who had thought honestly about marriage at length. She had assumed that it would happen at some point as her parents decided. She had been a tad bit on the pragmatic side, maybe overly so at times, and had figured out early on that it was statistically impossible for all arranged marriages to result in love. And maybe her lottery analogy from earlier was somewhat pessimistic and not necessarily logically sound either, but such things were a gamble either way. You hoped that your parents would chose right when they made a decision about your mate and would select someone matched in temperament and not overly different in value systems. Even though the fact that her husband was city-born and bred had initially made her think that her parents had grossly miscalculated, she was now starting to realize that maybe they had not so much. Even such approximations, of course, only went so far. Temperamentally, he appeared to be a good match for her and on central human values, she did not think he differed so much from her. But when such things aligned well, there were still others that may not… It was not her parents' fault that her husband appeared to seek a different sort of relationship from her rather than that of a husband and wife.

She had reached the kitchen by then, but in her distraction, she had not heard the whispers from the room until she was at its doorway. The sight that greeted her made her gasp before she could stop herself.

Her father-in-law was attempting to grab one of the new house-maids that they had temporarily hired for the purpose of hosting her own family's visit. She swallowed hard and felt a deep chill travel through all four of her limbs simultaneously as she took a step back and caught herself against the doorway. The maid looked at her, her look of fear transforming into relief as she moved out of Brahmanand's arms and came towards the doorway to slip right past her and run off.

Brahmanand's gaze was on her now and she stood there as still as she could, betraying nothing of what she felt on her face.

"I was… helping her with something." He said then before walking towards the doorway himself. She moved back and out of his way as he moved through the doorway and out of the kitchen.

Vidya waited a breath and walked quickly into the kitchen, leaning against the counter heavily as she placed one hand over her heart to rub it, hoping that the rapid beats there would realize that the danger had passed and slow down.

She heard footsteps behind her suddenly and her heart dropped as she turned around. He covered her mouth and hushed her with a quick shake of his head. It was her husband. She stood still again and followed his gaze towards the stairs where she could see his father still climbing the steps.

When he disappeared from their view, Gaurav turned back to her and removed his hand. For several minutes, he did nothing but stand there and look at her, telling her so many things that were not yet able to form themselves into words…. things that she was only starting to understand about this house.

Finally he spoke, "Don't walk around the house alone at night, Vidya…"

She did not reply, but held his gaze, and he added, "There are no ghosts here, but there are monsters… and they are often out at night."

"What about her?" She asked about the maid, adjusting her voice when she found that it sounded hoarse.

"I will find another house for her tomorrow."

She tried to not give into the tremor that had started in the pit of her belly.

When she looked up at him again, he asked, "Why did you come down here?"

"I wanted a glass of warm milk. I couldn't sleep."

"Does that really help?" he asked curiously.

"I don't know. I was going to try for the first time."

"Could I try it too?" He asked and she looked at him surprised.

There was no humor to be found in his expression this time… he looked more tired than she had ever seen him.

She nodded as she went to the refrigerator to grab the milk and turned the stove on to warm it. He stood next to her in silence and they both watched the flames lick the bottom of the pan as the milk stayed in its stillness, belying any indication that there was a deep heat building underneath.

"Do you know what inertia is?" She finally asked.

"A state of rest?" he looked up at her to answer.

"No. By its true definition, inertia is the natural tendency of any matter to remain in its current state – whether in rest or in motion along a straight path – unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

He thought of that for a moment and then rephrased what she said, "So, it's the natural proclivity of any matter to resist change…"

She looked at him but did not reply.

"And the only way to affect such a change would be through the introduction of an unbalanced force…" he added.

She looked at him to nod. In that single moment of distraction, the milk boiled over.

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