When Yash left to Bangkok, much to the dismay of his complaining mother that he was leaving the new bride back home, she felt as though her feet were freed of the ball chains she dragged along the one day he had been around. She couldn't help be thankful that she had a week to process everything that had transpired in a matter of days, all that had shifted in that time. Seven days before her wedding had not been enough of a period to come to terms that she was marrying her best friend and much less to acknowledge the duties of the step-mother that came with it.
But Payal was perhaps, the only child who could have made that transition easier than it was to adjusting with a boatload of in-laws. However, for her, there was a mild concession in their house rules too, when she'd been the reason, the favorite son of the house was married off after having sworn his life to remain a single father after Arpita's death.
Although, when everyone else assumed that he'd been taken to her ever since their college days, it was only obvious to her why he'd done so - he'd agreed only to rescue her from another rejection, thinking she was sure to be mortified just as he was, to have dismissed those long lectures she had given on the etiquette of friendship et al; she knew that he was aware in the heart of his hearts that she would never have agreed to marry him had it not to come down to him over another poor choice.
In reality, she liked to think it was to save her parents' face, but there was something lurking and solid in the black of her heart that she couldn't yet fully understand on why she'd gone tight lipped when the final moment of decision had arrived; not entirely in agreement with the wedding, but there hadn't been an obvious disagreement either.
Prateik and Vidhi di did their best from keeping her mind lingering over such matters. They showed her all the photo albums there was in their attic, retelling the time of his life, she'd gone missing from, through those pictures and without exercising any discretion, shared in great detail, some of his and Arpita's tales of love. His folks really did think that she was made of different stuff to naively assume that it could only bring her closer to Yash, telling her of his love for another woman had only been a thing of his past, when it only could cause her to feel that she had no place in any of their lives; that she was an intruder at best.
There had been no reason to feel that sliver of burn in her chest as her finger traced over the glossy sheen of her picture being held by him from behind.
"None of us expected her not to return forever, as she left to pick up Payal from her mother's place. It was a truck that had crushed the front of the car as if it were only junk metal. They didn't even need to take her to the hospital to pronounce her dead" Vidhi di spoke with her eyes caught in a pool of tears, "Yash never set foot into any temple after that...not even the pooja room where Arpita's pictures are - the only place in the house where he still lets them hang on the wall"
Being as absorbed as she was in the day's events that had led to Arpita's death, her eyes noticed that the mangalsutra she had around her neck had belonged to Arpita too. Indeed, that was the last straw, when everyone saw her as Arpita's replacement.
Vidhi di wiped her tears that spilled into her cheek, "But I know everything will change now that you are here..." She squeezed her hand tight, as she said, "I know it"
Without knowing what better words she could offer in return as comfort that would only go so far as to remain a false assurance, she simply held her hand for a while. But Payal was always around to redeem her from such moments, when she felt as lost as the people around her.
"Rithi aunty...come see my palace. Pratheik chachu got me your palki..."
Her face gave away her curiosity as she asked, "My palki?"
"Payal was so taken by the Palki we used at your wedding..." Prateik quickly added, "I thought she could use it as her play house...The long handles have been removed and I had it fixed by the porch side that your bedroom opens up to. Hope you don't mind..." He scratched his head unsure, the glee in his face laced with a doubt that told her he was aware he'd taken too much into his hands without having consulted Yash.
"It's ok..." She said and nodded getting off the couch.
The little girl doing a snippety skip led her outside through their bedroom to the porch that skirted the house. This part of the house was more private than the rest, facing the back foliage and a shaded pool where Payal often spent her afternoons floating her bath toys.
"Look aunty, I have already lined up my kitchen set inside..." She tugged on her arm and this time around stepping into the palki made her marriage more real than it had the last time she'd been inside it. Remembering those moments she'd wished she'd never really gotten off the palki, she crouched low at the ornate arched entry, shaded by gold sheer that had once shielded her teary eyes from the cheery crowd outside.
She took seat once again at the soft red velvet cushions that padded the bottom and run her hand against the round white silk pillows placed at either ends. Payal sat by the front of the palki, arranging her saucers and cups and a plastic tea pot over the flat of the shoulder cushion.
"Here...have tea" The child handed her a cup and she smiled faking a sip, applauding her on the brilliant taste she didn't feel on her tongue.
Payal ran out, mumbling to get some biscuits and she was left alone in the child's toy palace that for the second appeared as her own. If anything, it was the only real thing that belonged to her in that place, despite having married the man who owned everything else there. Silent in the aching of her realization, she removed her mangalsutra that instant, knowing well it was no impulse that had made her to act so, and later deposited it by his bedside table.
As days passed to count a week, she spent her afternoons inside the palki, reading, wrapped up in her foolish wishing that somethings had never come to be and there by, unknowingly happened to spend most of her day with Payal, more than she liked. Come Sunday, there wasn't a place or routine of Payal's that she wasn't part of.
Just as he'd warned, the one thing that might stop her from having the release from all that she was bound to had happened even before she saw it coming.
Seher Hone Ko Hai
Anupamaa
