Arhi FF: Labyrinth - Thread 2 Link posted - Page 44

I knew I would have hurled the same insults at another man who dare take me into his arms. Only I would have hurled them and forgotten, not heave sleepless with unacknowledged regret.

Despite the inertia that sat cold over my bones, I silently left the bedroom to stand by the window in the living room. The inky blue night refused to have me under its spell - layers of blue gradually descending into a lighted horizon of another day: the telling of nativity tales of a new hour in the sky; of turning new acquaintances into old; of aging and morphing of life from one form onto another.

Today, I had woken with the knowledge of his existence; somewhere in this house, he must have been still sleeping, while I remained motionless recollecting the unresolved memories from the previous evening - his eyes that hinted to see more than it could, his words that demurred to behave, the final invective he'd spoken towards the end.

To touch without touching...

And to be left with this odd sense of familiarity when I knew nothing about him; this intimacy that fell smooth between my fingers gave an illusion of belonging in the cramped space I was at.

"How long do you plan to stand there?" My hands stilled as I plaited my hair and my eyes struggled to mark the ghostly outlines of someone in a far corner. I exhaled once it settled on me that it was a real person speaking then, not an imaginary voice from a questionable corner.

"Lord! you scared me." I said knowing well it wasn't him. The man shook off his covers to stand on his feet.

"Sorry! I'm Nivedh," he greeted me, even as he stepped forward; his smile affecting - young and overbearing like a movie lead cast in his first film.

"I'm Sahasra." I heard another voice from behind and found another pleasant looking young man come out of the shadows to switch on a table lamp.

It took me a moment to notice how similar the two were and yet distinct in their presence; Nivedh's voice sounded absolute, while Sahasras' held an echo. "You are the twins?"

"And she is aware of our existence," Nivedh sprinted to sit on the window sill. "This needs to go down in golden letters of our history, brother," he gestured to the twin ambling across the room to reach us.

"Are all you brothers forward like this with women you have just met?" I asked shaking my head with disbelief, a faint ache in recollection of my time with him in the train.

"It probably runs in the family," Nivedh confessed.

"What are you three conspiring against at 1.00 AM in the night?"

I shifted to sight a rather tall man poised against the other bedroom's doorway, his frame filling it, his hands uncomfortably folded across his chest, for each of his forearms amassed muscle fibers the size of a tree trunk. The boxer, I figured and studied his childlike eagerness plain in the restraint with which he held himself afar. For no reason at all, his Tarzan like build reminded me of the big life-size teddybear Dhri had got me for my fourteenth birthday - the one I had taken to eventually and didn't part from it until my formative years.

"We were just telling Kushi here about your colossal defeat in my hands yesterday." Nivedh blocked his way, as the elder brother approached me. "And how we cannot play Wii, though she is now bored and can't sleep because you broke the controllers after my glorious moment. You better replace it, Dev bhaiya."

The elder brother's single brow upturned, a moment of fraternal challenge and I nearly saw Nivedh step back in alarm.

"Ignore them," he said pushing Nivedh aside by his shoulder, "I'm Dev."

"Kushi." I shook his hand and held a tentative smile, feeling the weight of his clasp around my fingers, but the lingering assurance in his hold conveyed that he wouldn't be the one to let go first.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked while I carefully twisted my hand out of his grasp.

"It still hurts, but I'm fine." I gave a wry smile and wished to be spared of the male attention in the middle of the night.

"Kushi is hungry," Nivedh announced swallowing down the last of his words. I blinked and managed to catch the twins exchange a look behind Dev's back. "She was just asking if she can munch on something," Sahasra added for good measure.

"Is fried rice ok?" Dev lashed his request with a fervent hurry and my back braced itself against the wall, "Or do you prefer noodles? I can whip it up in a minute."

"No, really..." I was about to object when Nivedh cut in with a renewed sense of self-interest.

"Haan, bhaiya. We were just thinking of..." Sahasra went onto detail a non-existent plan, when Dev once again dismissed them and spoke to me directly. "It's no trouble at all. I could use a midnight snack myself." The affection I saw in Dev's eyes were imposing, albeit, like that of the other brothers, their particular interest in me as a single woman seemed gratingly muted, which led me to wonder, if such a reservation had been called for over the fact, I was there as his guest.

"Thank you for playing along!" Sahasra whispered when Dev moved to the Kitchen. "My stomach is eating me from the inside," Nivedh added with a painful smile, "and he will never cook if I ask him to make me something at this hour."

"And I'm your bait?" I asked laughing with the insight that I had, unawares, been granted ingress into their circle.

In the next few minutes, even as I remained by the window, I observed Dev chop a colorful spread of everything from carrots to green onions, while he juggled eggs and tossed the cooked rice in a pan to coat it with oil, all at the same time.

Show-off! I thought, but then I discerned, after a while, he put on the ingenuous act with no intentions to impress. Cooking, it appeared, just as unlikely it was among men, was cathartic to him.

"What's cooking?" Dhri turned up at the living room door.

"Dev! one order of whatever it is you are making," said Vishwa and entered nudging Dhri aside; he leaned on the countertop sipping a bottle of local beer.

"Damn, Dev! It smells delicious," Dhri joined Vishwa at the countertop too, "One plate for me."

Hunched over, Dhri scooped up a handful of cut carrots and as if, Dev anticipated that very move, swatted his hand away Ouch!' Dhri cried out.

"Arey! Tips extra. Don't worry." Dhri offered, tipping his beer bottle at Dev and giving up on his attempt to relish the raw cut veggies.

"Saale! Come to the boxing ring and I will give you back your tips with interest." Dev picked up the plate and made his way to the stove on the parallel counter.

There is always a palpable joy at such gatherings of good spirits and yet, ennui brewed in me. Nivedh and Sahasra joined the duo at the counter and my eyes wandered outside the window with a new listlessness that I hadn't felt a moment ago.

It was a few minutes before the sound of feet shuffling outside the room reached my ears. "Shall I make extra for you?" Dev called without turning to look who it was. I craned to see who had arrived at the door.

"I'm not hungry." I could only hear from him the other side of the door and I pulled back to look out the window again, but now the fading orange glow, from the array of sodium street lamps, were far from interesting.

He entered the room and leaned over by the door taking a swig out of his bottle. Our eyes met for a brief second and turned away; in that second, an infinite searching surfaced and died in me, while I could only see his eyes sought to reassure my wellbeing. It was clear we were at an impasse, one that was going to take time to overcome.

As I placed him among his brothers, I realized that his forthrightness with me had been different. His advances had aimed to deflect, at some level. I began to consider if his expositions about his past and his financial state were meant to induce a distaste for him. Did he know that his candid nature had evoked an opposing effect on me?

In reflection, I was convinced that I had not been in such pleasurable disagreement with anyone. Somehow the long night with him felt justified.

"Are you sure? Ma said you haven't eaten all day," Dev insisted.

Sahasra spun around and rested his elbows on the countertop. "Have you kept a vrath or something?" he asked, as his face lit with a knowing glee.

"Or for someone, Arnav bhaiya?" Nivedh too flipped about and winked at Sahasra, his drawl too winded to be mistaken for anything, but sarcasm.

"Eat and sleep!" he said unmoving at their implying and finished the bottle in one draught. "I will indulge you in your talks after you are approved for your research grant."

"Looks like Yuvi bhaiya's humor has rubbed off on Arnav," Dev said shaking his head.

"What's gotten into him tonight?" Nivedh mumbled making a face and returned to watch Dev finish the fried rice with a flourish. By then he'd left back through the stairs, unconcerned with the goings on of his living room.

Vishwa came to stand by the window where I'd perched myself the entire time. "How true?" he said taking a sip out of his beer bottle, "and, if I know any better, he's been delivered from his guiles..."

I didn't like that Vishwa had taken to his usual taunts again and my eyes shot him a disapproving look.

However, it only did goad him further, for he dipped to whisper into my ear. "Only to fall for another bewitchment..."

"Don't! Just don't," I shoved Vishwa and walked past him. Going back to his mother's bedroom, I fell into the bed and urged for sleep to find me.

Note: So, are you not curious to know the characters from this update?