FADED
There has been so much to talk, and so much to tell- of course not in my loneliness, but with you.
Suman wasn't a fan of staying up late in the hospital but she agreed to it fairly enough. She looked at the doctors fussing over her wound, humming 'Captain this, Captain that!'. Latika, almost her age, or maybe a year older or less, was socking cotton balls of betadine, rubbing it over the place the bullet had touched her. The tingling sensation in her stomach and the burn of the skin didn't make any of her muscles twitch. It wasn't enough to shake the visage of the women built on the grounds of hopelessness and betrayal.
'Your diet seems neglected too. Just look at the way blood is flowing seamlessly as if a river? I told you to take your Vitamin K in the best possible quantity.' Latika muttered a few more nutrition tips as if it was her subconscious talking. She fiddled with a suture, stitching the wound after rubbing anesthesia.
'Rest.' She commanded and walked out of the room, making Suman Tiwari wonder that if she was capable of bearing the night alone with all her thoughts storming her brain.
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'We are going to attack, over and out.' Suman heard him say all those words, a voice she barely could recognize. Her head nodded in a yes, she shouted out the instructions to her unit moving ahead, closer to where he had called. Major Shravan Malhotra.
And after a few minutes of sneaking, she could hear a series of fires and bombs, ruckus and cacophony of the deafening kind. She dare not stutter thinking of what might have gone wrong on the other side. She again pointed her own machine gun to the target, the house they had surrounded, which didn't look like a house anymore but just a hut of cement and dust holed out with bullets.
In a moment of uncertainty and the curse to her eye, she could see Major battling a wound, straight in his shoulder blade. It felt that he might have tripped over something, rolling over and hitting a few stones and wood. Whatever it might be, he wasn't ready to face a bullet.
Heck, nobody could ever be.
So Suman did what she thought was right. She came forward, her concentration to blast the enemy, to save the Major whose conscience couldn't have got the better of him. But then she made a deal with herself as well- 'No matter what, Shravan would be safe.'
Why?
Because he was heading the mission, he was the strength of their team.
They won't be able to do it without him.
She won't be able to do it without him as well. Anyways.
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Shravan was nudged and congratulated furiously by all his mates, and there was a small victory at every breath as they had uncovered a terrorist nexus lying deep in the grounds of Ambala. He was there, and everybody was- his smile was bracing up to his lips but not his eyes. She wasn't there and she chose it on her own admission.
This is how he hated her.
Doing what she thinks is right, without thinking about what others would like to say in the matter.
As much her impulsiveness was admitted in the Army Cantt he couldn't help but notice the damage it might cause to her in the future, or what it might have already caused- between them. At this, he clenched his jaw, fisted his palm, which felt like the size of a beating heart, and finally set out of the celebration with an excuse.
If not anybody, he did care for his officer. His captain.
His Suman.
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Suman flicked the lamp on and off near her bed. She looked at the fusing of the bulb every second, her life synonymous with it.
Happiness in. Happiness out. Happiness in. Happiness out.
Shravan inn. Shravan out- forever.
Maybe his being with her, in this same cantonment was again a sign. A sign she could barely decipher. And then she would see him play badminton, she would see her father. She would see him eat his lunch, she could see her father munching his favorite snack. When she would see the fire in his eyes, the determination to save his country, to serve it- she would again see her father. What was going on?
Should she be happy that she finds her father in somebody?
Or
Should she be sad that this somebody was the reason she couldn't meet him in her senses for the last time?
She felt like reading those lines, her father had written to her. For the very last time. She often wondered that if she had made him proud? And then she slipped down to her beating heart, and the blood that ran continuously in her veins. His blood, her father's.
Maybe yes.
Shravan walked across the lobbies of the hospital, memorizing the number where Suman lay, resting.
He prepped mouthing a thanks, and then sitting beside her on the excuse of asking 'how it has been all this while? If it hurt?'. At the thought he gave out a mad roll to his head, laughing hysterically at his own thoughts.
If it hurts?
Of Course, it does.
Heck, even he was feeling a weird physical pain, not like that of fatigue, but something which was numbing his brain and heart. Something which made his confident self feel jittery. And then he remembered the feeling of adrenaline rush in his blood, back then when he was a teenager. The happy days of being with his ladylove.
The faded memory of their fairy tale.
-----------------
The door was pushed hard, but with a bit of indecision. Shravan, in all attempts to not disturb Suman, filtered himself inside the room. He was welcomed by pitch darkness and then he knew that he timed it so wrong. He should have waited until the morning. And with another flick, the lights were brightened, that it hurt his eyes suddenly.
'Major Shravan.' Suman had the privilege of guessing the man in the dark, how could she not. It wasn't just his figure, the silver lining of his jaw, or his perfume. It was his sighs, his unsaid words vanishing in the air, and of course his eagerness to be here.
She was happy, she was content.
'Oh! You are awake. Pretty much. Not tired?' Shravan fumbled kicking himself mentally for making a joke of himself.
'Visitors. They won't let me take rest. You see Major!' Suman couldn't help but laugh at the situation she had put him in.
Shravan looked at the glee in her eyes, contrary to her bruises, and a big spot of blood and bandage on the left upper arm. He slowly walked across the room, sat beside her bed, and just let his shoulders drop for a bit.
'Thanks, Captain.' His address was formal and it pained Suman but she won't show.
She nodded her head in a no, but before she could say anything, she felt him eyeing her bruises in a manner she couldn't decode.
Shravan held back his urge to move his fingers across the rashes, and the clots of her skin. He fought back to not touch and maybe kiss her to her comfort.
If she would consider it as comfort?
'Not that I am happy with your sudden impulsiveness.' Shravan voiced his thoughts.
'Pardon me, Major?' Suman was taken aback by his words. Did he just accuse her of something she did for them, for him?
'You should have alerted me, there was no reason for you to jump in the middle of...' before Shravan could complete Suman was ready to add her two cents.
'Oh yes, I should have. In the middle of terrorists attacking us, I could have pulled you aside and informed you about how two men were f**king pointing their guns at the same time on you when you for the record was tending to his sore shoulder.' Suman shouted, her emotions whirlpooling and Shravan still focusing on the point that how easily she lost her demeanor with him, and not to remind the use of profanity, the rare occasion when Suman Tiwari would lose her tongue as well.
Well, Well, Shravan couldn't think of a better excuse to laugh and smile again.
He just regained his position of being Suman's Punching bag.
'What?' She mouthed unaware of Shravan being a Major, or she being a captain, and Shravan just tried his best to hide a smile.
A faded one.
But enough for both of them.
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Should I continue?
But do tell me how you like it?
PS. Hi! Guys! New to this forum. You may call me Harshika. I am18. Just gave my NEET, and yeah am waiting to get into my college. In short, living through my happy days, watching EDKV2, and ofcourse writing and reading a lot of stuff.
INDEX
Part2-Page2
Part3-Page3
Part4-Page4
Part5-Page5
Part6-Page6
Part7-Page8
Part-8Page-9
Part9, Page 10
Part10, Page 11
Part11, Page12
Part 12, Page13
Part13-Page14
Part14-Page15
Part15Page16
Part16Page20
Part17Page21
Epilogue-Page21
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