Parchments from the Past

Hello Lovely people!!

I've been away for a long long while now. Missed you all here. Exams and all the madness that comes along kept me busy for all this while. This is a piece I found lying in my drafts for a long time. Time it saw the light of the world :P I hope you like it.

The sound of silence was interrupted by unexpected sobs. Or perhaps not so much unexpected as dreaded. Vanya sighed. It had been a bad idea staying back after the dinner. She knew her hostess was bound to dissolve into tears at some point, but did not have the heart to escape with the other guests earlier this evening. She sorted through the clutter in the kitchen cupboards and grabbed a sachet of instant coffee. As she returned to the living room barefoot, and carrying a cup of hot coffee, she saw Ashish sitting next to the young woman slouched on the sofa dejectedly. She returned his smile; she should have known he’d decide to help her handle Mrinal. He was always the gentleman.

Vanya walked over to the girl and handed her the coffee. Her eyes were puffy already and tears still poured down her unnaturally rosy cheeks. She was pretty, and she looked prettier when she cried. She hastily wiped her face with the back of her hand. She’d gotten more drunk than she’d realized and had made it more than obvious that she was a pitiful girl who was rejected by the only guy she ever loved. It had been embarrassing enough that Raghav had not turned up for his surprise birthday party; she need not let Ashish and Vanya see her break down completely.

She watched them exchange a look which was so full of warmth and familiarity that it made her heart hurt. Had Raghav ever looked at her like that? She wondered if he would have come tonight if he knew all his friends were coming to celebrate and that it wasn’t going to be the quiet, romantic dinner she’d said he should expect. Ashish sank into the sofa next to her. Vanya handed her the coffee and sat in the armchair opposite her, crossed her long legs and smiled kindly like a shrink waiting for her patient to open up. Mrinal could sense Ashish’s gaze on her and shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he knew what was going on in her mind. He gave her the exact same smile and that was her cue.

Vanya’s stomach clenched inadvertently when Ashish pulled Mrinal into his arms. She sobbed her heart out, clinging to him for what felt like an age, until she finally hiccuped herself into silence. Vanya felt like an intruder and shifted her gaze to anything but them. "Would you please not tell anyone?" The question was directed at her. She shook her head as she got up to leave. She pulled on her heels and made to leave when she realized that no one was paying attention.

She glanced back at her friends. Ashish was writing a letter to Raghav on Mrinal’s behalf; a horrible, melodramatic hate mail that was probably going to be torn to shreds in the morning. He was humouring the drunk, after all. "I won’t tell anyone", she told the girl. "I've kept every secret I’ve known since childhood. And I don’t forget", she thought to herself, as she stared at Ashish unblinkingly. He always used three fingers to write- the thumb, the forefinger and the middle.

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It had been a hot summer day. Two kids sat in the balcony, in the searing heat accompanied by the hot air gushing from the back of the air conditioner at the living room window. The boy’s older sister told them they were mad to sit out there, even if the balcony was covered by those blinds. But she didn’t try to convince them to play inside. This gave her an opportunity to talk on the phone while she pretended to do her homework.

The little girl sat next to the railing and pulled up the blinds by an inch or two. The boy threw a well aimed sketch pen at the man standing beneath them. They collapsed into silent giggles as the man glared up at them. They quickly hid away, forgetting that the man knew who lived in the house, and it wasn’t hard to guess who would be up to such mischief. The next time they peeked from under the blinds, all the passersby were gone.

They returned to their usual game of G.I. Joe’s, Barbie’s, and Jenga blocks put together. He found a piece of chalk under the shoe rack when the marbles rolled under it. He broke it off into two, handing one piece to his friend. She smiled at him and drew a picture on the floor. He wrote something instead and put a finger to his lips, laughing partly from excitement and partly from embarrassment. She glanced at the three lettered word and tried to smile like she found it just as funny.

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"Do you want me to drop you home?" Ashish was frowning at her, obviously wondering why she was standing there like a statue. She shook her head, trying to remember where she was. "No that’s okay, I’ve got a ride", she said. And she walked out the front door, still lost in memories of the past.