Hello Everyone.
Chapter 18
The sherni can sometimes be a little baby, who needs to be taken care of.
Karthik’s POV.
A warm breath grazes my neck, and I hear a soft whisper in my ear:
“Get up.” Naira looks at me and smiles, her hair falls over my face and she smells of expensive moisturizers and shampoo.
Naksh and Keerti haven’t woken up yet. I get up and follow Naira to the balcony, where she has already ordered tea for us. The tea tastes horrible but the early morning breeze is amazing.
We look inside and Naksh has already moved to the bed. He hugs Keerti, who purrs in her sleep, and kisses her on her neck. Naira looks at them and smiles. I wrap myself around Naira and hold her close.
“That girl is crazy.” she says.
“I know. I don’t know what Naksh is doing with her.” I say.
“Naah, she is a nice girl. She apologized yesterday.” she says.
“She did ?!!!” I ask.
Naira nods.
“Karthik, why Haridwar ?!!” she asks me.
“Umm, just like that.” I say.
“You can hide it from them, but not from me.” she says, as skepticism drips from her eyes.
I try to lie but I’ve never lied to her. I give up. I knew this was coming and I was wondering last night what’s taking her so long to ask me.
“Fine, I will tell you.” I state.
We sit down with our legs hanging from the ledge of the balcony and I start to tell her everything that has happened since the day of the blast.
She is partly shocked, partly interested. But mostly she thinks I have gone mad.
“Why didn’t you tell me before ?!!” she asks.
“I didn’t want you to think I’m crazy.” I answer.
“I think I would have.” she says and smiles.
“Why are you doing this ?!! Are you okay ?!!” she asks after a minute of silence.
“See ?!! That’s why I didn’t tell you. You think I’m crazy don’t you ?!!” I say.
“Aww. I don’t, Mendhak. I just want to know why. I can ask that, right ?!!” she says.
“Of course, you can, but I don’t know.” I say.
“I just want to know about this guy. I just think it could have been me.” I state.
“Don’t say that. Nothing will ever happen to you.” She says a bit emotionally.
“But, I have you. You know what I have for you. You know what my parents mean to me and what Naksh means to me. If tomorrow I am not there any more, you can tell them that. This guy died without telling anyone. I could have been him. I could have gone without telling you how much I love you. This story is not yet finished.” I say.
She has tears in her eyes. She doesn’t give a shit about the guy in the diary, she cares about me.
“I would’ve known you love me.” she says and I kiss away a sole teardrop resting on her cheek.
“I know it’s crazy but I want to find the girl from the diary and hand this over to her. The guy deserves it, don’t you think ?!!” I ask.
“I am coming with you.” She says.
“Don’t you have office tomorrow ?!!” I ask.
“That can wait. It’s been so long since we took a vacation. Maybe this will rejuvenate me. And make me a little younger. Maybe fun too.” she says a little sadly.
“Awwww !! You will always be sixteen to me.” I say.
She smiles.
“Karthik, can I read it ?!! The diary ?!!” she asks.
“How can I ever say no to you ?!!” I say and fetch it from my bag.
As soon as I give it to her, I see the small pearls of tears accumulate at the corners of her eyes. I know what she’s thinking.
The burnt edges of the diary bring vivid and scary images to one’s head. The person who possessed it burnt to death and the diary was probably what he was holding in his
dying moments. It’s a powerful feeling and you can only feel it when it happens to you.
I keep her close as she starts to read the diary. I wrap a blanket around us as it’s a little chilly outside. She looks at me intermittently and she can barely keep herself from crying.
It’s as if her eyes keep asking me the same question — “Is he really dead ?!!”
Anyway, I like these moments.
Traditionally, the guy is supposed to take care of the girl he’s in love with. But with Naira, it doesn’t work that way. Naira has always been a strong woman and never needed my help in doing anything. She is as good with screwdrivers and laptops as she is with her make-up.
But in these moments of vulnerability, like the one right now, I feel like a man. I can hold her, hug her and tell her that I will be there and I will make everything all right. I have always waited for times like these when I can make her feel like a little baby who needs to be cared for. Usually it’s only me who needs a lot of care.
She takes her own sweet time reading this diary, stopping and re-reading certain sections.
She reads the entire diary, looks at me and says, “I am surely coming with you.”
She doesn’t say anything else, but her eyes tell me everything. She hugs me tighter and sobs slightly, and we sit there, wrapped within the warm blanket and she dozes off.
I hug her tighter, watch her sleep for a little while and doze off too.
Precap : Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Home.
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So since many of you requested me to post this chapter sooner, here it is for all of you before mid-night. I know you all missed Kaira in the last chapter so this chapter has them in it exclusively.
Well stay tuned cause lots of twists and turns coming up in the future track and I believe you will like to read about them. Also do comment peeps, the number of comments hardly go over 5 these days and I feel let down sometimes.
Do comment. Keep smiling. Keep watching Yrkkh.