Samaina FF : Pyaar Hua, Chupke Se

Part-18

On returning home Naina & Preeti found their mother was not in good mood. A while later, after freshening up the reason became clear to the sisters as they found Bela tying a pile of old magazines near the balcony door.

Preeti screamed seeing the stuff, "Mummy! Yeh kaha se mila aapko?"

Throwing an annoying glance at her Bela said, "Jaha pe tu rakkhke gayi thi wahi se.."

Preeti mentally face-palmed herself for her forgetfulness. She was collecting those entertainment journals for the last three years in a safe place where her mother couldn't find them. Last night, before sleeping, she wanted to run her eyes over her collections for a brief time. But after bringing out her treasure box she couldn't resist reading some old articles and ogling at the pictures of Bollywood heroes. When sleep weakened her all senses, she realized that it was too late. Thinking that she would keep them in their previous place after getting up in the morning, Preeti kept the magazines under the study table and went to sleep. Here, she made the mistake of being forgetful about her collection. And, the magazines, lying under the table drew Bela's attention very easily. Being a clean freak Bela couldn't tolerate unnecessary stuff in her house. So, it was obvious she wouldn't allow Preeti to keep these months old useless pieces of paper.

Another pile of magazines were still there on the table. After tying up the first pile Bela commanded Preeti to hand over that last one to her, but Preeti didn't move. She just stood there making a sad face with the hope that her gesture would help melting her mother's heart. Even, Naina tried to convince Bela to let Preeti keep the magazines. But unfortunately, nothing worked.

Giving a cold look at her daughters, Bela herself extended her hand from her sitting position and dragged the stuff towards her. In process of dragging, a notebook suddenly fell from the table and a neatly folded piece of colour paper sprang from it.

Naina's heart almost came to her mouth as she recognised the paper very well. It was the letter that she wrote for Sameer.

"Aab yeh kaunsi kaagaz hai?" picking the paper Bela was about to open it.

"Woh meri hai mummy.. Mujhe dijiye.." somehow the words fell from Naina's mouth.

"Kya hai iss mein?" Bela questioned.

"Library mein se jo books lena tha uske list." Naina gulped.

"Accha!!" with an unconvinced expression Bela again tried to open it.

Naina felt her palms and feet froze instead of the scorching heat of summer. She gestured to her sister for help. But Preeti needn't have to do anything as the ceiling fan shifted Bela's attention towards itself by stopped moving suddenly. 

To Naina's relief her mother kept the paper on the table and started grumbling, "Aab phirse light chali gayi.. itni garmi hai aaj upar se yeh.."

In between Bela's muttering, there was a knock on the main door. After a few seconds, Naina informed that the visitor was Shefali who asked for Bela.

Before heading towards the main door, pointing towards the tied up papers Bela instructed Preeti, "Yeh yahan se hatna nahi chahiyen.."

A few minutes later, the sisters heard their mother's instruction from the threshold to lock the door as she was going upstairs with Shefali.

Locking the door, Preeti ambled towards their room and threw a sad glance at the magazines lied on the floor as if bade a silent goodbye to all her favourite stuff. When her glance shifted to Naina, she saw holding the rescued folded paper her sister was chanting something inaudibly. Taking the chance of Naina's unmindful state, she snatched the paper from her hand.