Under The Mango Trees

Chapter Fifty-Seven : In Between A Revelation

I lay on my bed, neither alive nor dead, drifting through life like the clouds floating in the sky. Some days stormy winds pushed them violently, other days the gentle breeze nudged them ahead. Still, they never knew if they were moving forwards or backwards, the sky around them was endless and pointless. On one such stormy night, I heard shuffling noises coming from the other end of the room and I was awake, despite the world sleeping. Confused, I asked in the darkness, "What are you doing, Pavitra?"

The movements quietened and I heard it say after a long while, "I'm leaving."

"What? Where?" I forced my exhausted body to sit up, my back curved like a question mark on its own accord. "Where are you going at this hour? It's three in the night." It ignored me, opening its wardrobe to grab a pile of clothes that it dumped in a large tote bag. Its hurried movements alerted me and my exhaustion evaporated, my voice growing louder and demanding, "Where are you going?! Pavitra!"

"I'm leaving," it repeated in irritation, kneading the bag like it was dough to compress it.

"You can wait till tomorrow morning at least to go wherever the hell you want."

"He's waiting down," it said and striding to the window, I flung the windows open to notice a familiar car under the midnight blue sky. Shocked, I turned around to look at it. It wore those Chandbaali earrings and spread kohl under its eyes with its ring finger like it was getting dressed for a Diwali party.

"Is that Lila's dad?" I asked slowly and through the mirror, I saw it smile.

"Now you can have this entire room. You can keep your nerdy books anywhere, hang your ugly clothes wherever you want."

"Are you kidding me? You're running away with her dad?" I burst out, her calmness augmenting my anger till I finally exploded. "Have you thought what aai and baba will do after you have run away with a married man? How they will be devastated?"

"He's not married now. He's like me, divorced."

"That's not the point! Have you thought about what aai and baba will feel? Have you thought once what will become of them?"

"Have they thought what I feel?" it snapped, suddenly whirling around with eyes as wide as the full moon outside. "Why are you butting in when all this while you never stood up for me? Not once? Even that boyfriend of yours stood up for his brother when they came to our house. But you watched everything like it was a good soap opera."

"What?" I laughed then, not knowing what on earth it was accusing me of. "You cheated on your husband---"

"I never cheated on him. He got disgusted when I told him about my past. I slept with your girlfriend's dad long ago before I married him."

"You broke their family! Do you know how much my girlfriend---" I paused in irritation and its lips curled in the vilest smile as if teasing me was going to clean its mess. "---Lila suffered because of you? You destroyed three families!"

"Do you think cheating is that simple?" it asked me instead, perplexing me. "Do all people cheat just because they feel like it? Do you know the whole story? How your girlfriend's parents stopped loving each other long before I came. But you will never listen. You like seeing me as a villain in your story and blaming everything on me." It removed its red lipstick and smeared it, puckering its lips at the mirror. "I don't mind though. Villains have a hot sex appeal."

"You're crazy," I muttered under my breath, feeling discomfort crawl in my stomach. Its words, do you think cheating is that simple? echoed in my ears. My lips that had kissed Lila while dating Dev knew the truth, yet it quivered to say it out aloud.