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They heard a commotion behind them. While Rocky craned his neck slightly to notice what it was, Aadhya turned her head to catch a glimpse of the scene from the gaps in the peach coloured curtains draped over the walls. The messy bun she tied atop her head fell to her waist in loose curls at her sudden action. "Sir, please let me see him once, please," A woman who looked like she was in her mid 50's was pleading with the guards at the doorway.
"You can't go inside," one of the guards held her back before she could step inside. "Boss is not feeling well right now."
"Please, sir. Just let me in one time—" The woman looked to be on the verge of tears, and the raw anguish in her tone was unmistakable. Just as Aadhya was about to ask the guards to let her in, Rocky already opened his mouth and gave out the order.
Aadhya leaps to her feet to stand beside Rocky, giving the man a clear view of the woman staggering into the room. She used her saree to cover her head and chest like a Shayla. It gave away her religion before she could even open her mouth. She looked like she was a second away from breaking apart. Her face streaked with grime and tears like all the workers that worked in the mines.
"My son had always given you more significance than he had given the God," The woman speaks up. Her eyes were shining with tears, but her back was straight, her voice firm but wavering with hidden pain and outrage. "You have always been in his thoughts. And you — you posted him to guard that bridge." With grief that tore Aadhya's throat and brought the taste of metal into her mouth, the woman falls to her knees. "And they killed him."
Aadhya's heart twisted inside her chest, and for a moment, she looked away from the grieving mother, hardly able to breathe. Sometimes she forgot how awful the world could be. How much suffering the people seemed to endure. She almost felt guilty for having such a good life when she heard and saw the lifes' of people around her. She had it very easy in both her lives compared to all these men and women.
"I'm not even sure where my son is lying around now," The woman cries, her head downcast. "I don't even know if some vultures are devouring his flesh as we speak right now," Her loud sobs wreck her frail body.
Tears pricked hot at the back of Aadhya's eyelids, rimming her lashes and blurring her vision. Aadhya blinks sharply and raises her chin high to hold them back. There's no use in feeling sorry for the people that weren't coming back but in giving some reassurance to those who are still alive. With that thought in mind, Aadhya moves and crouches beside the inconsolably sobbing mother and rubs her palms up her shoulders in a comforting way.
