Sabari Parinayam

19

The smell of boiling milk, teased Sabari's memory to the time of her childhood. It was a common morning time smell in her house. But the sequence of smells told her whether it was a regular day or a special day.

On days of festivals, Sabari's mother would first cook the Prasadam before she did her pooja, and would boil milk while she did her other household chores. On regular days, amma would do her pooja before cooking and hence Sabari would smell the incense before smell of freshly made food made it to her room.

That is the same series of events she now experienced. What did that mean? Was she back in her house. Would she be opening her eyes to see her mother or was she going to see Partha? Sabari clenched her eyes shut! She did not want to take the chance. She did not want her dream to end. It was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
"It is not a dream! It cannot be a dream! Please be here! Please!" She prayed with her eyes closed.

Warm lips touched her hers. "It is not a dream." Partha wishpered to her face. "Open your eyes, Sabari."

Sabari sighed in relief and smiled with the love  she felt for this man.
Last night was magical. It was what she had expected and more.
Parth and she witnessed the sun go down over the horizon, by the river. The colors in the sky were mesmerising and so was the interplay of  warm  sun rays against the cool breeze. With nobody to watch, Sabari held onto Partha's hands, all along, and leaned into him. Partha braced her with his arm. 

"Do you know who I met at the east coast?" He did not wait for Sabari to respond "A man from a land east of ours. His eyes disappeared when he laughed. He had come to study the language at the University. He showed me the different types of sauces that they used in their cooking. And it reminded me of you."

"A chinese person reminded you of me?"

"What he cooked reminded me of you. It was very similar to what you had described."

"So you believe me now?" Sabari questioned. 

"I did not believe you in the initial days of our meeting, Sabari."

"And now."

"Later, What you said was not relevant, because I began to trust you." Sabari did not respond and continued to look into the sky. And so did Partha 'And later to that I realized that I have grown fond of you...' She looked you at him 'Sabari.' he sighed. 

His words and the full moon were making Sabari heady with emotions. 'Partha' She wisphered. 'Will you think less of me if I were to tell you what I want to do right now'

He frowned 'Should I be sitting down.' he asked. 

In response, Sabari lowered her hand to his waist and turned around to face him. Circling her arms around him, she leaned in and kissed his chest. 'My stomach is tingling and so are my toes.'

Wrapping his arm around her, Partha smiled mischievously 'Is that bad?'

'I don't think it is. But..' 

'But, I may think so?'

'Hmm' she confirmed. 

"May be if you show what you want. I will tell you what I think of it."

Sabari  kissed him on his chest again and run her hands, slowly and purposefully over his back, stopping at his wait. She looked at him and raised her self onto her toes. Partha lowered his head to cover the gap between their lips. This was not the first time they had kissed. But what they felt about each other had changed in it's nature and intensity. That expression transformed the way they kissed. It became a slow and deepining expression of their feelings for each other. Who gave and who received blurred into a rhythm of their breath. When they finally found it in them to part their lips, He rested his forehead on her while catching his breath.

"Let's go home." He wishpered "My home. My bed. I want you. In my bed."
Sabari just nodded. Her excitement made her even more breathless.

Their walk back home was not something she was aware off. She was just very conscious of the warmth of his hand holding hers.  Sabari had worked herself into a lot of heat by the time they reached his place. She needed to take a quick cool shower, lest she explode from the heat in her head.
Nope, that did not help. When she made her way into the house, an amber glow and the smell of Jasmin's wafted from his bedroom.
She found him, straightening out the sheet on the mattress.

"Why is the mattress on the floor?"

He walked up to her and took her hands "The bed is old and creaks." He said, leading her onto the mattress. "It will make a lot of noise."

"It would?" She asked.

"You will." He replied.

Sabari bit her lip "I will?"

Partha nodded "Let's find out." He wishpered in her ear.

Rest assured, Partha was not wrong about her and Sabari was very glad they were not on the creeky bed. Aah! The bliss of it all. Laying in his arms, Sabari had cried. Tears of happiness at being blessed for finding him. And joy at realizing that he felt the same. He said it himself.
Partha held her hand and kissed her fingers, before he wiped her tears.

"All along the trip, all I could think was how  you would have enjoyed the different places." He then proceeded to tell about where he had been and what she would have liked about it.

"You actually saw a whale up close?!"

"I did. It surfaced just a few minutes after I got out of the water, myself." He laughed when Sabari gasped like a small child " I saw the calf first and then the mother. And you know what was the weird thought I had. A child. With You. Our child Sabari." He continued, looking at the roof, lost in his thought of a happy family, completely oblivious to Sabari's change of mood. "I have never felt this way Sabari. Never felt the need for a family. I was content with what I had. And then you walked into my life." He looked at her, with endearing eyes. "You made me want more in life Sabari.  A small giggly girl just like you and a son just as curious as you about everything in life."   He wiped the tears rolling down her eyes "I want more of you in my life, Sabari." He confessed.

Sabari opened her eyes, as she recollected what Partha had said.

"Finally, the sun has risen. Did I tire you out?" He asked sitting beside her.
Sabari sat up and tied up her hair "No. No." She blushed at the memory of it "not at all."

He kissed her forehead "Good. Take your time. I made some payasam.  Come to the palace, when you are ready. I will meet you there."

"Do we have to go?"

Partha sterned up "I have to report to the king and have some very important work. So. We have to go." He leaned over her "We have the whole night for ourselves, Sabari." He smiled, before making his way out.