Not Just An Ordinary Family

Chapter 26

"Are you waiting for something?" asked Narain, turning to Anuradha.

"No, I'm leaving." Anuradha grabbed her handbag and her extra bag of things she had brought to spend the night in the house before she turned to Nila.

Anuradha gave Nila a brief hug before she broke away from the hug reluctantly and left.

Narain sighed in relief as soon as she had left. "Finally, Papa got to be with you, baby."

Nila grinned. "Nila happy, Papy!"

"Papa also very happy today. Where do you want to go play now, baby?"

"Different parky."

"Different park?"

"Not the one near our homey, far parky, Papa!"

"Far park... there's a park near Papa's office, shall we go there?"

"Okie, Papa, let's go!"

The time flew by as Nila played at the park with a group of kids until she was tired enough to drop. Nevertheless, she was not ready to go home even as it started to get dark. Narain watched her playing with a smile.

"Come baby, let's go home now." Narain finally approached her.

"No, Papa. I wanna play more." Nila called out, speeding down a slide.

"It's getting late. I'm sure you have homework, don't you?"

"Tomorrow Saturday, holiday for me!" she sang.

"Oh right. Papa forgot that."

"Papa have office?" Nila ran up to Narain with a frown.

"Yes baby, Papa have office on Saturday like Daddy."

Nila pouted.

"But Papa will come home early and have lunch with you, baby."

"Like Daddy." Nila grinned again.

"Come, let's go home now, okay baby?"

"No Papa, I want to play more."

"It's late, baby."

Nila quickly checked Narain's watch. "Five more minutes?"

"Okay, five more minutes." Narain smiled.

"But Papa must bring me to this park another day again, okay Papa?"

"Okay baby, Papa will definitely bring you to this park again. It's so close to Papa's office."

"Yay!" Nila ran back to play in the park again.

As Narain watched her with a smile, the smile faded. If my child had lived, she would have been here today. Just a few months younger than Nila. I wouldn't have had to wait for opportunities like this to look after my child.

As her face flashed before his eyes, the stinging in his eyes from the tears threatening to emerge as well as the pain in his chest from the heartache that refused to ever leave him returned. Narain blinked it away and flashed a smile as Nila ran up to him, noticing the change in his face.

"Let's go, Papa." Nila grabbed Narain's hand, skipping by his side all the way to the car while he remained silent.

As soon as they returned home, Nila went to have her shower and changed into her pyjamas for the night.

"Time to call Mommy and Daddy, Papa!" Nila ran up to Narain, who was making dinner for them in the kitchen.

Such a lovely daughter they have. Narain smiled and dialled Shiva's number before passing the phone to Nila. Nila spoke to her parents sounding happier at first before she fell silent and started responding only to their questions, feeling sad again as she missed them.