Paths Strangely United [BxB]

CHAPTER 23

Chapter 23: Celebrations...

The crisp dead leaves crackled beneath his feet as the faint air blew past him and vanished from his sight like a beautiful dream yet to be grasped. He took a breath and let the air dwell inside him, filling his senses to the end. He was walking in the woods, shrugging off leaves from his chest with his bare hands. He smelled the fragrance of the freshly prepared kheer. Suddenly, he glanced up and the scenery changed.

He was in a school. His village school. The classroom felt smaller and more cramped than ever before. He brushed his hands upon the damp yellow walls, trying to memorise every crack and crevice of its form. And then he heard someone whisper his name.

Reyan! It spoke in a soft tone. The call was desperate and yet controlled. It felt as if someone wanted him urgently.

Reyan! It beckoned him towards itself like the winds that inveigle winters into following its command. And therefore, he let his ears be the guide in the journey of discovering the bearer of the voice.

Come fast! Come fast! Like an agile child who has got a profound liking towards a new toy, his footsteps too increased their pace. The jovial ringing of temple bells increased and he heard himself laughing wildly. He kept on following the voice but now it was looking like a maze with endless voices tuned in to confuse his way.

Suddenly the school too faded away and what he saw was a horrid image of a figure occupying the bed in the dark room. It was his grandmother. She was breathing roughly and every breath felt like a job she wanted to resign herself from. Her face no longer contained the same glow of the summer sun and her eyesight had withered greatly.

Reyan was afraid but he mustered his courage and went towards the corpse-like figure. She was muttering inaudible chants. On moving closer, he heard her speaking something much more horrible than the room itself.

Death. Death. Death... She said as she kept staring at the ceiling in pure tranquility. He tried to wake her up but it didn't help. She kept on muttering the rotten word and Reyan covered his ears and started screaming.

He woke up from his dream to find that he was crying. He took a breath of relief. A strange feeling of abandonment and nostalgia clung to his chest, making him uncomfortable. The cloaked darkness of the nightmare was dissolved into the rays of the morning sun. And for a long time, Reyan remained seated on his bed, staring at nothing.

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Since the day Manan had told him that he would talk to his parents, Reyan had been worried for reasons he didn't know himself. Although he had spoken sagely to Manan before, saying that he should in fact talk to his parents, it got to a whole new level of anxiousness upon him when Manan in fact agreed to talk.

And therefore Reyan had tried, with his heart and soul, to prevent the "talking" from happening for now.

The problem was that Reyan wanted the family to unite once and for all but he wanted a right time for the talk to happen. The topic was big and he and Manan would probably come out of the closet with the discussion. Reyan wanted all things to go atleast cordially, if not perfectly, right.

It was mid-October and a sense of cool and calmness had touched every town and every city. And what was more, Diwali was coming yet again. Reyan wanted that the discussion should happen after the festival so that they could spend a little good time together.

He was sitting quietly in his classroom when William entered. There were people in the room. Their eyes met for an instant and Reyan was about to speak something when he stopped himself. William's lips twitched as he too saw a subtle change in Reyan. The moment of transformation didn't last long as both of them drew their eyes away and went on their separate ways. Somehow, Reyan couldn't voice out what he was feeling. A new realisation had set face in his mind. Most people leave you when they know who you really are. And in turn, you get to know who they really are.