Paakhi

T W E L V E

A/N:

I know, I know. WHERE was I? I shall answer that question at the end of this chapter. But for now, please do skim through at least the last two chapters to be able to follow a link with the characters, their emotions and all the developments in the case.

***

Aritro was not an early riser by choice. But the heated conversation and the mind numbing revelation from the previous night had led to a generally disturbed night of sleep for him.

Moreover, the kid had really messed up his sleep pattern in these past few days. In the last three mornings; he'd woken up to untimely screams and wails. The kid seemed to have an unspoken knack for waking him up at the most unearthly hours.

Today, she'd chosen a more fairly decent time. It was fifty two minutes passed four on Shoptomi; the seventh day of Durga Pujo. Pujo had officially begun now.

After cursing under his breath; making sure he wasn't audible to the child for he did not want to be the one responsible for her bad vocabulary; cleaning her up, changing her diaper and feeding her milk, he felt an urgent sense of longing suddenly. Aritro tried, but failed to place the feeling.

After all, he was home. He could very well go and spend time with anybody he felt like. But despite that realization; something felt incomplete from deep within. The conversation from the previous night replayed in his head. He wanted to take some of his words back; but he couldn't.

He'd always been called rather stubborn, and stubbornness sort of came with selfishness. It was a package of both; which meant that he had hurt a lot of people he hadn't intended to. Like Mili for example.

Even her thought; brought back the image of her with Shaan from the pandal and Aritro groaned irritatingly.

He sighed, gazing down at the child. "Never fall for a man like me, kiddo."

The kid gave no reaction, eying his Adams apple with the same fascination she always did.

"Do you know how big of an ass I am?" he continued thoughtfully, then immediately bit his tongue apologetically. "You didn't hear that three lettered word that starts with an A, did you? You'll forget...right?"

He was up on his feet now. Unlocking the door to the terrace of the house, Aritro wrapped the child in a soft blanket and headed upstairs.

The terrace was a large open space with the view of his childhood friend Tapas' terrace. Back when telephones were a luxury, they would yell their conversations from up here. He'd lost count of how many cricket balls would've landed on his terrace.

Smiling to himself, he seated himself on one extreme corner. There was a small partition; that barely reached his waist now, but had once been the lakshman rekha; separating Mili's terrace from his. Theirs was huger, and a hundred times better maintained than the Bagh terrace; not that it surprised him.

Mili's family had always been financially much better off than his. But he'd only realized this in his late teens, Ghosh Kaku knew how to make anyone feel like family otherwise. He'd never met a more down-to-earth man. And supposedly, his qualities had rubbed off on his equally modest daughter; the daughter Aritro was realizing he had always been in love with.

As he sat on the corner end of the partition and recalled their childhood days, he seemed to wonder where Mili and him had gone wrong. When had he suddenly started feeling detached? In fact, what kind of love was this? If it took him seeing her with another man to realize how much he wanted her in his life?