Love, Arnav: An IPKKND Short Story

Part Two: Spiral

"...

... having a grip on reality is not as easy as it sounds. There always comes a day when you realize that maybe you never knew how you'd define reality. Your reality. And that is when it becomes harder to digest the facts in your reality... And that is when you lose that battle within yourself and you begin to hunt your way down to the limbo, looking for solutions...

..."

***

"Arre oh Sanka Devi," Madhumati knocked on Khushi's door. The wooden frame shook and creaked slightly. "Open the door. Don't you want to attend Lakshmi Pooja? The food is ready. I've made your favorite food - Jalebis and Aloo!"

Khushi flinched as she heard another firecracker explode outside her window. The aftershocks of the bang drummed on her ears; she felt her palms as they flew to her head and pressed against her ears. She heard a faint ringing sound as she tried to cut herself from the world. And that's when something snapped inside her abruptly - as if she was pulled from another world. Or into another world.

Her heartbeats escalated without a warning; her heart thumped hard against her ribcage at an unusual pace. An eerie sense of discomfort cocooned her in its arms. She shrugged it off, but the feeling refused to part with her. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her down, hoping that whatever the weird feeling was, would go away on its own.

"Arre parmeshwari! We are waiting for you! Did you hear me at all?" Madhumati's voice floated to her ears from the other side of the closed door.

"I'm coming, Buaji," she called out, somehow finding it in herself to reply to the loving lady, "I'll just take another couple of minutes."

"Hurry up," she heard Buaji say before she noted a tinkle of bangles float away from her.

"Ji, Buaji," Khushi replied, more to herself this time. She knew Madhumati was no longer standing at the door. She took a deep breath as she walked back to the bed and bent down to pick up the letter. She folded it neatly again and with one last glance kept it on the table. She was about to turn and leave when she backed up to put her pen-stand over the letter for weight.

Till later,

Love, Arnav...

Words flashed before her eyes. She blinked.

She stood in front of the mirror and adjusted her dupatta when she felt the heat rising up her body. A bead of sweat trickled down her face. She raised her hand to touch the small droplets of perspiration on her face, feeling a frown that weaved creases across her forehead. Something wasn't right. She looked at her reflection in the mirror in confusion. The weather was pleasantly cold; she didn't understand why she was burning up. She couldn't explain the heat around her.

"Khushi!" Garima's voice reached her through the door.

"Uff oh Amma," Khushi yelled back, her voice octave higher than normal. She wiped the newly formed drops of sweat. "I'm getting ready."

Khushi turned on her heels; her swift movement knocked down a couple of perfume bottles from her dressing table and smashed them onto the floor. She cursed herself for her negligence as the glass shards swiftly move around the room. The pieces of glass made her realize that the ceiling fan was rotating at maximum speed. Her eyes followed the random swirls of the small pieces of the glass across the room as the blades revolved at the set momentum.