100 years

Baby sweet baby
Won’t you please
Come on back home to me
I’ve been so lonely
These few days feel like
A hundred years

Arnav swallowed and looked away. What, was he supposed to play the jailer to his wife and son and tell her that no, they were not allowed to go home to see her parents? He looked away from Nani who was sulking over her great-grandchild having gone for a week. Mami was unhappy and shooting him daggers with her eyes. Anjali di was sighing like a heroine from old Georgette Heyer novels (Yes, of course, he read them. He was stuck in a freaking school up in the highlands for the majority of his adolescence, miles away from civilization. All he had was the library, could people stop judging him for his reading preference? It was sexist). Akaash was looking at him sadly like he had put the man on a fast. Was he supposed to control Akaash’s life too? Their wives were sisters. Of course, they were going to go to Lucknow together. How was this his fault too? Clearly, Akaash didn’t have enough to do at work. Maybe he could create some for him. If he had the time to mope, he had the time to work some more.

Arnav hadn’t been able to stomach his dinner, everything was sour or bland like licorice. Were the Prakash brothers losing their touch? How could the food taste so terrible? He considered yelling, just for the sake of normalcy but then put down his spoon and sighed. Yes, he missed them too. Khushi was his wife. Yes, she brought light to everyone else’s lives, but she encompassed his. Wasn’t that obvious for the world to see? Aarav was his child. How was it so hard to understand that he too was capable of missing those he loved the most? Why would he deny anything to the one he held most dear? He had eaten just enough so there wouldn’t be a hypoglycemic shock. The last thing he needed was to force his wife to come back home, off the back of a guilt trip. It was just a week. If he could make do, why couldn’t they?

Baby sweet baby I’ve been waiting
Seem like waiting is all I do
Don’t say you won’t come back to me
And make me have to go out chasing after you

Here he was, thinking of a flight to Lucknow. Just a couple of hours and he’d be there. He could stay and just enjoy his in-laws company, watch Khushi bloom differently, in a way only Lucknow could do for her. Watch Aarav munch on sweets especially made by his nana and nani. Arnav had been fearful that Aarav too would be born with type 1 diabetes, the way he had been. His son had been born healthy, happy and in 99 percentile in weight. Arnav had been so happy, he had cried. Now, one of his pleasures was watching his son eat sweet things, in a way he had never been able to.

He’d caress her cheeks, to see if they were still as silky as the last time he had touched her. He would feel the grooves of her lips as they quirked up in a smile. He would…not go. This was one of the rare times Khushi got his time away from the insanity of Shantivan. He wouldn’t take that away from her.

Called everyone in town
I think you know
So come on now
Come on come on
Back home

Arnav had been reading Paulo Cohelo’s Aleph, his fingers itching to dial her numbers but refraining, when his phone rang. It was too late for a work call but he still flipped it over. Khushi.

Arnav answered, unsure why his throat was closing up.

“Hello? Hello, Arnavji? Can you hear me?”

He cleared his throat. “I can hear you Khushi,”

“Good! The network here isn’t great. How are you?”

“A little miserable but I’ll get by,”

He heard the bells peal as she laughed.

“Just three more days Arnavji, I’m all yours again,”

He smiled.

“I miss you Khushi,”

He could hear her smile through the telephone,

“More than you miss Amanji when we go away sometimes?”

He couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

“Even more than that,”

The bells pealed again.

“Goodnight Arnavji, please eat properly tomorrow, or else I’ll worry,”

he laughingly agreed before hanging up. He wasn’t sure who told but he wasn’t all that worried. It wasn’t as bleaked when she spoke her magic.

Here I am I’m knowing
That I would do most anything
If you keep on loving me baby

A/N: Hello, I know. It’s been a while. Life keeps getting in the way of everything I want to do. However, I hope you have been keeping well. That joys surrounded you, and troubles didn’t cross your path.

NB: Song’s 100 years by Tracy Chapman