“Will she be up for it, Mukundo?” Debangi was not convinced.

“Kaki. She has always enjoyed outdoors. She is feeling suffocated and depressed inside the house. It’s just a day-long outing, and I will be there with her.”

“As you think fit. Take her, once she feels strong enough… I don’t know what to do or say any longer. Nothing seems to revive her.”

Mukundo averted his eyes. He always felt so guilty while talking to Debangi about Piyali’s condition.

“What are you talking about?” Piyali appeared in the dining room and walked towards the fridge.

“Pihu! What are you doing here?” her mother was alarmed seeing her walking about by herself. She had needed help until then.

Piyali ignored her and went to the fridge to take out water. She first had to open the door and then use the same hand to take the bottle out. Debangi made to go to help her, but Mukundo stopped her with a silent gesture. Piyali kept the bottle on the fridge and closed the door. She then supported the bottle against a box kept on the fridge top and opened the cap with her right hand. Depositing it on the top of the fridge, she took the bottle and drank from it. Mukundo smiled proudly. Debangi felt her eyes watering. But she controlled her emotions and a barely perceptible smile formed on her lips too.

Piyali managed to keep the bottle back in the fridge with similar effort and turned back to them with questioning eyes. They had still not answered her question.

“Camping. I would like you to come with me to camping,” Mukundo bounced up from the chair and said brightly.

“Camping?” she smiled bitterly, “I don’t have the strength to tie my laces. You expect me to tie the tent-knots?”

“I know how to set up a tent.”

“You do?” she frowned.

“Yes. And we won’t need an elaborate arrangement. It would be a day outing.”

Piyali looked uncertainly from him to Debangi. “You should go, Pihu,” her mother encouraged her. In the little exchange, she had deciphered that despite her apprehensions, the idea clearly excited her daughter.

“When?” Piyali asked.

“Saturday? I don’t have to go to the university.”

“Fine,” Piyali said and went back to her room.

—

“So, how does it look?” Mukundo looked at Piyali cheerfully after he had tied the final knot of their tent.

She smiled, “You do it expertly. I had no idea. And how did you discover this place?”

“During one of my trekkings.”

“Trekking? You go on treks? And do camping?”

“MmmHmm. Come in. It’s ready. We could sit inside for a while. You look tired from trekking.”

She followed his lead and went in. He prepared a make-shift straw bed and asked her to sit down. She was careful, but in trying to sit on the bed at the ground level with no support from her left hand, she lost her balance. She would have fallen back on the bed, but he rushed and supported her in time. Unlike the tea-incident, this time she could not keep her tears in check. They flew unrestrained from her eyes. He held her and looked into her eyes directly for a long minute. Then he gently laid her down.

He ran his hand over both her arms. Her left arm could feel nothing, but the gentleness of the caress was obvious on the right one. Her tears continued to flow, but she kept her eyes locked to his. He positioned himself partly on top of her, avoiding putting his full weight on her. Then he bent down and kissed her forehead. She offered no resistance and he moved to kissing and drinking up her tears. After kissing the tip of her nose, he gave her a quick peck on the lips, but did not follow up with a real kiss there. He positioned one of his hands under her neck, lifting it a little. It made her arch her head and give him access to her neck.  He kissed her neck and collarbone; then removed his hand from under her neck. Tears had stained her cheeks again, as they had never stopped flowing.

“I am not going further,” he said in a thick voice, “Because I don’t know what you want, what you are comfortable with and what is going on in your head.  But I need you to know, Piyali, that you are the best. And what you are doing to yourself is wrong.”

With this he sat up and helped her sit up too.

“If there is anything I have that I can give you, Mukundo Babu,” her eyes were downcast as she spoke, “Take it from me and move on in your life. Don’t continue to fret over me.”

He frowned and bit his lips before replying, stifling the urge to rebuke her strongly. “Even if you think me capable of doing something like that… Even if you are convinced that I can use you and then leave you, even then, about yourself, you will not talk like that. You will not debase yourself like that. Do you understand?”

She covered her face with her hand and started sobbing now. “Don’t expect me to do anything right, Mukundo Babu. I have been a fool all through. I am so, so ashamed of myself…”

His frown deepened on hearing the word ‘ashamed’. He forced her to remove her hand from her face and cupped it. How gentle touch was quite in contrast with the disapproving look he had on his face. “You have to talk to me now. What is this ‘ashamed’ business? What are you ashamed of? That too, with me?”

“Tell me, Piyali,” he urged, speaking softly now, when she did not reply.

“Of my choices. Of my choosing him over you… I was so stupid… I was head over heels in love.”

“There was nothing wrong with that feeling, Piyali. Nothing wrong at all with that. Tell me, what really went wrong? Why did you separate from him? You couldn’t just have changed your mind, right? ”

She stood up with his help. She needed some distance from him to talk. And then she told him everything. Things she discovered about Ahwaan after getting married. It had all felt beautiful in the beginning. She was blissful. Their honeymoon had been great. That much Mukundo had guessed from his conversations with her in the initial days. She tried to be restrained while talking to him, but the nervous excitement she always carried about her betrayed her happiness. And he was happy for her. But after few days, he had noticed changes. She avoided talking much about her life. Sometimes he felt that she was close to tears, though she never admitted so. He had thought that those were signs of troubles. And he hadn’t been wrong.

—

To be continued