Daughters of Kalika

১১. bunny

They hear from the other side.

****

Aadi Babu ran his fingers along the edges of the books, all neatly stacked in the shelf. These reminded him of her– of her smile, her intelligent questions, her curious eyes and her mischievous pranks.

"Do you miss me?"

Probably not.

He really prayed that she didn't miss him. She should have gotten a better world by now. As a father, it was his wish that he suffered everything in the world to ensure that his daughter had the best paved path to trod.

"It's as if you no longer loved staying in your naiharwa. It's as if you longed to reach your love."

But did you really? Did you not leave him crying and grieving?

Aadi Babu could still smell her fragrance in those books. They carried her soul in their pages.

His breaths got hitched in the throat. Everything turned hazy like a foggy night of high hills. He held onto the shelf for support, heartbeats rising to a dangerous pitch that risked numbing his ears with its thudding.

"I have failed you, my little bunny. I hope you never come back to me ever, ever!"

The last words came as a scream long suppressed within the unseen depths of his heart. He threw the nearest vase on the ground, breaking another object in his home. These embellishments didn't matter to him, for his only ornament had left him poor.

"Bunny, Bunny, I miss you..."

The wrinkles on his face deepened as his eyes shut close to the barging flood of tears. Time had stood still. It was only the silence and the sobbing that filled the air. The wounds of her body floated in his vision against blobs of light.

They haunted him.

Often he woke up from his sleep as nightmares chased him. But now, she chased him here too, when he was awake and alive. Sometimes he wished to go to her, meet her and never come back. But he had to be grateful for his life.

"Not again, Aadi Babu."

Nathu came in and closed the door, keeping the cup of tea on the table. He slowly picked up the pieces of the broken vase from the floor and kept those in a corner.

"You cannot look back all the time."

Aadi Babu huffed. "Do I look like a youth who can dream of the future? I only have my past left and that's where I have made my home."

"You are growing old, Aadi Babu. Don't hurt yourself so much."

Nathu went and sat beside him, hugging the man like a little brother would. Nathu rubbed his back as he cried on his shoulders.

"Let it out. Let it out as many times you want. But don't look back after that. She doesn't want you to be sad. She loved you."

"If she really loved me or Hrishav, she wouldn't have left us. She is selfish."

"Maybe she was too good for Devipuram. Devipuram didn't deserve her, you see. So God showed her a better place to live."

"Bunny should have gotten a proper goodbye."

Here, Nathu had no words. He couldn't console his master in this subject. He agreed, yes, she deserved a better farewell.

"We all need to be strong. She would never want us to break down. I still remember, she was a warrior till the last."