The Last leaf: Adiya story

Out beyond the idea of wrong doing and right doing

One, two...ten...twenty five, the flickering sunrays that played through the branches obstructed his vision forcing him to shut his eyes, a deep sigh was a reaction to his realisation that Aditya Hooda who three months ago was flying the best engines was at present counting leaves of a Chinnar tree in this quiet morning. Damn her he cursed under his breath, in the thirty three years of his life Aditya Hooda had gone through a fair share of heartbreak. At sixteen his father had left his mother in a pleading state for another woman, he remembered the times he had to make up stories to his younger brother about how their father would come back after accomplishing his secret mission. His mother's sobs at night still have him nightmares even to this day. What scarred him was when his father eventually returned one fine day and his mother accepted him wholeheartedly. Of course his solace came in the form of his best friend Pooja and her mother, he created a comfortable world for himself where he loved his best friend and her mother was stronger than his birth mother. That beautiful world of his fell apart when his wife passed away three months ago leaving behind scars of betrayal for him. Adi's heart bled more when he came to know that his ma in law had known about Pooja's affair with Yash. Amidst this pain, wrath of betrayal Zoya Siddiqui unknowingly had grown on him, the resentment turned into attachment, the entertainment into addiction and hate into...he shut his eyes. 

A cold wind blew on his face and Aditya reminded himself that this woman had hardly made an attempt to hide the fact that she had no liking for him. In fact her ruthlessness knew no bounds when she proclaimed that her life was as short as the approaching winter even when she was well aware of the fact that he was the most vulnerable at that moment. He hated her insensitivity, he despised her rudeness and he was  equally alarmed by his protective nature when it came to her well being. A smile crept on his lips when he remembered how a faint blush adorned her face everytime he lifted her in his arms when she felt weak of course she protested rigorously most of the time. The polite thank you with warmth on her brown orbs for his small gestures like wrapping a shawl around her, holding her while she walked around the garden or reading to her. Adi's smile widened at the realisation that he felt like a sixteen years old boy whose heart would burst like a balloon and sprinkle radiant colours in the sky everytime she thanked him.

" What does he keep thinking?" Noor questioned Arjun glancing from the attic window. 

'God knows' Arjun sighed while staring at the book in his hand, he leaned on the wall, they were sitting opposite each other on the floor of the attic.

'You know I have never seen him so quiet, Bhai is either genuinely funny or sarcastic but this side of him is so unfamiliar even to me. Nowadays he either looks after Zoya or sits quietly beneath that tree.'

It was Noor's turn to lean on the wall and sigh.

"I always thought that since I am the youngest in the family nobody would ever leave me but when I look at her condition..."

Prolonged silence engulfed the room.

"I can't afford to lose appi Arjun, I know ammi cries herself to sleep every night and abbu suffers from the guilt of not accepting Yash jiju."Arjun passed her the tiisue box.

'Your sister is fighting back Noor and the result can be seen in her condition improving everyday'.

"I know and thank you for coming over Arjun, it was Aditya who made her stand on her own feet you should have seen how weak she was before you all came". Noor was wiping her tears while talking.

'He was dead drunk in a bar and the moment I told him about you all leaving Mumbai with Zoya he rushed to the airport'

They smiled together at Arjun's confession.

'I sometimes wonder what would have happened if your Yash jiju and Pooja bhabi did not meet. Bhai would have inevitably fallen mindlessly in love with your appi when they would cross paths.'

Noor was stunned by Arjun's statement, both of them kept looking outside the window, meanwhile Aditya and Zoya sat next to the pond and Aditya ruffled some dry leaves that had fallen on Zoya's hair.