The Replacement

Chapter 18: She's All That

It'd been a week since Khushi had moved into the Raizada Mansion. The first two days were spent in setting up the field about Lavanya being indisposed, relatives called and came in and the guest room next to Arnav's room was closed. Khushi and Chachi put pillows on the bed in that room and covered them with blankets as an extra precaution, making Arnav shake his head at their childishness.

"Honestly Chachi, who's going to walk all the way upstairs when they've been told specifically not to?"

"You never know, Chote", Manorama had grinned at him.

"We haven't even told people which room she's supposed to be in. And the door is locked. And if someone is intrepid enough to get in, you think a few pillows under a blanket are going to deter them from taking a closer look?"

"If we're in this situation, might as well have some fun with it", Khushi told him.

"Yeah Chote. I've always wanted to fool people this way. Never did it for myself, might as well do it for my daughter-in-law, hain na?" Chachi was having the time of her life with the subterfuge. Ratna and Devyani had to curb her enthusiasm to invent fictional symptoms for the fictional daughter-in-law of the house, in front of guests.

Anjali, Payal and Shyam kept an extra eye out on the children, in case they blurted out something. They didn't need to. Hrishi and Aarya were completely immersed in Khushi-Land, Hrishi following her all day with puppy dog eyes. It made Anjali laugh and she teased Khushi about her ardent follower, calling him her boyfriend. Khushi just laughed it all off, but she was so flattered by his attention. He was the cutest thing she'd ever seen, and she was afraid that every other kid she met would pale in comparison with Hrishi now. He was smart as a whip too, keeping her on her toes whenever they happened to be playing any game. And had the imagination of a typical 5-yr-old, and then some.

Hrishi and Aarya both loved adventure stories, and they'd quickly realized Khushi was equally crazy about them. She had a lively imagination that rivalled the kids'. Her third day at Shantivan, Hrishi and Aarya had insisted that she put them to bed. Apparently, Payal had mentioned that Khushi loved adventure books and had a huge collection of them in her house, especially children's adventure books, like the ones written by Diya Mohan. Since he was the kids' favourite author currently, Hrishi and Aarya wanted Khushi to read them one of his books before bedtime. Khushi had a great time re-reading one of the old Diya Mohan books. Rani was her favourite character too, and was apparently Aarya's hero. The little 10-yr-old Rani was the main protagonist in the children's adventure books, and because of her curiosity, got into different scrapes. The books were about how she managed to come out of it while learning a valuable life lesson.

When she was growing up, Khushi used adventure books as an escape from her drudging life. And she was hooked for life now. She'd soon realized that Hrishi's appetite for stories was worse than hers, and they bonded very well over their mutual admiration of Rani's intrepid nature.

"And then Rani turned around and walked back home, glancing back at the bunny for one last time, before wiping her tears at having to say goodbye to another friend she'd made. The end", Khushi completed the book with a sigh, and closed it gently.

"That was very brave of her, wasn't it?", she asked the kids.

"But why would she let the bunny go out into the wild? What if a wolf ate him?", Aarya was concerned.

"I think the woods were fairly free of wolves... and tigers.... and foxes", Khushi mused.

"But even then. He's just a bunny"

"Yeah. But I guess, he needed to be back home. And Rani couldn't be selfish and keep him with her, could she? That would be unfair to the bunny"

"Didn't the bunny want to stay with her?"