The Price You Pay

The Price You Pay: Chapter 15

Ishani's Pov

When mom and dad asked us if we would object to a new girl coming to live in our house, I think I was the only one who didn't protest. Having a new sister, one who could not possibly be as distant as Sara, sounded like good news to me. Maybe she would be someone I could go shopping with, whom I could gossip with, watch movies with and do all the other things with that Sara generally doesn't care about.

But then they started explaining that this wouldn't be a normal girl. Riddhima D'Souza was traumatized, damaged, and didn't speak. It would not be easy to have her in the house but our parents felt very strongly that they could, and should, give this girl a home.

To be honest, I kind of stopped listening just about after 'traumatized, damaged and didn't speak.' I didn't want to know what had happened to this girl. Not because it didn't bother me, because believe me it did. No, I just decided there and then that I wanted to know the girl, not what had happened to her. I didn't want to walk around her problems to reach her. And if I didn't know what exactly had happened, it wouldn't become a barrier.

This I decided of course before I learned that mom and dad were not going to disclose her past on us. There were three things we needed to know: she was traumatized and scared, she didn't speak and she didn't like to be touched.

It would be two weeks or thereabouts before she would arrive, so we went on about our business and talked a lot about this girl. I discussed the possibilities with Kabir, who was mainly worried about how she must feel, and I talked a lot with Vansh who is my twin and whom I share a part of my soul with. Or sometimes so it feels.

Vansh was worrying in general, as per usual. He always gets nervous when he can't know for sure how things will turn out. As such he was nervous about this girl coming to live with us. I knew he was scared that our lives would be set upside down but truly, he didn't show much respect to our parents in that way.

Surely they would not invite this girl to live with us if they thought our lives would change too drastically because of it.

When she arrived, I knew I had to change tactics. She was too traumatized — there was no way I could navigate around it. Within days — what? Hours — I learned that she would get anxiety attacks easily and I felt mostly sorry for her because if you get scared so easily then you're obviously fucked up, apart from the fact that those thingies tend to wear you out.

I felt for her. I truly did. I could see how tired she was and still she was steady on her feet. I only had to think about how I would feel if I was planted with a strange family to live and I would damn near have a anxiety attack.

Considering this, I could only admire her strength. True, she was afraid, and skittish, and not very willing to communicate, but she walked into our home with her head held high.

She did that herself. There were no tears or scenes or tantrums — although I don't think she's the kind of girl to throw a tantrum — she just straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

Now that takes courage.

So you see, I knew almost immediately how strong Riddhima is, however fragile she appears. I gave her a quick tour of the house — no need to draw it out as she would become acquainted fast enough — and told her a lot of everything, trying to get her to relax a little.

She didn't relax, though. She seemed to tense up more and more and that strong girl that stepped inside seemed to disappear. When Kabir came to meet her, she panicked and bolted and ran out into the rain, without a coat, and disappeared into the forest.

When she didn't come back we decided I should go and find her, since I would maybe be less threatening to her. Sure enough, I was able to get her home. Her lips were blue with the cold, poor thing.