A bend in the road - Vol 1

40. Broken

He had seen her tie her hair with a scarf, like how he was used to see it in the initial days of their wedding.

When his wife paints, the house reflected her mood by the music she chose.

Sometimes it was rock, sometimes country. Sometimes it's Charlie Puth while the other times, AR Rahman. Her music taste was as different as her art. Sometimes her art has a sense of melancholy that tugs at heart and the other times, there's playfulness.

Today, after so many months she had been painting again. He stood by the door, leaning against it watching her. He couldn't see what she was painting as she was facing him and the painting was between them.

In the background Stand by me plays, as she raised her eyes to look at him.

He goes in the room, just a little and she puts her brush aside and walks a little away from her painting to stand opposite him, in a mind of preventing him from looking at her painting or to ask him if he needed anything, he knew not what it was...

But she came to him standing right before him.

And he did something really silly. In retrospect, he wondered why he had done it. Maybe the yellow paint on her cheeks was endearing, maybe the truce they had established gave enough courage, whatever it was, he extended his hand to her and she looked at it in absolute wonder.

A moment passed and another when she slowly bought her hand and hesitated still, until she finally placed it in his hands.

With his hand around her waist and another entwining with her fingers, he took the lead, swaying gently to the music.

"What brings you in here for a dance?" She asks him after a while with a gentle smile.

"What brings you to paint?" He counter questions.

"You ask difficult questions for a man without a plan" she says with the same easy smile.

He smiles back at her, and she realizes why he was the guy that had made women's knees weaken.

"Are we continuing the game?"

"Do you want to?" He asks.

She doesn't answer him directly. "Can I ask the question?"

"You've done your homework I believe" he said with the same gentle smile and told "Please go ahead".

"Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?"

He thought about it for a moment. "As a matter of fact I do. It got to be a road accident"

"Why" Tara asked quietly.

"I don't know" Dev said truthfully. "It's just a feeling that I would myself go searching for my destruction"

Tara remained quiet for a while.

"Do you've a secret hunch?" Dev asked.

"Will people die for being an effective ice queen?"

"Depends how much talent you put in being the ice queen" he said and she laughed, throwing her head back.

It felt easy, being this way with him as long they both are anything apart from Dev and Tara.

Tara did wonder if she could seek help of the shadows of her past and duck under them for security, but as the music was wafting in room, pulling them in and out of consciousness, she thought better of it and decided to not overthink.

"What is your most treasured memory?"

"Summer, a decade back"

"Love affair with the literature student?" She grinned and she saw him give a short laugh.

"That sounds like one of the titles of a porn movie"

She laughed throwing her head back.

"Oh God Dev" she said still not able to wipe that silly grin off her face. "Tell me all about this love affair, let's see if it takes the authentic porn route"

He made an act of being scandalized. "You hurt my sentiments Tara"

To which she gave him an answering grin.

"She wasn't even around that summer."

"Uh oh. Left hand was it?" She said cheekily.

He shook his head at her smiling. This was new, his wife teasing him.

"It's not like that" he said smiling. "Just that when you believe you're in love, even though the person isn't around, you find enough reasons to be happy. As clichéd as it sounds, there's a charm in waiting"

"How does it feel to be loved?" Tara asked him.

He shrugged. "To know there's a safety net to hold you, when you're all but about to fall from a cliff"

She thought about it and gave him a small smile.

In the background the song had changed to a Bollywood melody.

Phir le aaya dil, the singer crooned.

"What's your fondest memory Tara?"

"I and my sister had this pact of giving dialogues to random strangers. It's like when we go out to a restaurant suppose, and have a couple sitting a little away, whose conversation we can't hear, we both used to take their respective characters and create a conversation. My sister liked to make everything sound dirty."

"That's where you inherit this magical ability to go all double enterndre"

"I don't hold a candle next to her in anything, believe me. Not in this, not in studies, not even in beauty. She's just the best"

Her face suddenly went a little nostalgic, and he had known the reason. He had not known the story behind it of course, but he knew how it ended.

"You aren't asking the next question" she reminded him. "It's your turn"

"I know but I don't want to"

"I'm stronger than that Dev" she told him. "You can ask"

"What is your most terrible memory?"

"Watching my sister lose her consciousness, losing her sanity and ultimately losing her life"

This time he had not said anything. He had only went closer and when she had rested her head on his chest, he encircled his arms around her, trying to absorb the sadness that engulfed her, trying to give her strength with whatever broken pieces of heart that he has.