Was he real or imaginary?

Chapter 21

'Follow me' Aniket said and moved towards the house. The house, where he had dropped her after the night at Club Escape, was but locked and she had ordered for the key which hadn't come yet. 'But I don't have the keys....' Pragati said. Aniket unlocked the door and entered the room. She knew he had taken the key which she had ordered already before her, too smart no? Pragati entered the room. It was all dark and cobwebs were bordering the room. Aniket turned on the light. That's great that after so many years the small bulb was still working! Pragati looked here and there. A table was there, all dusty, and three couches were there along with a small TV which was covered with white cloth on it. There were two almirahs. For some minutes, she observed all the objects there. Then Aniket spoke out.

'This was our house'. 'Our? Means Vishal and you?' 'Yes, Pragati. This is the couch where we sat and played in our childhood. He always fed me with a spoon, from childhood till teenage. This is the painting I had made of Vishal', the hoodie man said pointing to a picture on the wall of Vishal, a kiddy drawing with pen. Pragati laughed at it. 'Wow! Haha. Same like Vishal!' She mocked. Aniket smirked. He then took her to the garage outside. 'This was the place where our father worked. He owned a private automobile repairing shop in his house only. My mother, Namrata Rao, had divorced with my father. We weren't told the reason yet. To my guess, I think maa had any communicable serious disease that is why after a month she passed away. That time she lived with nani. She had told my father to do a second marriage but in her memory he always remained single.' Aniket shared his woe. Pragati nodded looking downwards and then turning at him smiled. 'But what happened that you brothers also separated and why Vishal hid all this from the world?' Pragati said. Aniket felt like now she was coming to the point. It had been too long and now he had to tell her the truth which he had been waiting for so long. She saw the hoodie man looking downwards, a drop of tear fell from inside his hoodie. She knew he got emotional. 'I know you are missing your parents. But in life whatever is precious to us, we definitely lose it and whatever is not, we are remianed with it. Like I lose Vishal, those abhorrent days I can't forget ever. But I got him back too. But there are certain things which are irreversible Aniket. I can understand how it feels to be a parentless child no matter whatever age we reach. I have also lost my father. I have never seen my father. He was an army officer. He was martyred when my mother was pregnant and I was brought up by my chachu and mumma', Pragati kept her hand on his shoulders and tried to console him. 'I am not sad for that. That is past. It had to happen, it happened. But what hadn't to happen, but was forced to happen, I am sad about that' he said fisting his palms. Pragati couldn't understand his juggles. Aniket had connected a line of emotional thread in her heart. She could feel only the language of his heart. Rest of his riddles were all out of the world. 'You mean the reason for why you both were separated?' Pragati asked him, thinking that she had now started becoming smart. 'You want to know the reason? For why I am stalking you and for why we were separated?' Aniket asked. Pragati was silent. He took her to a room. It was a small room.

He opened a big tin box and took out the things one by one. A walking stick and some photographs. 'What are these?' Pragati asked him. 'These are our photographs.' He showed them to her. They were all framed photos. Pragati noticed Aniket sitting on a wheelchair in every picture. 'Why are you on a....' before Pragati could ask the hoodie man cut her saying, 'I was wheelchaired. My legs were disabled since birth. I didn't want to amputate my legs and walk on sticks. I was scared of those things. I prefered to be on a wheelchair only for lifetime. Vishal was good. In everything. Just a thing that he was a little tharki'. Pragati giggled and said, 'I know. He flirts with other women to tease me'. 'ThankGod he only flirted' Aniket said which Pragati found a little weird. 'What do you mean?' She said. Aniket showed her a photo of a girl in blue kurti standing infront of an orange temple under a tree. 'Who is she?' Pragati asked him. Aniket became silent and then said, 'Pragati, I want to tell you why I have been stalking you. She is the reason.' Pragati felt herself in a kind of mystery novel in which the girl has lost her memory and her ex came back to remind her and all those things. 'But her face is not like me' Pragati said, confirming partially if he was really her lover? 'This is not you. But she has a connection with Vishal. Like I have one with him. Her name is Priya. She was my best friend. We met in Kalyan Classes institute. That time I was a bit able of walking on a stick. Vishal used to drop me there and pick up as well. Nobody wanted to friendship with me but Priya was the only one who daily sat with me and helped me in studies. We used to share our lunch together though many of our colleagues laughed at her that she had a legless friend. Priya never offended me by talking about my condition. She made me feel like she was a support without whom I was incomplete. Her talks, her face, her laughs, her smiles and everything of her tingled in my all the days and nights. I loved it when her fringes came over her face and I removed them. That became an unknown momentary eye-contact and somewhere within, a heart-contact. I knew I liked her whenever I was with or without her. At times I was jealous also when she talked with other boys or they used to flirt her. I wanted to cut their dicks out but was forced for my disability. I gradually started falling for her and one day I realised I was in love.' Aniket said clearing Pragati's confusion that it was not her. But it would have made her happier to know that Aniket loved her. For just hide the world and look at these two, Pragati and Aniket. She had wished for it but knowing that he already had someone in his life, she remembered she also had someone already in her life.

'But what is the connection between her and Vishal?' Pragati asked him. Aniket looked at Priya's photo for a moment, caressed her face and holding it started narrating the answer.