101 ways to repel a marriage

Chapter 36

"You need to give her some time," Aunt Anna lifted her feet from the warm water and applied some scrub on it.

"She is not interested in Professor Salahuddin anymore so shouldn't I give myself a chance before her parents proceed with another proposal?" Thomas kept back the scrub from where he took it for his Aunt.

"Trust me, she is not going to. She need to discover herself before discovering her soul mate,"

"Huh?"

"Never mind, you won't understand..." She washed her feet with such love that her husband might have felt jealous if he was there.

"Do you really think that I should stay back,"

"You must stay back,"

Thomas stood there for a while , hoping that she would say something more but she was concentrating intensely on washing her feet and then drying them.

"Ok...so now I am going,"

"Thomas, be a darling and handover that moisturizer in the second row," Aunt Anna smiled like a saint but Thomas was a devil and he walked away with a smirk.

He had waited for many years for her, he could wait another thousand years for the girl who captured his heart when he was a teenager. He could wait for the girl who was on the verge of an emotional outburst when she was talking back and standing against the seniors who were bullying them during their higher secondary life. He could wait for the girl who made his head turn whenever she passed by him. He could wait for the girl who made him accept inter-religious marriages. He could wait a lifetime for her.

About a kilometer away from his house, Shahma could not wait anymore. She had to leave her house and she had to do it on that night itself.

She tightened the straps of her bag a little more and tip toed downstairs. She wondered if she should call Sushi before catching her bus to Trivandrum where she booked a hotel. Some textile shops there had already replied for her resume to be a sales girl and Shahma was confident about starting a new life.

She was afraid to walk to the bus stop alone even if it was just a five minute walk. She took the phone and was about to call Sushi when she remembered her father's unexpected response. She kept the phone back in her bag.

Her father did not spend a lot on the house just for her marriage because it was already at it's best. Her father had decorated the house and the garden prior to Shahana's marriage. She thought that he was not going to have a lot of money loss so the financial loss due to her was not valid however, she just could not say it him earlier than just two weeks before the marriage.

Two day previous to the day she ran away, she saw another side of her father.

She had never seen her father as a furious man who could not control his temper. He shouted at her and threw things here and there. He said that calling off the wedding just two weeks before the date was just like killing him. He said that he would be ashamed infront all the guests that he had invited. He would have his head low in front of the society. He made it clear to Shahma that there was no way that he would call of the wedding.

Her father was right. Shahma was very late indeed but the reluctance that she had to go through to make sure that she would not regret in the future was definitely indescribable. She tried a lot to speak about it to them for a week before she found her voice.

She was already pressurized due to the exam and she did not find the courage to speak up so she promised herself that she would say it on the day on which her exams were over and she fulfilled her promise.

Her father made it clear that he was not going to call off the wedding and she knew that it was her fault but that did not mean that she could marry Professor Salahuddin happily. She needed more time before being another person's other half and the only way she could get it was if she eloped.

She had never thought that she would have to elope but the day had come and she had no choice but to proceed.

"Shahma, is that you?" Shahana's voice was quite but it had the power to fasten Shahma's breath and heart beat. Shahma froze on the final stair.

With a few haste steps, Shahana was just in front of Shahma. The younger sister looked at her sister with a deep frown. Suddenly, she smiled widely.

"Oh...are you eloping?" Shahana acted like a teenage girl who was just accepted by her crush.

That was the moment that Shahma realized about the craziness of her family.

Shahma nodded.

"Ah...I feel so jealous!" Shahana gushed as she took her sister's hand and moved it from side to side.

Shahma was starting to feel a little queasy due to her rebellious sister's pinkish and girly side.

"I had always wanted to elope but our father just agreed right away when I asked for his permission to marry Fajar," She crossed her arms and frowned.

"Ok, I am not interrupting, I will just go back to my room quietly, did you take some money?"

Shahma nodded with a blush.

"Enough dresses?"

Shahma nodded again.

"Booked a hotel?"

Shahma nodded.

"Applied for jobs?"

Shahma nodded.

"I am just so proud of you," Shahana shrieked, "By the way, you haven't done all these with a help from some Facebook friend, right?"

Shahma shook her head.

"Ok then, best of luck...call me after you reach there," Shahana waved her hand as she tiptoed back to her room.

Shahma sighed.

She had almost opened the door when she turned to have one last look at her house. The house which symbolized her childhood vacations and teenage life. Her eyes ran over the red sofa and the white walls. Her hands yearned to touch the photos that were hanging on the wall. Her body begged her to hug the huge teddy bear beside the television.

She took a deep breath and turned back.

"Shahma, wait"

She gasped when she heard her mother's voice.

In the dim light she could see her mother's teary eyes but before Shahma said anything her mother gave her a  black colored box.

Shahma was in an abyss of confusion when she opened the box.