ArHi: Starlight and Moonshine: #16, Pg 54, 29 July - Page 22

10: Makha: The great one

"Are you sure you don't remember Mrs. Inder?" Khushi asks Garima who is frying fritters on the stove. Khushi watches her mother carefully and catalogues her expressions. Garima doesn't falter.

"I must have seen her or someone who looks like her in passing. I think it was with your mother." Garima replies. "You don't believe me?"

Khushi shrugs and looks away from her mother. Garima notes it with a pang when she sees Chaya's resemblance in Khushi's silhouette. There is an air of detached observatory aspect to Khushi's gaze that is always assessing, analyzing and cataloguing data for future use. A muscle twitches behind her ribs when she sees Khushi get that same calculating look that Chaya sometimes did.

"Don't you?" Garima asks again.

Khushi turns to look at Garima and her face is clear again. Garima swallows an old ache that has flared up in her throat - a memory, a face. "Of course I do ma," Khushi replies.

"Okay, good." Garima says, unable to read Khushi. Khushi smiles the smile of a stranger and Garima internally panics.

"What's going on Khushi?" She asks turning off the stove.

"It was just a question Ma. With time memories degrade, people forget and things get cross wired. I am sorry if I made you think I didn't believe you in the first place." Khushi is apologetic. Garima wonders what is going on in her daughter's head at this moment.

"Is everything alright?" Garima asks after a prolonged moment of silence.

Khushi smiles the same smile that Garima cannot decipher. It makes her stomach fill with lead and heart beat faster. "It is." Khushi replies. A moment later Khushi asks. "Do you mind if you ask you something?"

Garima nods and motions her to carry on.

"Why did you and papa go to such long lengths to erase existence of Chaya?" Khushi is curious.

Garima's face falls. "What are you suggesting Khushi? Do you think we actively made sure you don't get to know your own mother? Do you consider us to be that horrible that we would devoid our own child memories of her own mother? Do you really see us this way - this couple who have some ulterior selfish motives? I...I don't know why you think this way. I thought we were doing good by you." Garima babbles.

Khushi watches her mother thoughtfully, her face not betraying any emotions. Garima wilts in that unwavering gaze and then slumps, disappointed with Khushi's accusation.

"I will be in my room." Khushi moves away from the threshold. Garima fists her fingers and controls the yell that desperately wants to escape her throat. For one horrifying moment she sees Chaya's disassociated way of looking at things in Khushi. It rattles the old memories that she and her husband had desperately buried.

"You didn't reply," Garima calls out.

Khushi turns back and looks at her mother dead in the eyes. "Neither did you." Garima's heart skips a beat.