The rest of the day was reasonably hectic for Sadhana as she had plenty of visitors from near and far. The entire house was filled with laughter till evening. The dinner session wasn’t quite either as everyone had something to share with each other while the child kept blinking all the way unable to gauge what exactly was going on. Sadhana felt a little bit amused to see her parents glued to the television watching some tearjerker. The long journey and the resultant exhaustion forced her to go to sleep much earlier than usual. She preferred to occupy the room at the far end of the house where she can’t hear the television. The child slept almost immediately and within a few minutes her eyes swirled sending her into a deep sleep. However, it didn’t last long as she suddenly woke up sensing something odd. Her eyes opened to see Ramani sitting very close to her and staring her through the little bit of light in the room.
“What?” She fumbled although her voice had an overture of surprise. “Nothing,” Ramani smiled as usual. “I was just watching the kid sleeping.”
He kept smiling although Sadhana wasn’t convinced if he was really looking at the kid. Pushed hard by some intuition she glanced over her body and was shocked to see that her dress had gone ajar while she was sleeping. She had been unknowingly disclosing her body a bit too much and more importantly it was her own brother who had been staring at her. She immediately plunged into disgust unable to think that her brother had been watching her with ulterior motives. Ramani stayed there for a while, smiling as ever before and keeping his eyes pinned on his sister unmindful of the spark of disbelief overflowing through her eyes. Even after Ramani stood up and left the room, Sadhana’s body was experiencing mild shivers for a few more minutes. She began feeling uncomfortable in a house where she had spent most of her life. However, she didn’t realize how events were about to unfold the next day.
Sadhana took charge of cooking and almost pushed her mother out of the kitchen. Her mother pulled up a chair inside and began giving instructions to her dutiful daughter. Soon the worried mother started lamenting about Ramani’s life which suddenly brought the dreadful moments of the previous night to Sadhana. However, the hatred for her brother did not last long as her mother began narrating how Ramani was toiling to ensure a comfortable life for the entire family. Sadhana was almost shocked to know that Ramani had taken huge loans for her marriage and also for her parents’ treatment.
“His life is going nowhere,” Her mother said with a sigh. “I have had my first attack and your father’s health isn’t all that well either. He is going to be left alone in this huge world once we depart.”
It was a moment of dilemma for Sadhana as she sincerely sympathized with her brother although she couldn’t digest his indecent gesture the earlier day. She was truly concerned about whatever her mother said but she was determined never to let her brother get anywhere closer to her with ulterior motives. She was proud of her husband who always ensured to make her comfortable in spite of his limited means. He was equally caring on the bed as well where he always respected her emotional involvement more than anything else.