ANUSHIYA SMITH
It's been two days since we landed in the US and today I was going to welcome my mother and father-
in-law. I was so excited to see them. When I heard her voice in our engagement she seemed a nice
and sweet woman.
Arjun was busy with his work if he'll go out in the morning for work and he'll come back home after the
sky gets darker. I didn't have anything to say about that. That was his work and that was his priority too.
If I was being honest with myself I was missing him lately.
Whenever he came back from work I was eagerly waiting for him to spend some time with me like
talking about something like today I went here or I ate this in lunch and I liked or hated it or I went out
with my friends or my friend was funny and he told me this silly joke which we were all laughing until
our stomach started to ache, anything, something like that just anything. I just need a regular couple's
time, like my appa share his day with us and amma. I just needed to hear his voice, that's all that I
want. But when he came back from work he went to our room and never come back until the sunrises
the next day.
Adam was getting the worst nightmares. Whenever I was trying to sleep he'll murmur this, "HELP ME,
HELP ME," then I put my hands on his chest and tap slowly to make him come back to normal and go
to a peaceful sleep. Adam and I play games on his iPad when after he came back from his school.
Spending time with him makes me a child, again.
Except for that one breakfast I cooked for Arjun, Alice didn't let me cook in her kitchen because if I
started cooking that may lead her to become jobless. She scolded me for that as I laughed. I told her
that I wasn't a good cook as you that makes her laugh. I told her that I'm not at all good with American
foods and serve me Indian and pleaded with her to take this as a request. And also I taught her some
of my favorite and basic Indian dishes like idli, dosa, Chettinad chicken. When I said chicken her eyes
gave me that surprised look. I asked her why and she told me that, "Do Indians eat Non-veg at all. I
thought India has the highest vegetarian rate." She said that right but India is also the second-largest
population in the whole world. We'd become good friends in the past two days. She told me about her
son who was studying junior in high school. I was surprised I thought she'd have a baby, not a
teenager.
"What? Did you just say your son is a teenager?" I asked Alice, confused. How can that even possible?
She looks very, very young and she's saying that her son was a teenager. I thought she was kidding
me.
"Yes? Didn't I?"
"But you look younger than having a teenage son."
"Don't I look like thirty?" she asked casually and happy someone told her that she's younger than she
looks. I know how that feels. My mom gave that smile whenever someone tried to impress her in this
"you look young, is she's your sister?' they always mention to us that we both were sisters and nobody
believes that we are mother and daughter.
"No"
"Well, I'm 35 now." She laughed like she just shared the secret that she shouldn't.
"Is it a love story, then?"
"Yeah, it's a long story."
"Then say. I was dying to know about you" I pouted.
She looked at me for a second.
"You're my one and only friend here." I pleaded.
"Ok, fine. Don't make that face" she rolled her eyes.
I giggled.
I jumped on the kitchen counter as I tried to sit. Once I sat on the counter, she took an apple from the
refrigerator, washed it, and cut it into pieces. She handed over me a piece and she bit one in her hand.
"Are you ready to go visit my high school?" She announced.
"Yes!" I shouted in excitement.
"That was my first day in senior in high school, it was a rainy day. The rain was pouring from the sky. I
went to school with an umbrella anyway after a big argument with my mother. And there I saw this guy
named Andrew, he was one of the popular guys in the school." She stopped, blushing.
"Then?"
"Then... what are you thinking what'd happen?" she challenged me to guess it right. She winked.
"What? Did you bump into him?" I asked doubtfully.
She laughed. So after all I guessed it right.
"Yes," she nodded. "And I got scolded from him for that. While getting scolded the bell rang and he
gave me one last warning glance before he let me go. I was so scared. I was getting late for my first
class, so I ran. When I entered the class Mr. Seth already began his lecture. Finally, he let me in with
detention." I giggled. "I was searching for a seat to sit. There was only one seat that was empty at that
time so I walked forward to it and sat on that seat, placing my bag on the table and picking out my
notebooks. Listening to Mr. Seth I felt some fire on my skin like I was burning. I turned my head to my
left-hand side and saw that same person who I just bumped into, sitting beside me and staring at me,
his head on his fists and his lower lips were tilted forward.
"When I noticed that he was staring at me I turned my gaze away from him. He took a piece of paper
from his bag and wrote something in it and threw it on my desk. I didn't look at it and the bell rang, the
class was over and he went to his next class with a smirking smile on his face.
"Once I was in my room alone, I opened it. I was shocked." She paused and looked at me.
"What? What's in that letter?" I asked, curiously.
"The devil's face," She let out a breath.
"That's it, no more than that? Why devil's face?"
She ignored my question and ran to finish her short story.
"Then we started dating and our relationship became serious than we'd ever imagined and became
high school sweethearts. Once we graduated we get married with our parent's permission. That was it,
the happy ending." She finished the story.
"You're really lucky that you'd married a person you loved" I whispered. She noticed that and took my
chin in her hand and tilted it to meet her gaze.
"He may need some time but he's a good man" She assured me.
I jumped out from the counter and took her hand in mine, made her swung. She giggled at my sudden
activity. We both were dancing like a couple and I can't control my laughing while dancing.
Then I released her hand and I started swung alone in that huge room feeling the air as they pass
through my skin. While swinging, my brain inside my head started swinging alone and I lost my vision I
can only see the blur vision. Alice hissed something behind me I can't understand what she's trying to
say until I bumped into a wall. It was hard and I started rubbing my forehead. And made the "Ahh"
sound in pain.
"Um-hrm" someone cleared their throat. I tilted my head to see where the voice was coming from that's
when I realized I didn't bump in the wall. I bumped into his hard chest. I thought that was a wall. I'd
heard about bodybuilding but he was a building made of rocks, not bricks.
"I'm sorry," I said tilting my head to see Arjun who was standing in front of me with his business bag on
his left and his right hand holding his phone near to his right ear. I took a step back from him.
And there was not only Arjun, there were a lot of peoples standing behind him. Some of them were
familiar to me and some of them weren't. One was my mother-in-law whom I've to call Devi even
though I didn't like to call elders by their name. She was laughing at me for my dance steps, I guess.
"You made Alice dance! That's the biggest achievement of you. She said she'd never danced before
not even on her wedding." She was still laughing at Alice who was standing beside me blushing and
shaking her head in shy and went back to her kitchen to hide her embarrassment from us.
Now I was the only one standing there with awkwardness.
I don't know why I was kept bumping into him.
Once we came back to normal he introduced his elder brother, Rahul who was the CEO of his very own
company, and his younger brother, Venkat, who was studying in med school. While smiling at everyone
I remembered that I didn't see these faces on my wedding day. Why didn't they attend our wedding?
There'd be something fishy about it. I started thinking and imagining things that I shouldn't. The three of
them look triplets but at a different age
But when he tried to introduce me to his brothers he refused a little bit. "And this is Anushiya. My..." he
pressed. Just say it already my heart was curiously waiting for him to spit it out. On the other hand, his
mother was also waiting for him to say it like his son was walking for the first time. "My wife," Finally he
said it, and my heart-felt relief as if someone took the weight from me that I don't know I was holding it.
Once he finished introducing me to everyone he fades away in the stairs.
One thing I was sure, that I couldn't sleep that night.
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