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  "THESE TWO ARE friends. They come here every day. "

    "No, this one usually visits alone. I don't know where she found the other one." replied Aaina, pointing at a pair of peacocks taking over her balcony in the late noon. Their teal bodies and beguiling feathers danced around, outside her room. They were local peacocks that visited often and quite liked the open space outside Aaina's room.

    "And they only move together. How sweet is that?"

    Jaswanti, Shashibala, and Aaina rounded around the balcony, spending their leisure under the setting sun and a thali with only kachoris and rabdi. It was not too often that these three could be seen together now. As little girls, they never left each other's side. However, as they grew up, life created boundaries and got them busy. Yet, they never miss having at least one gathering in a month.

    Jaswanti was the roseate apple of their eyes and the wealthiest in terms of money and family. She hailed from a large home of a lawyer who worked with the town's top pradhaan. Her glimmering honey skin and thick, long hair proved how well she was able to care for herself. Milk baths and kesar-filled mithais were usual at her abode. Though younger than the other two, she knew every trick to maneuver her way into people's memory with her brilliance.

    "These are so much better than what the maharaj at my house cooks,"

    "He is sure to leave the job if he hears that." Shashi chuckled at her jocularity.

    "I'm going to miss Puran Dada's kachoris,"
said, Aaina, humming at the delicious fried kachoris.

    "We've been calling him dada since we were children. I wonder how he is not dead yet. "

    "He is wise. He avoids his own cooked food. It's all oil and fried for us to grow unhealthy and die quicker. Trust me, your maharaj might be making it a bit healthier for you. "

    Jaswanti deadpanned, a half-bitten kachori between her fingers. "But we don't eat this every day. Kaisi saheli hai? Why are you ruining my joy?"

    The other two glanced at each other in

    "You are younger than us, Jaswanti, so maybe you have hope to give it up and lead a long life without any ailments." Shashi grinned at her, who did not bother to reply

    "My dear Shashibala, you've been fed lies by your husband. You should never hold back in savoring life. Leave him. "

    She smiled, averting her gaze to the flaming sky. Ranmal was not exactly the kind of person she had expected to get married to, but nobody was perfect. She had adapted to him and knew all there was to know along with the fact that both were tied forever. Just like she always wanted. But where did she go wrong in her wishes and prayers? That pushed her deeper into her thoughts.

    As for Aaina, reveling in cozy evenings like these, lying down on the balcony floor and chatting with her only two favorite people in the world would only seem like a distant dream from now on. She wished for the power to just stay, to do as she willed. All her life, she was told to act and do, and even when the most precious things in life were slipping out of hand, there was very little she could do.

    "I'm afraid when we'd meet again like this," said Aaina, in a slow, dragged baritone.

    Jaswanti's eyes widened a bit too dramatically, and Shashi's face dulled down.

    "Why?"

    "Don't tell me you are getting married and going away with your husband too. Who is he? Is he rich? Is kaki forcing you? Wha—"

    "Will you let me talk, Jaswanti?" It definitely annoyed her, but her perspective did raise her formerly despaired spirits.

    "Kaki is selling Hira Ghar. And I have to go to the city along with her"

    "Hai bhagwan. What are you going to do now?"

    "Pata nahi. But, I've decided I won't let the rest of my days go in vain. There is so much left to do, so much to find. And I just feel trapped when Kaki is there. Now that she is away, I feel like I have wings. I feel that I am someone, I have something of my own. "

    "I will pray she runs away with the videsi vyapaaris and never comes back," the younger one declared.

     "If only it was too easy to disarm here. She is too strong, " Aaina confessed, realizing how engrossed her mind still was even in her absence.

    "Shashi and I will persuade her out of it. Also, why are we talking about her, especially when she is away? She is not stopping us from having fun today!"

    They laughed all evening until the sun had finally set, and they shifted their little party indoors to Aaina's room. She hardly ever had anyone close to her share her feelings except Razia. And now that her sahelis were by her side for the night? she decided to unveil something to them that she only reveled in solitude.

    She ambled towards her violet-flecked wardrobe and sat down on the floor to retrieve a rather big chest, made of a tough material that was long forgotten, quite sharp in its edges, and an alluring floral carving around the lock.

    "Wow, is this like a secret coffer where you hide people's bones?"

    "You have a very bad imagination, Jaswanti. Now don't speak until I tell you to, " Shashi asserted, which led her pout.

    "You are not half wrong," spoke Aaina, caressing the surface of the box.

    "It is a secret chest of memories. Because I don't have many"

    Silence fell upon the four walls like it was the plague. The metal creaked Aaina, opened it carefully, as if she was baring herself to the world.

    "Ironically, whatever you can see here, I don't remember why I have them. There's hardly a childhood I remember. Only bits and pieces of walking around here and playing as a child, but. . ."

    The two sahelis glanced at each other in surprise. To see one of them in a serious light after all the fun and frolic seemed hard to believe. And even difficult, as there was only little they could do to change that.

    The skin of her arms stiffened as she went through the chest.

    "This—" Aaina murmured, picking out a maroon jeweled choker. "—is probably the only thing of my maa that is left"

    "This is the prettiest piece of jewelry I have ever seen. Your maa had great taste. Why don't you wear it someday?"

    "I want to, but there has never been any occasion so worthy of it. It's too beautiful for anyone to see it. "

     "I'm glad you took care of this piece. It must be worth a lot of money these days. Anyone can steal it. "

    "It is. That is probably the sole reason I'm hiding it from kaki. She'll force me to get rid of old things because she doesn't like to stay dull. She's doing the same with Hira Ghar. "

    At this, Shashi rolled her eyes. "Please don't show these things to anyone. I don't get why she is so hypocritical. She made fun of Ranmal for trading with a videsi a year ago, and now she is doing the same in Jodhpur. And that too, without us—us! Ones who do most of the work!"

    "Hai na? We love our vyapaar as much as she does, " Aaina chipped in.

    Jaswanti shook her head in dismay. "Politics. Maybe we should retaliate. We'll go on a dharna and stop her from selling the house. Or let's just spread a rumor so that nobody buys it. Aaina can not just leave her home like this."

    At this, Aaina shook her head."This is not my real home. I don't have a memory of it, but I do know I was somewhere else, not here."

     Both the girls stared at her. Sensing the tension, she put up a smile. They couldn't know either, right? Was there really anyone she could share her agony with at all?

    "But I grew up here, so I cannot imagine living anywhere else," she spoke softly, cursing herself for lying to her dearest sahelis.

   
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i was planning a double update, but here we are, stuck in college presentations and monsoon laziness

also, this chapter reminds me of JK's seven 😭

I hope you liked the chapter!