United by Life

The colour changed once again, ascertaining a fact, she found almost impossible to believe… or perhaps she was living the moment like a dream? It was not before the tears started streaming down her eyes, that she realized it was, but true. The tears trickling down her cheeks and neck tickled her and made her shiver… or was it the thought, the anticipation, which had that effect? She couldn’t say. She did not know how to react... She just sank down on the floor of the bathroom, weeping and smiling at once… tears of joy, tears of fear, tears of anticipation, tears of tenderness… and an all pervading smile. Then as if waking up from a deep slumber, she gathered herself and walked to the mirror. Staring at her own reflection in the mirror, she smiled… now a smile of pure joy, of heavenly bliss. She could see a strange glow on her face, was it the beaming joy, or the radiance of another life within her… she mused to herself. Her eyes softened further… the brown pupils becoming lighter and then all became hazy like drawing a transparent curtain.

That evening she waited eagerly for the sound of her husband’s car, for the screeching of the elevator as it came to a halt on their floor, for his footsteps, for the unique sound that the door-bell produced only at his touch… the touch of its master. It was 8.00 p.m. and she was expecting him anytime now. She tried to imagine how she would break the news to him… how she would word it… Standing in front of the mirror, she tried different lines, different expressions… rehearsed them several times. But everything sounded so clichéd that she laughed out aloud at the very thought of saying it, ultimately leaving it to impulse. Probably it would just come out when she actually faced him… perhaps he would just read it in her expressions and she would not even have to utter a word… perhaps he too would notice the glow on her face… She just wanted him to come home now…. Immediately. In the wink of an eye, she just wanted him to be standing next to her.

The clock struck 10.00 and she was getting impatient. Every minute passed like an hour as she sat watching the high-dose of melodrama in one of those daily soaps. Every few minutes, she would run upto the balcony and peep down looking for his car… but there was no trace of him. His cell phone like many other occasions was switched off, the battery would have died down as usual, she muttered. Close to 10.30, she finally heard his car pull-up the entrance drive-way. She rushed to the dressing table, to give a final touch-up. She had dressed-up for the occasion, clad in a pretty red saree with bandani print. She let her hair lose, just the way he liked it. And when the door–bell finally rang, she almost broke into a run, in her eagerness to open the door. He looked famished. It was a busy day with back-to-back meetings on the new project. Being almost year-end, he was putting in extra efforts to make sure it made that desired impact on his appraisal. Tired, hungry, sleepy, as he was, he just collapsed on the laz-y-boy, but not before complementing her on how ravishing she looked that evening. She hurried to serve his dinner. Dinner was a quite affair in front of the television, as had been the custom ever since the world-cup started. She cleared the plates and utensils and came back prepared to share with him the big news, only to realize that he was already snoring on the bed. She laid down by his side, a little disappointed. But she understood. It was a tiring day and the morrow would give her a still better opportunity. A new day for a new beginning… And thinking about the exciting promise that the sunrise held for them, she dozed off.

Dawn broke, beautiful as ever, with the chirping of the birds and sounds of hymns and bells at the nearby temple. He was still fast asleep and looked peacefully content in his slumber. She got up and wound the curtains to let some fresh sunlight enter the room. Then she walked up to his side of the bed and gently ruffled his hair and whispered his name. He just lazily tossed and slept over. She then sat beside his pillow and took his hands tenderly in her own and placed it over her tummy… gently stroking it, feeling the life within her womb through his touch… as if hearing the heart-beat of the new life breathing in her… as if feeling the rhythm of its breath. He turned over to look at her, a little surprised at her gesture… and what he saw then, at that moment was probably the sight he would never forget in his entire life. There she sat next to him, tears rolling down her cheeks, a gentle smile on her lips, and an expression that was indescribably tender… an expression he had never seen… an expression that made him forget the world and just want to pull her close to himself… so close that she could enter his soul… so close that she could be a part of him… so close that they could never be parted again. At that moment, he wanted their existence to merge… their breathing to be united, their heartbeats to melt into each other… and their souls reveling in this union. As they cuddled together, they felt of a strange bonding between them, a unison that was way beyond any intimacy that they had ever shared… as if united by a miraculous force of life, not to be parted until death and thereafter…