Healing the wounds.. Part 7

   Read Part 6 

               She sat alone in the balcony on a rocking chair. A chaos of thoughts in her mind.. Ashish ditching her this way was a blow to her. However much she was hurt, but something deep inside her was relieved. She didn't know what it was, it was ceasing her tears. The relation was not complete. Something lacked in it. She had come to terms with the fact that it was not she who had done anything wrong and she had to let him go. What bothered her was, when she thought she loved Ashish all this time, why this feeling of relief on his separation. She wondered if the shock had rendered her mentally damaged....
               He watched her as she rocked herself slowly.. Deep in her own thoughts and expressionless. It had been sometime he was sitting in her room. 2 weeks had gone by since he realised his feelings for her. She was her usual self with everyone around, but in those moments of solitude, her face spoke of a melancholy unknown to him. He wanted her to snap out of it, but there was no way he could speed up things.
              Anandita entered the room. She noticed Prem staring intensely and yet with apparant affection for Ashna.. Her sister, oblivious to his presence had fallen off to sleep..
              "Didn't you tell her you are here?" she asked.
Suddenly he panicked. He was so intently observing her, he hadn't even realised Anandita coming into the room.
             "Ah.. no.. she was sort of busy in her thoughts..so.." he thought of a reason to explain.
"So you thought of day-dreaming too?" she giggled. He couldn't help thinking, they giggle the same way!
            "I understand Prem.. don't bother explaining. She is taking her time. If you ask me, I am happy she is no longer with Ashish. They never really had any serious relation. I mean it's not like it was casual for her or something. But they have spent better part of their affair, apart. He never seemed right to me. Never made an effort to maintain the relation.."
             He listened to her with rapt attention. She was telling things he wanted to know but couldn't ask Ashna.
            "I want her to be happy Anandita.. not this way.." He didn't know why, but he shared it with her.
  She smiled.
             "I have an idea.." she said.
       They talked for sometime and then decided to wake up Ashna..

She woke up with a start.. A few strands of hair stroking her cheeks.. God! she is soo beautiful he thought.
           "Oh Prem! you didn't tell me you would be coming!" she exclaimed.
           "Aunty called me for lunch.. I thought you would be knowing." he said.
           "You two best friends never tell me anything." she complained.
           "Okay lets have lunch now." Anandita said.

They would discuss their plan later in detail. They would include Ashna's and Prem's parents too. He was waiting for Anandita's idea to work for Ashna..
         
           IT was 11 PM..
Ashna sat with her crimson colored diary.. It had been long since she had written anything.. That day she wrote out her pain.. Her tears.. She went across the previous pages and cried out some more.. She then kept it aside and went to sleep...
          Anandita pretended to be asleep through all this... She thought... The wound to her self-esteem has filled up.. It only needs a healing touch of love... Soon she will have her cheerful Ashna back...



(to be continued)