Chup Chup Ke Part Three

Khushi and Arnav are expecting their first child and want to keep the secret to themselves for a while.

Part Three

“Do you want to go home? Are you feeling tired?” Arnav queried, looking up at Khushi who was sat on the sofa in his room reading something on her phone. “Mohan can take you.”

“No, no I’m fine here, I’m reading about our baby, I can’t do that at home Jiji will catch me instantly. Did you know Arnav right now the baby is only the size of a pea but then they become the size of a watermelon!”

Arnav laughed despite himself and walked across the office to sit next to Khushi who automatically curled herself into him. “You’re so small, I can’t even imagine what you’ll look like by the end.”

“It doesn’t seem fair that I have to go through all this work and the baby ends up looking exactly like you.”

He rubbed his hand up and down her arm taking comfort in this momentary reprieve before he’d have to return to his spreadsheets and emails. “That won’t happen to us Khushi, even if it gets nothing else, I bet our baby is going to have a cute little nose just like you,” at this he tapped her nose and received a scrunched up look of displeasure in return as she shook off his hand.

Instead, she took his face in her own hands and gazed into his deep brown eyes, nobody else would believe her but she could see all his love, affection and pride beaming out from them. “The baby has to have your eyes though, okay?” She then melted her head back onto Arnav’s shoulder and squeezed her arms around him tighter.

***

Mahendra quickened his pace into the living room when he saw his mother sitting alone seemingly staring into space. She was still just as vibrant and full of life as she had always been so it was easy to forget that time was in fact moving for her as it moved for him and with every ache and pain he felt she must feel so many more. He sat down next to her and gently shook her shoulder.

“Beta, when did you get home? Did the boys come with you? Chotte?”

 He smiled to see her instantly rejuvenated “no Amma, it’s early for them yet.”

“That’s right, they’re young, let them work. Your working days should be over now. Stay at home and spend time with your grandchildren.” She regained that faraway look again and Manohar began to worry again.

“Is everything okay Amma? How are you feeling?”

Devyani looked at him deeply and brought a hand up to stroke his cheek. “I was just thinking about Ratna, you and her had the same eyes you know. The same as Arnav’s.”

The memory of his only sister never failed to humble him, the grief had never abate it just moved off into the distance for a while until something like this brought it crashing back to the shore. “She is always with us Amma.”

His mother continued to stroke his face, “But if she was actually here… she would have loved Krish so much and now Chotte’s…”

Mahendra looked at her quizzically as she took a pause and looked around the room.

“Beta, you mustn’t tell anyone but our Khushi is expecting,” her voice had already been a whisper but now it dropped even further, “I was beginning to worry that my time would end before I would see Chotte’s child but now I just hope God keeps me here for just one more year at least.”

“What are you saying? God will keep you here so you can even see Chotte’s children having children. Congratulations on becoming a great-grandmother again.”

He took his mother into a gentle hug and found his heart full at the thought that his nephew would soon have a child of his own. Seeing Anjali and Arnav happy went some way to abating the guilt he felt at not being able to save his sister from herself. “Manorama won’t be happy though, she thinks she is too young to have grandchildren anyway and now there will be three of them.”

“Nahi nahi,” Devyani pulled away from their hug and interrupted him quickly, “you can’t tell her. Anjali bitya made me promise not to tell anyone.”

***

“Payaliya where are you?”

 “I’m at home Buaji of course. Why? Is everything okay?” Payal answered worriedly, perplexed at Buaji’s hushed tones as she was not a quiet woman by nature.

“I mean where in the house are you? And where is Khushi? Is she anywhere near you”

“Khushi? I think she’s still in the office, sometimes she stays and comes home at the same time as Akashji and Arnavji.”

“Hai re Nand Kishore, this is exactly what I was worried about. Payaliya you will have to look after her, that girl will just bring trouble to her own door and ours with the way she behaves.”

Payal rolled her eyes, despite not sharing any blood Buaji and Khushi were more alike than they realised. “What is it? What has Khushi done now?”

“Done? Just wait until you hear Payaliya, but you can’t tell anyone I am telling you this, not even Khushi or your Amma, they want it to be a secret lord knows why. That Sanka Devi is pregnant!”

“What?” Payal’s face broke out into an automatic smile, she couldn’t be happier “Oh Buaji I’m so happy I can’t wait to…”

“No! Remember you can’t tell anyone  I told you. But you must look out for that sister of yours, make sure she doesn’t run and jump around too much these next few months. And if you can, convince her to stay at home and not go to the office, she works too hard.”

Payal agreed and after a few more minutes of conversation hung up the phone still stunned that Khushi hadn’t told her.