The Indian Bride....Who danced In Shackles: June 2008

Salman closed his eyes briefly then without warning, in one movement with the back of his hand, he swept the dishes off the counter and they scattered onto the floor, shattering to bits.

“You don’t like me touching you because your heart is still with him! I don’t know how much of this I can take anymore!”

Raveena gazed at the pieces of broken plate near her feet, then back at him in bewilderment. She had never seen this side to him.

Violence?

Tonight, those usually gentle green eyes flashed like raging fire.

“I feel like choking you when you take his name, you have no idea what goes inside my chest, when you talk about him, when you gaze at him with your heart in your eyes. Now I’m beginning to wonder how long my so called relationship with you can last under the shadow of the great Raza Khan Pahlavi!”

Outside the night was cool, and strangely quiet. Tress on the nature strip swayed eerily in the gentle northerly gust. The full moon shone brightly in the partially clouded sky.

The streetlight near Raveena’s window blinked twice and then made a buzzing noise before dying out.

A black cat from nowhere crossed the road.

The cat looked straight up at Raveena’s bedroom window, her ears pointy as if on alert. Her eyes were shinning like gems in the darkness; she drew her teeth back into a snarl. She then bounced her way up to Raveena’s windowsill and started to moan softly, followed by deep throaty cries.

Back in her bed, Raveena was in deep sleep when suddenly she started to thrash around in her bed restlessly.

The recurring dream she hadn’t had for sometime returned with an unusual sense of terror. This time acutely, she could hear herself laughing chaotically as she gazed down at the ferocious waves. “Take me,” she whispered, looking into the waves and laughing, while the intense gust of wind pulled her sari tighter around her body.

“Die Raveena Die! Die! Die! Kill yourself now!”

“What time are we expecting to be landing in Mississippi Tom?”

“Tomorrow morning by 8 am local time sir.” Tom lifted his cap in a polite acknowledgment of Raveena then went back inside his cabin

Her heart aching, she turned to Raza as the jet roared to life. He looked at her visibly upset face and a shadow fell across his face. It was almost like he wanted to say something but then once more his profile hardened. A tear escaped from her lashes and slid down her face. She bit her lip to stop it from trembling.

“I love you,” she said, flicking her hair from her face as the wind from the jet pushed it back in her eyes again.

“Take care, I will be in touch.” He touched the side of her face in a tender gesture and disappeared inside the cabin without a backward glance.

She stood there watching the doors roll back with a heavy heart. She stepped back as the jet accumulated the speed required to take off from the ground. She couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face as the jet raced down the runway ready to fly now. The fuselage of the aircraft, sleek and smooth, lifted up, causing the long curved wings to tilt and then powerfully the aircraft rose high into the air heading towards the sunset horizon. Though the sun felt hot on her face, she shivered uncontrollably and hugged herself as a strong gust of wind blew her clothes tightly against her body.

He had left…and once more, she was alone, left with only his memories.

“What do I call you now?” Her eyes glittering akin to something which could only be termed close to insanity run a chill down his spine as she let the rain from the heavens mingle on her face with her tears.

“Bhaiya like Khalida does?”

He shut his eyes very tightly and held his face up against the rain, letting the drops batter onto his face relentlessly. When he finally opened them, they were bloodshot.

“Raza,” he shouted against the roar of the rain, his eyes now smoldering. “Just Raza.”

She stepped closer to him and cried against the roar of the rain, thunder and the wind. “I still see the world in your eyes and your eyes everywhere in this world.”

Brushing the rain back from his face with his hand, he said slowly as the rain grew torrent, “Love is a language spoken by everyone, but understood only by a heart.”