Chapter 5: chapter 5

Sandhya was taking care of all the work in the garden. She felt relieved. As soon as Sandhya went home, Sombabu looked at her and rushed,  “Madam, you have arrived! You seem to be tired. Come, sit here. I will bring coffee for you,” and went into the kitchen. Sandhya had the coffee without denying as she had a headache.Meanwhile, Meenakshi came there, “Sandhya!”. Sandhya heard her call, she rushed to her and Meenakshi asked, “You are back! I hope you didn’t face any trouble.” A smile birthed on Sandhya’s face, “No Auntie, Everything is fine,” and Shashikala looked at her, “Sandhya, did you like the garden?”“Yes, I liked it a lot. It is so peaceful out there,” she said.“Oh, you want to go there everyday then?”“Yes, Auntie,” replied Sandhya.Meenakshi nodded her head and went into her room. Shashikala walked to Sandhya and asked, "Sandhya, I have to ask you something. Everyone in the home loved your cooking. I was hoping you might cook everyday?”“Oh! Do you even need to ask that specifically? I’m habituated to the household chores. I will take care of cooking from now. I will go to the garden in the morning, and then prepare lunch,” she said and went into the kitchen, smiling. Shashikala felt relieved and walked into her mother’s room.She was reading the Ramayana in the room. She looked at Shashikala coming in, “Come dear, you did a good thing by sending Sandhya to the garden. Be nice to her in the same way, we need her badly!” Shashikala thought that there might be an important reason for her mother to speak like that and said, “Okay, mother,” and walked out.Sandhya finished cooking, walked out, called her mother-in-law, and served her food. Shashikala and her husband walked to the dining table and Sombabu served them food. Everyone had their meal. Meenakshi asked Sandhya to have her meal, took her medicine, and walked into her room to sleep. Shashikala and her husband walked to their room. Sandhya ate some food and went to the room. She slept on a floor mat in one of the corners of the room. Surya reached home when it was almost midnight.Sombabu walked to him and asked, “Come babu, shall I serve dinner?” Surya looked at him and remembered morning incident, “Sorry Uncle, I shouted at you in the morning,” and sat to have dinner quietly. Sombabu felt relieved, “Surya babu, I had been looking after you since childhood. I am very well aware of your anger,” he said and served dinner which was cooked by Sandhya.Surya looked at the dinner and understood that it was cooked by Sandhya. He convinced himself that she was of no Princess to not to do household chores, ate all the dishes she cooked, and walked to his room.By the time he reached the room, she was sleeping on the floor. He slept on the bed peacefully.After sometime, Sandhya's phone came to life and she jolted awake. The call was from Maggie. She looked at her surroundings and found him sleeping on the bed. She walked to the balcony so as to not disturb him and picked up the call.“Mom!” the voice excitedly sounded from the other side. “My dear Maggie!” she said. She heartfully talked to her for a lot of time and Parvathamma interrupted , "Sandhya, go get some sleep. It’s already late. I will call you tomorrow,” she said and hung up.A month passed by.Even though there are two people in that room, they didn’t know each other.Sandhya's life had become a time table. Waking up the morning, doing pooja in the prayer room, cooking food for the family members, walking to the garden, managing work there, walking back home, cooking again for the family, eating less and scarcely filling her belly. She even forgot to smile heartfully and be happy. It’s been a month since she saw Maggie. She was worried about Maggie. Her thoughts were wandering in her mind day and night. She realized that she can’t see her daughter any soon and broke down tremendously. She had to wait for another 11 months and had no other choice and was leading her life in disappointment.That day, Meenakshi received a call from the Swamiji.His disciples came home, “Swamiji wants to meet you.” That’s it! Meenakshi hurriedly went to the ashram. He asked her to take her seat, “Meenakshamma, I have to talk to you something important.”“What is it, Swamiji?”“Look dear, According to your son’s horoscope, there is a possibility of a danger tomorrow.”“As soon as the word reached her ear, it felt like a lightning struck her and she broke down, "What are you talking about, Swami?”Swamiji tried to control her, "Don’t worry, dear. Surya is a married man now and I have told you about his horoscopic faults earlier. His horoscopic faults will trouble his wife rather than him. Therefore, Surya will get out of the trouble because of your daughter-in-law’s magical horoscope and she will face the danger. That is fate. And according to my instincts, either your son or your daughter-in-law might face a regular danger. But because of the household situation, it will happen to Sandhya. If that happens, your son will be out of trouble. Let them continue their day as usual and be patient till they reach home but don’t force them to stop by any means. It is such a waste to go against fate,” he said and offered her sacred ash, “put this at home, everything will run well and good.”She understand what Swamiji said, greeted him, and left.The next day, Surya went to office and Sandhya went to garden. By the time Sandhya was returning in the evening, she was worried about her daughter. She was lost in thoughts and was crossing the road and a car hit her out of the blue. She got hit to the road. Luckily, the man who was driving slowed the car as soon as he saw her or else she would have been dead on spot. There might be a chance of having few wounds and bruises. Anyhow, there was a wound on her elbow and she was bleeding. Sandhya was in pain and looked at the wound.The person in the car got down and hurried to her and people gathered around her meanwhile. Everyone was bashing him, “Are you blind? Can’t you see a woman walking on the road. It would have costed her life, you rascal,” and everyone erupted on him. The person was worried and looked at Sandhya, frightened. Sandhya rose from the ground and said, “Wait! It was not his mistake, I was the one who was crossing the road carelessly. It was my mistake and I will face the consequences. Everyone leave, please,” she pleaded them. The people walked off quietly. The person liked her honesty.“Thanks! If you hadn’t spoken the truth, those people would have beaten the life out of me,” and stared at her. She looked like an angel. Her beauty was beyond measure. He couldn’t take off his eyes from her. He thought to himself, “What a beauty she is! I can’t take my eyes off her. She looks like an Angel” and fumbled, “Madam, let me take you to the hospital.”“No, it’s fine. You can go,” she said and was about to move forward.He hurriedly said, “Madam, there’s a wound on your hand and you are bleeding. I feel guilty, you can’t just leave like that. At Least let me do the first aid.”Even though Sandhya was uncomfortable, she agreed, “Okay.”He grabbed the first aid box, water bottle from the car and wanted do the first aid. But Sandhya told him that she would do it by herself and cleaned her wound, tied the cotton piece around the wound. It was difficult for her to tie the cotton piece with her one hand.He requested, “Please madam, let me help you.” Sandhya nodded her head okay.He helped her to bind the cotton piece around the wound. Sandhya thanked him and was about to move forward.He halted her, “Madam, I'll drop you. Tell me where you live.”“No, it’s fine,” she said and was walking away. He was looking at Sandhya in disappointment, who walked away after saying NO.