SIX
Urmil felt feverish by the time she reached home and it turned into high fever. Navya returned home early and after changing her clothes she looked for Urmil. Finding her lying in bed at the wrong time, she sat next to Urmil. By touching her forehead, Navya realized that Urmi was ill.
The doorbell rang, Navya opened the door to find a woman standing. On assumption that she was a sales girl, Navya tried to close the door.
The lady stopped her and l said "I am Urmil's friend, Asthaa... are you Navya ma'am?"
"Oh my God! I am so sorry dear. I have heard about you but I haven't seen you before… please come in. Urmi has a fever, go to her. She will feel better."
Urmil was very happy to see Asthaa and hugged her with joy. Happiness knew no bound for Asthaa too.
Asthaa stroke Urmil's head lovingly, sitting next to her and the girl fell asleep.
… Urmil is such a simple girl and so was Asthaa when she first set foot in this big city, leaving Kalimpong with a heart full of colorful dreams.
Asthaa could never tell her best friend Urmil that she longed for love… but she didn’t feel for the opposite sex and that was not at all a simple matter specially for the common people… for that kind of love, they use the term perversion though the sexologists are not defining the mental conditions as abnormal.
Urmil knew that Shaon was her boyfriend and Asthaa would get married someday to have a happy family but about what she didn’t have any idea... there wasn't anyone named Shaon in Asthaa's life.
As a teenager, she realized that she was different. At that age when a girl normally gets attracted to the opposite sex, her heart never beat for a boy. Though she wanted to hide her feelings, she couldn’t even understand how she got involved with Malobi Pradhan.
In an instant, the news spread like wildfire across the school, that too with Malvi's spicy serving, and the public enjoyed it like hell.
Asthaa's father loved sky gazing and inspired Asthaa too who had developed a friendship with the sky, especially with the full moon. She was so very obsessed that multiple traumatic events took place during the full moon nights when the veins of her wrist were cut off and she was found unconscious in the bathroom of her school hostel. It could have been dangerous if Father Falon wouldn’t have found her on time.
The silvery moon dragged her again to the roof cornice and instigated her to dive down.
… What God wills, no frost can kill...
Asthaa got recovered and returned home with utmost care and hard work of Reverend Father.
The kind Father saved Asthaa's honour by shifting her to another school as he had a soft corner for the helpless girl. That great man was no longer there to stand by her… Asthaa bowed her head in his remembrance. He was the man who helped Asthaa to have her job and get back her self confidence to survive.
What would happen to their friendship when Urmil would know about Asthaa's feelings for her. Would Urmil hate her dear friend?
Although both of them were brought up under Puritan Catholic atmosphere, Asthaa was able to change her mind with the flow of modernity but Urmil couldn’t yet come out of that orthodox bindings.
Asthaa wanted to meet this girl repeatedly with the hope of a little love.
Asthaa kissed Urmil's forehead affectionately and murmured… "Dear friend! love, selflessness and simplicity still exist on this earth…" but Urmil couldn’t realize it as she was fast asleep.
At the break of dawn, the twilight woke Urmil up, she tried to leave her bed with pain all over her body and felt giddy as her body was still wrapped in temperature.
Urmil's own room seemed new to her sleepy and dreamy eyes. She looked for her friend Asthaa… did she leave?
She came out of her bedroom and found Asthaa was still there half lying on the divan watching TV. There was a cup of tea in her hand. Urmil couldn't see Navya there, she must be sleeping.
Urmil hugged her friend. Asthaa turned back and smiled.
"Hey, are you up... how do you feel now? Will you have some tea… oh no, I will prepare coffee for you."
"It's a holiday Asthaa… will you stay with me? I feel confident if you are around."
"Wait, let me bring some coffee for you first. Take a paracetamol tablet with coffee and biscuits.
Asthaa wiped away the tears as she entered the kitchen.
... Don't Urmil, don’t provoke me or I will never leave you… It's so difficult to be without you... and when with you… to control myself.
