HeartBeat - Chapter 11

*A Couple’s Reward.*

"Good morning, sleeping beauty." Greeted Raj.

"hmmmm" she replied in her sleep.

"Wake up, its morning"

"What time is it?"

"6:00 am"

"WHAT?? It’s not even our usual time to get up. Why are you waking me up so early?" she said opening her eyes and looking at Raj.

"Be-cau-se I want to love you." He confessed.

"Stop it." She whispered and turned on her side of the bed to hide her red face.

"I haven’t even started yet." He said teasingly then put his arm around her waist and started kissing her neck.

"Raj!!!" she tried to move in order to stop him. "I thought last night was enough for you."

"It wasn’t." he said straight away.

"Let go." She sat up and tried to leave. But Raj grabbed her hand and pulled her beside him. This time he locked her hand in his and started kissing her all over. Mesmerized, she soon stopped struggling and gave in.

Days passed. They enjoyed their warm honeymoon in the beauty of cold mountains. May ended with the memory of happy marriage and honeymoon. Soon June started and came the rain along with it. Sometimes Raj and Minal would go for a stroll in rain. Chilled air would always make her shiver and she would come closer to Raj, which they both enjoyed. Everything was going perfect. Life wouldn’t have been better. Seeing their son an daughter-in-law happy together made Mr. and Mrs. Verma were happy too.

June passed and July came bring heavy rain and more love for Raj and Minal to share. They enjoyed their coziness together in the bed while it rained outside. Often Minal would wake up in the middle of the night feeling his kisses. Each day they would discover something new about each other. Spending their time together either listening to the music or talking about their life and experiences. Many a time they would understand what’s going on in other’s mind without even saying it out loud. When Minal was at her parent’s house for a week after one month from her marriage, both were unable to stay clam and were eager to get back together. They couldn’t talk on mobile much but were in constant touch by text almost whole day. Day by day their love would get stronger.

One day……..

"Ring ring." Minal smiled when she saw who the caller was.

"Hi, sweetheart, its such a lovely climate outside. Missing you."

"Mr. Techno," a nick name given by Minal to tease him, only made Raj feel that he belonged to her totally, "You should be concentrating on your work. Don’t forget you are in office not at home anymore."

"That’s why I am missing you this much. If I was at home then I would have…………"

"Shhhh……. Someone might hear you."

"Hahaha, this is my cabin. No one is allowed other than me. Ok listen, it’s a good climate and I was thinking we might go somewhere to enjoy it. What do you say? "

"Ok. Where are we going."

"lets see. I will figure that out by the time I leave. I will pick you up from home by 6 pm, so be ready. ok?"

"Alright."

"Bye, love"

"Bye, dear."

Full of joy she started singing and went to her cupboard to pick up a dress. After deciding what to wear, she looked at the watch. It was 3pm.

"Oh, this watch is so slow." She said disappointedly, knowing that it was too early for her to get ready. It wasn’t easy to pass the time since Rekha and Vicky had left. With Vicky around, she would play and enjoy herself, but now it wasn’t the same way. She went to her in laws room to tell the plan.

Knock Knock.

"Come in dear." Smiled Mrs. Verma.

"Mom, Raj called. We plan to go out by 6pm."

"Ok dear."

To pass her time she went to watch T.V. and after clicking through many channels, she settled for a movie. By 5 pm she got up to get ready. Excitedly went to her room took her shower and wore her lovely maroon dress.

"Hmm, now comes the tough part, My Hairs." She thought. "What do I do with it? They are too long to leave them open. How about a ponytail? No, I don’t look good in it. I wish I could just chop them off in half of their length. I could leave them open then and look pretty too, hehehe. Oh well, I guess I will have to make the usual style."

Minal was working on her hairs when she felt something weird. As if someone is squeezing her heart. As if it was churning.

"Ahhhh……" she cried in pain and sat down on the bed. After 2 minutes heavy breathing, she clamed down.

"What was that. So painful as if someone stabbing my heart." She massaged her heart, drank some water to relax. She looked at the clock, "5:40!!!. I am gonna be late. He will be here soon." She hurried herself. By 6:05 she was done. Taking her purse, she went to hall and sat on sofa waiting for Raj. Every two minutes she checked her watch and then the main door.

"Ah, so you are ready." Said Mr. Verma. "Its raining heavily. Where can you guys go to enjoy in this rain? " he asked. When Minal just smiled shyly he understood that they had planned to enjoy themselves in the rain. He just smiled.

"This rain reminds me of my youth. Me and my friends would go out in rain to enjoy. We used to ride on bike and purposely splash water puddles on the pedestrians. " They laughed as Mr. Verma kept telling funny incidents of his young age.

"Where is he? Its almost 6:30 now." Asked Mr. Verma.

"I will call him." Minal dialed his number and waited. "That’s strange they say his number is not reachable."

"Must be due to this rain. Try again after sometime." Said Mr. Verma.

****************

At 7:30 pm.

"Ok, thank you." Minal concluded the call. "They say he left the office at 5 pm as usual. Daddy, we must go and search for him. I have this unexplainable feeling, something might have…. " Minal couldn’t complete her sentence.

"Yes, I fear for the worse too. Come on, let’s go. We will take the route of his office." Suggested Mr. Verma. He then turned to his wife who was in fear too, "Dear, we will be in touch with you. Don’t worry. Pray." Then they left.

Minal and Mr.Verma took the route to Raj’s office all the while kept looking on the side of the road for anything that would be useful. It was still raining heavily.

"What’s that??" Quickly he stopped the car and both stepped out and proceeded towards the crowd at one corner of the road.

"What happened?" Asked Mr.Verma, as they couldn’t see beyond the crowd.

"Someone died." Said the man. Minute they heard this, their heart sank. Mr.Verma looked at Minal who was on the verge of crying but somehow was trying to compose herself.

"Wait in the car." He instructed her in a stern voice. She quietly obeyed. On the way towards the car she turned back and saw that dad was now stepping inside the crowd to get more information. Once inside the car she broke into tears, " Please God, Keep him safe."

After a few minutes she saw dad coming towards the car. He sat in and answered her obvious question.

"He was an old beggar." Instantly he saw relief on her face yet had concern on her face. "Pray dear. Just pray." That was all he could say to encourage her and himself. He started the car and they drove till Raj’s office. Office was locked everyone had left.

"What do we do now?" Minal asked.

"I think we should go to police station or hospitals to check." He saw Minal gulp at his sentence. Just then her mobile rang.

"Its mom." She said looking at dad. "Hello mom. He’s home? How is he? Is he……. Oh, ok. We are on our way." She hung the call. "Raj’s home. Mom said he is ok, but she sounded worried, I guess he is hurt. I hope he is not badly hurt." Both said their own prays in their mind for Raj’s health and headed home as soon as they could.

*************

The doorbell rang and Mrs. Verma opened it.

"Raj, my boy, what happened?" Tensed Mr. Verma came towards Raj and hugged him. Raj was resting on the sofa and sat up when Dad and Minal arrived.

"I am fine Dad." He said returning his dad’s hug. "Don’t worry, its just a minor facture. Nothing to worry." He said and looked at Minal, who was still standing at the door shocked and unable to move by the sight of his plastered hand.

"I am alright dear." Raj said with an encouraging smile and started approaching towards Minal. Then she saw his smile turn into a concerned face and the last she remembered before collapsing was everyone rushing towards her and calling her name.

********************

Next morning.

Minal heard some whispers in her sleep and slowly she opened her eyes. She saw her in-laws sitted on the right side of the bed discussing something in hush voice but had smile on their faces. But she find see Raj.

"Raj." She called frightened and sat on bed facing her in-laws.

"Careful, not so fast. Doctor’s orders." Said Raj in a very soft and tender voice. She turned to look at him. He was sitting on the right side of the bed, on a chair. He got up and sat beside Minal. She immediately hugged him, careful enough not to hurt his fractured hand.

"Good morning. How are you feeling dear." Asked mom.

"I am fine." Minal reluctantly broke the hug. Display of her love in front of her in-laws made her feel embarrassed.

"Good. Take some rest. I am sending some warm milk for both of you." Said Mrs. Verma as she and her husband started leaving.

"I am fine mom. Don’t take trouble. I will bring milk for Raj." Saying so she started getting up.

"You need rest." Smiled Mrs. Verma and left.

Once the in-laws were gone, Minal started crying. Raj understood and hugged her.

"I am fine sweetheart really. Please don’t cry."

"I was so worried. So many bad thoughts came in my mind. When we went to search for you, we found a beggar……."

"Shhhh….. I know, Dad said everything last night. Clam down. Let’s not talk about it. I am here with you, am I not? So just relax." He kissed the top of her head that was on his good shoulder.

"Thank God for that. But what happened?" she inquired.

"I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell you now. I don’t want to stress you."

"If you wont tell me, THEN I will definitely be stressed out, thinking about it all the time."

Raj frowned at her statement and looked at her. He couldn’t find any fear or worry in her eyes now as compared to last night.

"Please." She requested. Raj inhaled deeply and began, knowing her condition her decided to avoid details.

"It wasn’t that bad. Just a slight mishap." He glanced at her and found that she was listening intently. "A car got skid and bumped my bike. Since due to rain the traffic was slow, I didn’t get much hurt. Due to that bump, I fell from my bike and my hand dashed on the road divider. Luckily, it’s a very minor fracture." When he finished and saw at Minal, he found a dreadful face starring back at him. "Your not going to faint again , are you??" he asked , tensed.

Inspite of her, Minal chuckled, "No, I am fine." She placed her head back on his shoulder, "I am sorry if I scarred everyone by fainting last night. I usually don’t faint like this, no matter how worse the situation is. I cant understand how it happened this time."

"That’s because you are not in a usual situation this time." Raj said while playing with her long hairs.

"Ya , maybe last night was more tough on me then I thought I could handle."

"I am not referring to last night’s situation."
Not able to understand what Raj meant, she looked up at him, confused. She saw his smile widening then he kissed her lips softly.

"You are Pregnant, my love." He announced with a happy face.

Unable to react, she just starred at Raj, then slowly tears formed in her eyes, only this time they were the tears of happiness. She slowly looked down at her stomach placed her hand on it and then looked at Raj.

"No more bike riding until rain is over, please." She said in low and breaking voice. Understanding her feelings Raj nodded "Yes" and placed his hand on her stomach.

"I promise." He said and planted a kiss on her forehead and hugged her firmly. Silently both prayed for the safety of each other and their future baby.