9. Her secrets…

She closed the door and whispered.

“I told your grandma that you woke up, but is staying inside due to fever. She asked for you the first thing this morning…”
“Me? Why?..” I was getting irritated.

“Last night I slept in her room since you were ill. I couldn’t bear the snoring sound, and had to sleep at the hall later. Your grandma is complaining that if you were beside her, she wouldn’t be left alone. That’s why.”
“so, now you realize my plight.” I gleamed with false sense of pride. I continued.

“But chechi, its getting difficult for me too, see, I was sick after spending two nights there. Aadhi is exceptional to stay there.”
“ I can understand.” She empathized.
“When you were his age, you were just like Aadhi. You used to be around grandma all the time.” She said.
“and now you have become a man… I can see that…”

Walking down the memory line, I realize that these happenings were before my memory became concretely developed. Hardest I can remember is sleeping in my grandma’s lap during Aadhi’s naming ceremony.
Priyanka served me tea. She had prepared tea again since the morning tea had gone tepid. As I gulped down tea, something struck my mind. Earlier that morning, I remember fantasizing about Priyanka. Once in 2006, when we got together, one of my cousins had discovered that I spoke during sleep. I was nicknamed “soliloq-guy” afterwards when my uncle termed the word for such an activity was “soliloquy”. I wondered whether I could have spoke anything...