Trembling Shadows
A romantic, psychological thriller
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“Don’t play with me Sameera, I slap you again” looking at her daughter furiously Tanuja said with mounted anger.
“What you really want to know?” Rajesh intervened. Rajesh as well was feeling fear to talk to his wife then. He never had seen his wife like this before.
“Don’t come in between. I want to hear it from her.” looking again seriously at her daughter Tanuja yelled.
“I just cannot understand what I am hearing” Sameera said indifferently.
The commotion was that much, the other people as well came into that room then. Aravind as well could not remain without coming there. He could not let Sameera all alone suffer like that. He hung his head in shame. He could understand what was happening.
“Why did you hang your head? It is telling all the things to us. So it happened. You did that to my daughter.” Looking at Aravind, Tanuja said. Aravind was feeling very much fear and shame to look into her eyes.
“What, what all this is?” Vinod too could understand that but he asked. He could notice the difference came in Tanuja from the time Aravind and Sameera spent alone in the upstairs room in the afternoon while it rained heavily
“This rascal spoiled my daughter. We have let him to stay in our house. For that he has given us very good gift. He enjoyed my daughter in the upstairs room. My daughter lost her virginity in his hands.” Tanuja was talking hysterically.
“Tanuja, what is this? have you become mad?” coming near to her Rajesh asked.
“Keep yourself away from me. You are the main reason for all of this. If you don’t let him into our home, it would not have happened in this way at all” for the first time she looked so angrily at her husband.
“Please Tanu, try to understand. There is no confirmation yet. You are just imagining things. Nothing like that might have happened” with a pleading expression in his face Rajesh said.
“Nothing like that might have happened” Tanuja mocked him. “If nothing like that has happened why that boy remained like a statue there? Why he is not saying anything? Why he is not denying the allegation I have made?” she was shivering with anger.
“Aravind is it is true?” looking into the face of Aravind, Rajesh asked.
Aravind not even perched his face up. He just could not tolerate what was happening there. But there was no way to him to escape from that place. He knew it would happen in this way sooner or later.
“My God, so it is true” Rajesh was astonished and shocked. “I never have expected it from you. We both loved you a lot. We have put lot of trust in you. But you did it to our daughter”
“Dad, don’t blame him. It is completely my fault” Sameera came forward and said with a firm voice. “There is not even an iota of mistake on Aravind’s part”
“I can understand that much” Rajesh said sarcastically. “You are that much insolent, arrogant and spoiled. But what I cannot understand is Aravind is good, intelligent and educated. Why did not he try to stop you?”
“Who said he did not?” there was a wry smile placed on her lips. “He tried his level best. But I have compelled him to do that.” She lied. She could remember that Aravind did not try to stop her that much.
“How shameful you have become!” Tanuja slapped on the same cheek of her with the same hand but with even more force. This time Sameera fell on the floor.
“Tanuja, please, stop beating her” Rajesh yelled.
“Stop beating her! Even now too!” the voice of Tanuja turned croak with anger. “If we had beat her like this when she was a child she would have turned out to be a decent woman”
“If you and Malathi aunt are decent women, I am also a decent woman” Sameera said angrily. She made herself up again.
“Talk properly.” Rajesh said angrily.
“I am talking properly. When you do wrongs no one should question you. But when it is the offspring do the same, you will do this much” the firmness in the voice of Sameera was not faltered.
“Tell, tell what wrongs we did?” looking into her eyes straight Tanuja asked. She had become even more furious.
“How daringly you are asking me mother! Don’t you know what wrong you did?” with a sarcastic smile on her lips Sameera asked.
“It is right you have lost your mind. That is why you are talking in this way. First let me know what wrong I did?” her mind still did not catch what her daughter meant.
“Is it is not true that you have got pregnancy before your marriage?”
Hearing it so from her daughter Tanuja stunned. She did not expect that accusation at all. She did not even think that her daughter knew about that. The air became stilled there.
“Is it is not true that you got it aborted to pave the way to your marriage with dad?”
“Oh, my God.” Rajesh said “How did you come to know about all this?”
‘I have overheard once you both were talking in yourselves” Sameera said.
“Eavesdropping is not a good habit” Sunanda said. She could not think of what to say or what to do as all this had become quite boring and disgusting to her.
“Getting pregnancy before marriage and got it aborted were good habits!” Sameera said sarcastically.
“Whatever it may be, it is not the way at all to talk with your mother” Malathi said. The total situation had become quite embarrassing to her. “Moreover your mom has not got it aborted. It was a miscarriage happened without her intention.”
“You big whore, keep yourself away from our family business” Sameera said while looking at Malathi with hate.
Rajesh and Malathi were stunned and dumbfounded! In fact everyone there was shocked! No one could expect such words from Sameera. It had taken sometime to them to digest what she had said.
Rajesh never had thought that he could beat his daughter so. Muttering all his strength in his hand he slapped on the right cheek of his daughter with such force she fell on her left side again. But she did manage to getup herself without delay.
“Talk properly. I shall skin you alive if you talk like that again” he yelled with anger.
“Are you people thinking that no one knows what you both are doing?” it seemed the slap did not make any impact either physically or mentally on Sameera. The unknown satisfaction in her face had become even more which was puzzling the people there. “I had seen that. Seen that six months back. This bloody whore in your hands! How you have enjoyed her dad. How your both bodies mingled together on the table in that room. How she moaned under your weight. How….”
Rajesh slapped his daughter left and right without stopping. “Stop … Stop….Stop talking. You…” in fact he did not know how to curse his daughter. He never cursed his daughter. He never cursed anyone else either. He never thought of that he had to face this type of a situation. He was quite unprepared to this. He was shocked. But he became fully angry.
Malathi had become like a stone. She turned her head aside. She could not look into anyone’s face there. It was shocking and quite unexpected to her too.
“Say yourself what I have said is not true. And just see that whore! How she stood! Ask her to tell what I have said is false. Then I will agree that I did a wrong with Aravind” Sameera said with a firm voice.
No one talked anything at all. One thing had become quite clear to all of them. Sameera did all this as revenge type. Lot of anger developed in her towards her parents and to that Malathi and she wanted to give a way out to that. By then both Rajesh and Tanuja understood the reason behind the different behavior of Sameera towards them for the last six months or so.
“I did not do a wrong. I liked Aravind. So I have shared my body with him. I shall marry him. If I have got pregnancy I am not going to get it aborted as some people do. I shall keep it till the natural delivery and keep the baby.” It was surprising that there was no regret at all in her.
“Just get out of this place” Tanuja said. “Just get out”
Sameera did not say anything. In fact she could not think of anything to say anymore. But she remained there like a statue.
“I have asked you to get out.” Tanuja yelled. “I will talk to you later. First thing get out of this room” and then she looked at the other people there “Please all of you too. Except, Rajesh.” She said again. Her command was obeyed silently by all the people there including Sameera. Rajesh remained in that room with her.
When everyone was left Tanuja closed the doors of the grandmother’s room and slumped herself into the chair there. Then she covered her face in her hands and burst into weeping.
Rajesh too sat in the nearby chair, leaned back and closed his eyes. He was not only feeling shame but lot of fear also. He just could not think of how Tanuja would react then. How that blindly both of them behaved on that day. The very thought that his daughter observed him with Malathi so was making him feel terribly bad. He did not try to stop Tanuja. He could not dare to do that.
Slowly Tanuja controlled herself. “I thought that woman is a very good woman. She turned out to be a whore. Now I understood it was going like this even before our marriage and it is continuing even now too.” There was no accusation in her voice. There was no anger either. She said that just as a matter of fact.
Rajesh remained closing his eyes. It all had become quite heavier to him to bear. He wanted to run away from that place. He wanted to run away from Tanuja, Sameera and everyone there. It was quite painful to face them once the truth came out so. He would have felt quite relieved if the earth there split into two and got him into that gap and closed.
“Why not you are talking? Is it is not true? You both did that illegal, immoral thing, were not you? It is still continuing is it is not?” looking towards her husband Tanuja asked.
Rajesh could not open his eyes and look into her face. He remained like a stone in his chair.
“Tell me this is all not true. Tell me our daughter just imagined this. I feel happy on hearing this so even whatever happening between you and that whore” Tanuja started weeping slowly again.
“Even it is soothing to you I cannot lie to you anymore.” Rajesh could not know how he was talking and where from the courage came into him. “Before and after our marriage too, we used to have that. We stopped it all years back. We have decided strongly not to indulge in that at all. But on some very weak moments it happened between us and I don’t know why we just could not withstand it then. Yes, one one or two occasions in the last two or three years we did it. Might be the time when Sameera seen us both so was the last occasion”
“So it is all true?” hissing out heavily Tanuja said. She understood if there was nothing like that Sameera could not talk so. It was just a confirmation to her.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
