Loneliness, at times, adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on the sunsets and makes night air smell better.
Since her father's demise, Vidhi had learnt to live with loneliness, and enjoy the peace of solitude. But, the all encompassing loneliness in the huge Roy Chowdhury Mansion was suffocating.
There was no one, whom she could talk to, or scream at, to let out the self agonizing infliction that was building in her. She had doubted Anirudh's intension. She had questioned his deeds. And, it was killing her from inside. The man had always been good to her, he had been her savior, but, still she had managed to distrust him.
The evening sun had set long back leaving an overcast above head. The air was unreasonably calm and silent. No birds flew across the dull grey sky in search of their nests, as if they had lost all hope to life and survival.
Vidhi was sitting alone, on the cemented fountain in the courtyard of the mansion. Her eyes gazed lazily on the angel inside the foundation, pouring incessantly a lazy stream of water into the circular collector. Vidhi sat on the bank of the circular water collector as her fingers ran through the cold water unmindfuly.
"Did you notice the goldfish inside?"
Vidhi was startled at the sudden question.
She turned around and saw Anirudh standing infront of her in his usual demeanor.
He wore a black shirt and a formal grey trousers. He held a matching blazer in his hand, as if right out from an office meeting.
Vidhi let out a sigh.
"No I didn't!"
Anirudh came closer and sat beside her.
"There is only one, a single goldfish. He hides out from sight most of the time." He paused looking up at her.
"But, if you look close enough, you'll find him."
"I thought goldfish can't survive alone."
Vidhi asked as a sudden gasp of emotion choked her voice.
"This one has... May be he is waiting for his lost love." Anirudh remarked softly.
"And? Will she come?"
"May be."
"And, how long will he wait?" Vidhi asked.
"As long as it takes." Anirudh kept his right hand loosely on her hand.
"Love doesn't come with an expiration date."
"Barrister... I... I... wanted to say sorry."
Vidhi murmured as her eyes burnt in a undeniable urge to burst out into tears.
"Why?"
"I pried." Vidhi looked down, as she felt a sharp twitch in her heart.
"I... I found out Sampurna Maa's actual identify... And, I thought, you've kept her away from her family and... And, I called her home number."
Anirudh didn't respond to her words.
He simply let out a sigh and dipped his fingers in the cold water of the circular fountain collector.
"And? What did you find?"
"I'm sorry Anirudh, Anirudh Sir." Vidhi muttered.
"I shouldn't have... It's just that of late I find everything so complex.. so vague... I don't know what's true and what's not anymore!"
Her voice choked up in self agony as drops of tears started trailing down her flushed cheeks.
"Miss Sengupta, first don't call me Sir. And, next, don't blame yourself for something which you are not guilty of."
Anirudh spoke slowly.
"Come, let me show you something..."
He got up from the cemented fountain bank and held his hand out for her.
Vidhi sniffed back her silent sobs and stretched her hand out to hold his.
Anirudh led her to the spiral staircase and then to the dimly lit passage leading towards the forbidden west wing. They walked past the half opened storage room from where Vidhi had discovered the files earlier that day.
"Here... This room."
Vidhi turned around as she noticed Anirudh keying the room opposite to the storage.
She entered causiously behind him.
Anirudh switched on the old yellow light bulb to illuminate the insides of the room.
"This happened to be Barrister Roy Chowdhury's private office."
Anirudh remarked.
"You mean, Barrister Anirudh Roy Chowdhury senior?"
Anirudh smiled in response. He pulled out a drawer and took out two old photo albums.
Dust had accumulated on the surface of the albums as he wiped it with his white handkerchief.
"Come here Miss Sengupta. Let me show you something."
Vidhi walked towards the drawer and sat down on the old revolving chair.
Anirudh took a deep breath.
"What I'm about to show you might be unsettling to you." He paused.
"But, I think it's time that you know all these... Else, the obscurity it's going to make things worse for you..." He looked at her calmly.
"You understand?"
"I understand." Vidhi murmured.
Vidhi moved her hand on the album kept on the table and tried to open it. But, Anirudh kept his hand on top of hers restricting her movement.
"First, I need you to tell me something." He looked at her.
"What?"
"Your dreams! What do you see?"
Vidhi closed her eyes reminiscing her dreams. Her petite frame shuddered a little at the thought.
"I see myself... But, not as me... But as Bondita!" She exclaimed.
"I don't know who she is... But, I can read her thoughts... It's like she is in my mind." Vidhi swallowed hard.
"I see Bondita dying... And, and, a man... Someone she loved, he is lamenting on her death... And, they are promising an afterlife together... It's.. it's heart-wrenching!"
Vidhi opened her eyes and looked straight at Anirudh.
"I see a vague picture of that man as well... I could almost smell him... And, and, he smells like YOU!"
Anirudh nodded his head in acknowledgement of her narration.
"I know how difficult this is... Trust me." He placed his hand on Vidhi's shoulder to comfort her.
He took a deep breath and lifted his other hands from the album letting Vidhi free to flip through the pages.
"Open it... !" He asked politely.
Vidhi flipped open the first photograph.
It was a Polaroid in sepia.
There were two women standing together in saree. Vidhi leaned down to take a closer look.
One of the women resembled her.
"Bondita!" She gasped as she placed her finger on it.
And, the in other picture was a slightly elderly lady...
"Sampurna Maa?"
Vidhi looked up at Anirudh with widened eyes.
"How is this possible... I mean.. who is she?"
Vidhi blurted out her questions in excitement.
"Like you... She is also a reborn." Anirudh explained slowly.
"Sampurna is my... I mean she is Anirudh Roy Chowdhury's step mother. She was like a mother figure to Bondita."
Anirudh ran his fingers across the photograph fondly.
"A 'reborn'? So, she remembers?... Or, how is it?" Vidhi's heart was thudding in excitement as Anirudh raised his right hand to cup her face.
"Calm down...! I can hear your heartbeat."
He pulled her closer, letting her sink into the comfort of his touch.
"It's a curse in our family. I know this may sound really odd and unrealistic, but, the truth is our family members are meant to be reborn and unite..."
"For a cause?" Vidhi asked.
"Yes, you can say that. For a cause." Anirudh paused, gathering his next words carefully.
"Once a 'reborn' turns eighteen, the memory of their past life takes over their present in a way that they transform to their previous self mentally."
Anirudh paused as he felt Vidhi's hands clutching his shirt in an anxious anticipation.
"So... So those dreams? The ones that I see... Those memories...!"
"Yes. They are just the beginning Miss Sengupta." Anirudh touched her hair lightly, brushing his fingers through the locks to calm to down.
"Slowly they are meant to come to you as vivid as your reality."
"Isn't there a way? A way where I won't lose myself?" Vidhi urged him earnestly in a quivering voice.
"How come Sampurna Maa doesn't remember about her part life at all?"
Anirudh let out a sigh at her question.
"She was hypnotised... Medically!" He added.
"She was on the verge of loosing her complete identify, because even after turning eighteen she had spent ten long years tussling between her past and present." He paused.
"Hypnotism was the only way to save her life... Erasing out all the memories of her previous life as well as this one, restricting her mind to the time after I had found her."
"Does that mean... I'll too?
Vidhi grabbed his shirt tighter and inched further closer to him, burying her face in his chest.
Anirudh didn't reply.
He continued caressing her hair gently.
"Why don't you take a look at the other pictures."
Vidhi stretched her shaking hands to turn the next page, revealing another photograph of a strikingly handsome man smiling proudly, with a hunting gun in hand.
"It's... It's YOU!"
"It's Barrister Anirudh Roy Chowdhury." Anirudh remarked softly.
Vidhi turned the next page as her muscles suddenly tightened in excitement. She felt her knees wobbling in an overpowering adrenaline rush.
Anirudh snaked his arms around her and grabbed her waist lightly.
"This one is Barrister Anirudh Roy Chowdhury and beside him is his wife, Bondita." He remarked, pointing his fingers on the old photograph.
"It means..." Vidhi's breath hitched.
"It means you were a 'reborn' of Bondita's husband... My... I mean... Her one love, whom I see in my dreams... It's YOU?"
Vidhi was shaking violently as Anirudh turned around slightly, pulling her completely in a tight embrace.
Vidhi felt an instant overwhelming warmth engulfing her senses, along with that intoxicating familiar scent.
"Reborn or not... I'm the one!"
He hushed.
"And, I promise I won't let anything bad happen to you... Not this time."