"So, what do you think?", Deepshikha asked Chandrika as she welcomed her to her room.
"Yeah, it's fine, I guess", Chandrika replied.
"Fine?"
"Yes fine. What else did you expect? You are a princess, and you have a room fit for one. Of course, for someone like you, I would have expected cushions on the floor instead of carpets."
"Well then, shouldn't you too be carrying a big sword on your back like your father?"
"Don't you try to judge me by my Baba! At least he doesn't have to lie about my contributions to the kingdom like your parents."
"What do you…?"
"Oh, I know it well. There's no way you would have suggested anything related to the festival. You are just too much of an introvert."
Deepshikha's eyebrows curled up in a frown.
But then she took a deep breath and said, "Well, I guess I am an introvert. I don't like pretentious relationships and events held only to maintain my social status. I wish to do so much more."
She lay down on the bed and, looking at the ceiling, continued, "My parents love me a lot. It's true. I love them too. But sometimes their love for me becomes too much to handle."
"Like?", Chandrika asked, standing beside the bed.
"Like? Like keeping me locked inside the palace all day, not allowing me to go out and explore on my own, deciding on much of my choices, on what should I eat, what should I wear, even what should I read!"
She threw a pillow on the floor.
"Sigh. I wish to do things on my own. I wish to choose my path and see the world. I want to talk to people! Except Asha, you are the first one to hear me out."
Then, lifting her head by her hand, she looked at Chandrika and asked, "I guess you are better off than me, right?"
"Better off?", Chandrika glared at her. "Exactly what makes you think so, you pampered pet?"
"Why, your father seems to allow you to have your way."
"That's what you think. And you are right. I can do my jobs, go out, and talk to people; in fact, I'm not allowed to have many servants either. And that's just one of the many 'don'ts' that I must follow."
"You must? Like what?"
"What's it got to do with you anyway, huh? At least your parents love and support you every moment, even if it means spoiling you. You don't have to live in constant dread of messing up."
"Messing…"
"Enough. I… I must go now."
Chandrika turned towards the door and tried to walk away, but Deepshikha held her hand firmly.
"It's all right. You can speak to me. I won't judge you."
"As if you can judge me", Chandrika replied.
"Still…"
"Still what?! What do you know about being judged every moment of your life? Do you have any idea how hard it is to be the daughter of such a cold-hearted person?", Chandrika shouted at Deepshikha.
Then, as if overcome by exertion, she collapsed onto the bed.
Deepshikha sat up behind her, waiting for her to calm down.
Finally, with her head held low, Chandrika continued in a low voice, "Baba is a good man. The best king there ever was. But… I don't know why... He is very distant and short-tempered all the time, not listening to anyone and losing his temper over the smallest of mistakes…".
Suddenly, big drops began to fall onto the floor, and Chandrika's voice began to quaver. "When…when we were almost reaching your palace, a manservant came to me and said that… that he had, by mistake, forgotten one of the presents that Baba was supposed to gift to your parents back at the campsite where we spent the last night…He was awfully scared of Baba's wrath…He feared that he would execute him… So… so I…"
"You decided to cover up for the poor man and claimed to be at fault instead, resulting in you facing your father's wrath."
And at that moment, Chandrika, who was holding herself back, finally broke down. "What else could I do? No matter how bitter it is, he was speaking the truth! Baba would never stand any tardiness, no matter who it was from. Even... even it means from me. The moment I... I said…"
Chandrika started to cry bitterly. Her cries were painful and depressing.
Seeing her cry like that made Deepshikha's eyes moist too. She crawled towards Chandrika and, taking a seat next to her, put her hand on her shoulder.
Chandrika looked at her, her cries stopping abruptly. But then, something made her realize that the person next to her wasn't there to mock her or even pity her.
And thus, burying her head in her lap, Chandrika cried her heart out to Deepshikha. "Why does he have to be so cold and distant to me?! He…he is always so harsh and cruel to me. He… he even said that I am of no good. Tell me, is it right for a father to treat his daughter like this? If not, then why me?"
Deepshikha stroked Chandrika's hair as she cried out all her feelings that had for a long time been suppressed and hidden somewhere in her heart. For a long time, she cried like she had never cried before, never had a chance to cry before, and never dared to cry before.
When she finally stopped and calmed down a little, Deepshikha spoke to her in a soft voice, "It's all right. Even if it's not, it's all right. I won't say that it's all over or that you don't have to fight it anymore. You still have to. Just like I have to, too. But, unlike before…", she raised Chandrika's head and said, "We won't be doing it alone. Rather, we will now do it together. Fine?"
Chandrika sobbed and said, "Fine, I guess."
"So, we are friends now?"
Chandrika shook her head.
Breaking through her tears into a smile, she said, "Best friends."
"Best friends", Deepshikha echoed while smiling herself too, and they shared a tight hug, one they both needed.
That night, after spending the evening with Deepshikha and forming a new and bright bond between them, Deepshikha sat down to write in her journal.
Still unaware of my presence, she turned to the pages well behind me. This greatly eased me, for I wished to stay hidden for as long as I could and witness these new and beautiful relationships bloom silently.
Deepshikha wrote with a soft but excited hand, her lips silently reciting what she wrote, her face bright and happy.
I was so buried in these thoughts that I didn't realize what was to happen next.
And when it happened, a shiver ran down to my very last fiber.
Deepshikha was writing on me.
I have no way to express what I felt.
But trust me, if you had been in my place and gone through what I had experienced in the past, you would understand how I felt.
Deepshikha hummed cheerfully as she wrote. But her happiness was no longer reciprocated by me. I prayed to the heavens above that she would not be able to recite what she had written. But my prayers went unheard.
Deepshikha had already started reciting in a dreamy voice, "It has been some time since I met someone who became my friend. No one else other than Asha. I wish that, for at least tomorrow, we can be free from all our bonds and spend the day at the zoo owned by my family. My parents made it for me on the outskirts of the city, but they never allowed me to go there all by myself. Either at least one of them accompanied me, or they sent me with an entire battalion. But tomorrow, I want to go there with Asha and Chandrika, all by ourselves."
Deepshikha yawned. She closed the journal and went off to bed.
But even though I was buried under the pages of the journal, the sensation was still there. Something burned inside me.
The deed had been done.
The wish had been fulfilled.