“Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy, come back here this moment,” Helen shouted at the top of her lungs. The sun beat down on her, causing her palms and feet to sweat. She felt out of breath as her toddler, Lizzy, ran freely across the garden, laughing without restraint. Lizzy’s exuberance knew no bounds, even as she ignored Helen’s calls.
It had been a long time since Helen had last seen her baby. Karan didn’t want Helen to overexert herself, though she could never tell him that she didn’t mind. Lizzy was the only good thing in her life after Karan, and she would be damned if she let anything come between them, anything or anyone except Karan.
About to yell again, Helen heard footsteps behind her and Helen sensed Karan’s presence before she even saw him. A familiar citrus note filled the air, comforting her and reassuring her that he was here, even before she turned to see him trudging towards them.
“Helen, this is not done. I had to leave my meeting halfway and run all across the city to come here when Lizzy’s school principal called me. Why the hell would you pull Lizzy out of her classes?” Helen smiled at Karan; her husband was always overthinking. He was someone who followed the rules religiously, so this would come across as reckless to him.
How she wished she could tell him to relax for once in his life, but alas, she shouldn’t think about things she would never do.
“Helen, I will take Lizzy back. You rest. Okay. I… I will call you,” Karan said, slightly tilting his head at her, attempting to pass her. However, Helen didn’t let him. She had missed him; he hadn’t taken a day off, and this could be their chance to have a family picnic.
Karan frowned. “Helen, please let me get Lizzy. You can meet her next week.” Why would Helen need to wait for a week? Karan was always blabbering nonsense.
“Let’s all have a picnic together. Lizzy, Lizzy, look, your papa has come to us from his office; we are having a picnic,” Helen said, trying to involve Karan. Lizzy, who was running aimlessly, stopped at this and smiled widely at them. Helen turned her mischievous eyes on Karan. “See, now you can’t escape. We are having a picnic.”
“Helen, have you taken your medicine today?” Karan’s never-ending concern would be the death of her, Helen thought as she walked away to get Lizzy. However, Karan beat her to it, picking Lizzy up. She frowned. Sometimes Karan could be such a prick; why the hell was he taking her daughter away from her?
“Helen, I will call you once I reach home. We need to go now. Bye.” Lizzy didn’t want the fun day to be over, so she stretched her hands toward her mom. Before Helen could grasp her tiny little fingers, Karan was already walking away.
Helen felt her chest swelling, making it harder to breathe. Why the hell couldn’t Karan understand that she didn’t need a break? Now he had taken Lizzy back to her school and told her to go back to rest. She didn’t need rest.
But Karan loved her and wanted the best for her. She would make him see, once he was back at night, that she could take care of Lizzy.
After closing her laptop and shutting her eyes, Ria felt the weight of exhaustion settle upon her. Despite possessing everything a person could ask for—a successful writing career where she could work as per her own choice, a loving husband who even though is away a lot manages to send her message every hour, and enough money to indulge in weekly luxury shopping—she still felt a profound connection to Helen. Helen’s character was one of her best creations, and Ria couldn’t wait to finish her story.
Helen, although Ria knows she wants to write her as a mental patient whose breakdown happens after her husband leaves her for another woman she feels there is more to this particular character, from where Helen comes from and what made her snap.
Ria empathized with her, having once experienced a similar feeling of losing herself. She hoped that if she ever encountered someone like Helen in real life, she might be able to offer them support and understanding. Perhaps, in doing so, this cycle of loneliness could find its end.
Her doorbell rang, and she grinned to herself; Pratik was finally here. She almost ran down the stairs, unlatched the door, and fell into Pratik’s arms, she inhaled deeply, taking in the comforting scent of cinnamon and citrus that clung to him.
“Someone missed me,” Pratik teased.
“You have no idea. You were gone for two weeks instead of one,” Ria replied, knowing she was exaggerating, but she couldn’t help it when Pratik just chuckled.
“Aww, I miss you too, baby. But we should close the door and stop giving our neighbors a free show,” Pratik said, pulling back.
As Ria was about to close the door, she saw a woman across the road staring intently at her. For a second, she froze, feeling like she knew her. Then she blinked, and the thought vanished as she released her breath. She didn’t know the woman and closed the door.
As Pratik and Ria lay in bed at night and Ria closed her eyes, the woman she saw earlier came to her mind, and her eyes flew open. The eyes were the same hazel brown eyes with a glint of gold spark that shone when the sun hit them. She remembered those pair of eyes; how could she not when she had created them in her writing? Even with the distance, those eyes were how she imagined Helen’s eyes would be, and her heart beat like crazy.
Then Ria chuckled at her own stupidity. Of course, that wasn’t Helen. Her character wasn’t the real woman she had seen. And she slept.
A silhouette stood near the window, and the gold sparkled in a pair of eyes when the moon shone. The figure smiled at Pratik, who slept peacefully.
Feature Image Credit- Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash.
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