One morning, Adya woke up with a heavy headache, reluctant to rise from the bed to follow her routine. She noticed Varun, her husband, was already out in the kitchen from the noise of breakfast preparation.
She tried to push herself, but her body did not allow it. Soon, Varun joined her with two cups of coffee in his hands. He entered the room with a sweet smile, but seeing Adya in pain, he felt something was wrong, and his smile faded.
Varun rushed to the bedside table near Adya, keeping the two cups of coffee he got. He sat by her side, lifting her, supporting her by her back, and put her head on his lap. He caressed her hair, asking her, “What happened to you love?” Adya moaned but could not utter a word.
Varun touched her head and found her head was as hot as a blazing fire. He ran to the television panel to fetch a thermometer from the side drawer and held it in her mouth. After a minute, Varun saw the thermometer read one hundred-two degrees Fahrenheit.
He called their family doctor for immediate advice. The doctor told him to apply a cold towel on her head to lower her temperature and prescribed some medicine. He also asked him to call back if the condition did not improve.
With the tense day, Varun started to take care of Adya without realizing it was time for his Aerobics class and his trainees would be waiting in his studio. Fortunately, he had his Aerobics studio beside his house. After making Adya eat something along with the prescribed medicine, he tucked her in the bed and told her he would return soon. Adya slept for two hours straight due to the intoxication of medicine.
Varun returned within an hour and felt relaxed, seeing Adya still sleeping. He went to the kitchen and witnessed the setting sun above the horizon, feeling mesmerized and more energized even after having a tough day.
Varun made a cup of green tea for himself. He sat on the couch in the drawing room, relishing his tea, when he noticed a diary on the glass table in front of him. He got intrigued with the appearance of the diary and picked it up.
“My Secret Diary,” Varun read written on the diary’s cover with an elegant image of a girl soaking in the sun. He was about to open it when he heard Adya calling out for him.
He left the diary on the couch and the cup on the saucer lying on the table and went to her. Varun went into the room, finding Adya trying to sit in the bed. He helped her to sit. Adya yawned, stretching her hands, making Varun glee in adoration for his sweet wife.
“How are you feeling my love?” Varun asked, kissing Adya on her forehead. She took in his embrace and told him she was alright.
There was no need to worry. He laughed and told her in what condition she lay since morning, making her give him a sorry look for troubling him. Varun held her tight in an embrace, feeling the warmth of her body, realizing it was already evening and they had to prepare dinner before their love-making session could commence.
The faces of both of them turned as red as a tomato as if somebody was watching them. It was now five years that they were living alone in this house, but their blushing moments never faded.
Varun asked Adya if she needed a cup of tea to feel fresh. She nodded in affirmation, and both got up from the bed to go to the kitchen. He insisted for her to sit on the sofa, but she did not listen until her eyes fell on her secret diary on the couch.
The expression on her face changed from playfulness to tension. She agreed to take a seat till Varun prepared tea for her. Varun left her in the drawing room and headed to the kitchen. Adya picked up her diary and hid it in the drawer under the television panel in the drawing room. Before Varun returned with her tea, she calmed herself and sat on the sofa.
She heard Varun from the kitchen asking her if she needed something to eat along with tea, but she refused and told him tea was sufficient as it was late evening and they would have dinner soon, which they had yet to plan.
Varun came with tea and offered it to her with a smile. She took it and smiled back. He noticed the diary was missing but did not think of asking her, leaving it for another time.
After finishing her tea, she asked him about dinner. But Varun advised her to relax as he would prepare the dinner. But Adya said that he already had a long day, and now, as she was feeling okay, she could handle the kitchen, and he could sit while she prepared the dinner.
After a long bickering, Adya won and headed to the kitchen for dinner preparations. As she was leaving, she kept her eyes on the drawer where she hid the diary, and Varun noticed that without letting her know.
The kitchen was near the drawing room, but because of the wall separation between the two, the person in the kitchen could not see someone sitting on the couch. Taking advantage of the wall, Varun silently walked to the television panel with an excuse to turn on the television.
He opened the drawer after increasing the volume so that Adya could not hear it. His eyes fell on the diary lying in the drawer. He thought, my innocent wifey, how could you keep such a thing where I can get it effortlessly?
He started exploring the pages of the diary, and Adya, feeling suspicious, came out of the kitchen, finding Varun with her diary. She yelled at him for getting hold of her secret diary.
He ran around the drawing room, making her chase him for her diary. After running sufficiently, he realized Adya had been unwell the whole day. He pulled her in an embrace. He nudged her, asking about the secrets of her diary. She felt embarrassed and snatched her diary from him.
Before Varun could say anything, Adya laughed and told him there were incidents of her childhood that she wrote in her diary. She also informed him that she still writes what she could not tell anybody else.
It intrigued Varun more, and he told her he should know all her secrets, reminding her of the vows taken during marriage. Adya giggled louder this time. She asked him to sit on the couch and told him they would read it together as it had been a long time since she read her childhood incidents.
Both sat on the couch and started going through the pages and read the first incident of Adya’s childhood.
Varun read, “Last night, when I woke up to pee, I felt afraid of the darkness as it was the first time I slept alone in my room. My grandmother’s stories about the ghost under the bed kept ringing. I was walking towards the washroom when I stepped on the toy, and ghostly music started playing, making me shout and sit on the floor, covering my head with my hands.
As the music faded, I uncovered my head, realizing I was sitting under the bed, and saw sparkling eyes beside me. I felt terrified and hit my head with the ply under the bed, trying to come out of it. I cried and screamed, waking my parents. They rushed to my room, turned on the light, and got numbed as they did not find me on the bed. My continuous wailing turned their attention under the bed, and my mom pulled me out, hugging me, caressing my hair, and calming me down, telling me that she was there with me. And my parents took me to their room, and I slept with them for the next few days until the trauma of that night diminished.”
They started laughing at this incident, and the pressure cooker whistled.
About the author
Tanvi Agarwal is a published author, avid reader, and book reviewer. She also has a growing podcast named ‘Pages and Beyond’ on Spotify. You can follow her on Instagram.