Xossip Ultimate Story Contest 2014

[Expert]

The Picture Frame

Indian Princess

“What the hell are you doing?” Armaan shouted angrily.

“Dad..I..I just” Alisha stood there trembling in fear.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to touch that picture?” Armaan said as he violently snatched the picture frame from her hand.

“I was just seeing the picture nothing more...I..I was here to get mom’s purse. She asked me to get it from this room.” She squeaked.
“Yeah? Then take it and get lost, and mind your own business henceforth, and stay out of this room.” Armaan growled.

Alisha broke into tears, and ran out of the room. Pankhudi was sitting in the next room was worried to see her like that, and walked up to her.
“Are you OK honey?” Pankhudi asked her daughter.

“Mom, why is dad so mad at me all the time? I don’t understand...” Alisha said in a soft voice trying to wipe off her tears, “Did I ever do anything that hurt him?”
“No dear” Pankhudi said as she lovingly hugged her daughter, “Maybe he’s just stressed, work pressure you know. He is not able to handle all that sometimes, and says bad things he doesn’t really mean. Don’t let any doubts creep into your mind dear, I know he loves you.”

“Who is that girl in the picture mom? Why is does the picture mean so much to him? I find it strange that dad is so possessive about a picture in a broken photo frame. I had asked him few years ago when I first saw it, and he just got so angry.” Alisha said amongst her sobs.
Pankhudi was upset hearing that question. She was obviously not comfortable answering it. She said, “Honey we will talk about this later. I think you should go to your room for now, I’ll see you at dinner.”

Pankhudi wanted to talk to Armaan about this, but knowing her husband’s sadistic tendencies, she knew he was a difficult person to confront when he is in a bad mood. She thought it was wiser to talk about it later when he is calm.
Alisha went back to her room. Her father was a rich man, she had a large beautiful room. She stood in the balcony of her room. The bungalow was located near the sea, and she could see the evening sunrays gleaming like pearls as the reflected off the dancing sea waves. She couldn’t stop crying. She loved her father, but he was always so distant. Although he never hurt her in anyway, and he was a responsible father taking care of all her needs, but she badly missed the warmth she was looking for.

After sunset, Pankhudi knocked at Alisha’s door to call her for dinner. The family was sitting together for dinner. Alisha was upset that she made her father angry a while ago, but in spite of his cold attitude, she still loved him so much. The next day was his birthday, she had always wanted to celebrate, but he never seemed interested.

“Dad, its your birthday tomorrow. I am so excited! I think we should celebrate.”
Armaan was kinda annoyed, “I am sorry, can’t do. I’ll be working the whole day tomorrow.”
Pankhudi raised an eyebrow as it was obvious that Armaan was making excuses to avoid Alisha.
“Maybe you could come home a little early” Alisha said.

“No, I’ll be working till late tomorrow” he said will little interest.
“You say that every year” Alisha said with great disappointment. But Armaan didn’t say a word and left.
Alisha was heartbroken. Pankhudi took her to her room and put her to bed.
“Does he not want me mom?” Alisha said. There was so much sadness in her eyes.

“Honey, your father has been through a lot in life. It becomes hard to understand others when you are hurting so much within your heart.” Pankhudi said as she pulled a blanket over her daughter, “You are a strong girl Alisha, and very mature and thoughtful too. It pains me to see that he doesn’t understand you, but maybe be you could try and understand him.”

Pankhudi kissed her cheek and turned off the lights. When she was about to leave Alisha asked her, “Mom, what is so special about the picture frame?”
“It doesn’t hold a picture, it holds his bad memories” Pankhudi said and left the room.

She went to the master bedroom. Armaan was already there, he was sitting calmly with his eyes closed, and playing a wonderful tune on his violin. He usually played the violin only to make Pankh happy or when he was very sad. She sat down next to him and began to fondle his hair. Armaan opened his eyes and drew closer to her for a romantic kiss. “I love you Pankh” he whispered in her ear, and hugged her tightly. Something about his grip told her that he was really disturbed. He turned off the lights and tried to sleep.

It was dark all around him and before his eyes. In the darkness he could see Pankhudi chained in a dark dungeon being whipped brutally. There were fresh wounds on her body from other tortures and blood trickled out of each wound. Her screams echoed in the dungeons and went on and on, he wanted them to stop, he couldn’t watch this, but he was restrained by metal chains and was helpless. All he could do is beg helplessly and the please fell on deaf ears. After what it seemed forever, the whipping stopped and the chains by which she was suspended were released and her broken body fell to the floor in the pool of her blood.

Armaan suddenly woke up, sweating and breathing heavily. He looked at Pankhudi to find her sleeping calmly next to him. Her face looked beautiful and innocent just like when he first saw her, but it had a few scars from the brutal torture. They had faded over years, but they still existed as a cruel remainder of his failure. Even after being through so much, she never changed; she was the same sweetheart who only knew how to love. She was his second wife. His first marriage had gone bad because he was emotionally unstable and violent. Who could blame him, after all his growing up was so rough. Pankhudi was the purest Angel he ever met; she has so much love in her heart that would take away all his hate and the pain he was living with.

Armaan was shaken by that nightmare; he got up from his bed and walked to the terrace attached to the room. The sound of sea waves tore through the silence of the night. There was no moon in the sky, it was just about as dark as his life was getting. He lit a cigarette, trying to calm his nerves. His agitation woke up Pankhudi from her light sleep. She could see him standing on the terrace through the glass wall. She walked up to him.

She lovingly put her hand over his shoulder and said, “Are you OK sweetheart?”
Armaan didn’t reply. He continued smoking. He was visibly upset, and the hand holding the cigarette was trembling.
Pankhudi held his face between her palms, “Did you have a bad dream again?”
“Bad dreams...memories, I can’t tell the difference anymore Pankh” he replied, “I try to forget, but I can’t..I can’t forget what I failure I am...I couldn’t even keep the promise I made to you, after all that you did for me, after all the love you gave me.”

“Why do you keep blaming yourself for it?” Pankhudi hugged him spoke softly, “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I brought this upon you” Armaan said bitterly, “What am I? I don’t know..or is my fate nothing but a twisted puppet at the hands of a devil? Such a rough start in life and after everything, I met a wonderful woman like you, and after all I did to you, you still have love for me in your heart pure as a dewdrop. I fell in love with you, fell real deep, and a bastard rips my heart within me and kills my unborn child. Do you understand how crippling it feels being unable to protect the woman you love?”

Pankhudi said nothing. She just hugged him tighter, hoping that her hug would stick back all his broken pieces together.

Armaan took a deep breath and continued, “The darkness that surrounds me...it threatens to engulf everything that is pure in my life, like acid that with destroy everything beautiful that I ever had. I am no saint, I have done a lot of horrible things, I was wrong, hell, “wrong” would be an understatement, I was a devil. Never thought someone like you would come around and change me for good. But the dark shadows of my past never let me change. I had never imagined that someone would want to have their revenge like this. He targeted you coz they knew I loved you the most. You are my precious lotus flower; you didn’t deserve that torture as a punishment for my evil deeds. I had promised you I won’t let anything happen to you. I failed” Armaan closed his eyes as tears escaped from them. His voice was choking as a said, “You would have been happier had my dark shadow never fallen on your beautiful life. You lost so much because of me.”

“You know something honey” Pankhudi said, “When you promise something to someone, what is more important is that you try your best to fulfil it, and I know you did. I know you have always done the best you can for me. When you married me, even I had promised to give you a beautiful child like Priya. Well...even I failed. Sometimes things just aren’t mean to happen.”

“It wasn’t an accident Pankh, he fucking tortured you, it was something actively brought upon you. And I am the reason why this happened to you.” He sighed.

“The purpose was to hurt you, and how upsetting it is to see that he has succeeded. Even after so many years, you are hurting within...you can’t rationalize feelings, if something hurts you it does, and you can’t stop it from hurting you. But our conscious thinking does have the power to heal. Blaming yourself for what happened isn’t going to help. Sometimes you have to let go and leave those things in the past.”

“It is easier said than done...I was devastated when I came to know that I lost my unborn child and you’ll never be able to bear another child. I wanted to move on Pankh...wasn’t there enough suffering in my life already? When I married you, I thought everything is going to ok, I wanted to make a fresh start, with you, our children, our family...”

“We are a family honey, you me and our Alisha.” Pankhudi said.

“I agreed for her adoption because I couldn’t see your grief for being childless for the rest of your life. But the truth is that, she could never make a place for herself in my heart. I wanted my child Pankh, a reflection of myself and the woman I love the most...Alisha was none of that, she is just my nominal daughter nothing else. Besides she reminds me of my failure. If I would have been able to protect you, you wouldn’t have lost our child.”

Pankhudi was deeply hurt to hear that. “How could you say that?” she said angrily, “She means nothing to you? I love her like my very own. She means the world to me. Over so many years, I have seen your unloving behaviour towards her, but I never knew that you were so bitter. Perhaps it was me...I can’t give you a child, and you are taking out your frustration on her. She doesn’t need it. And if you want your own biological child so badly then...maybe...I’ll go away, and take her with me...you could marry someone who can give you a child, I and Alisha won’t burden you anymore.” Pankhudi broke into tears. She went back to the bed and sat down sobbing softly.

Armaan walked up to her and held her in his arms and said, “Honey it is not like that, it came out wrong. I am sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you, I really do, I can’t imagine living without you. Alisha is a good girl, polite, well behaved, intelligent, and I care for her...its just that it makes me angry when she tries to take Priya’s place.”

“She isn’t trying to take Priya’s place. No one can take anyone’s place in anyone’s life, coz every person is special.” Pankhudi said amongst her sobs, “When we adopted her, we agreed not to tell her about Priya. She still doesn’t even know who Priya is that is why she is so curious every time she comes across her pictures or anything that belongs to her. How could you misunderstand her like this? She is just a girl craving for the love of her father.”

“I am sorry Pankh...its just that...”
“You said you wanted a child of your own, tell me, how it worked out you last time you did?” she asked.
Her sentence evoked a bitter memory in Armaan mind, the last time he had visited Priya. Everything that was real faded into the background as a memory came alive in front of his eyes.
Priya looked at him angrily and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I just came to meet you. How are you sweetheart?”
“I am better without you” she said, “Please go away.”
“Why are you talking like that?” he asked her, “I just came to meet you and brought you your favourite chocolates.”

“I don’t need anything from you.” she said coldly, “You are very cruel. I know how you treated mom, and you would have done the same to me had mom not taken me away. Stop pretending that you care about me! Stop pretending that you are even a human being!”

Armaan shuddered as the flashback hit him like a flash of lightning. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Priya was Armaan first daughter from his first marriage, the only child he ever had. But the marriage had gone bad due to his sadistic and abusive behaviour towards his first wife Shalini. She took Priya away with her, and as a revenge for her ill-treatment, she distanced Priya even emotionally from Armaan by poisoning her mind against him. Armaan loved Priya more than anyone, he was devastated to hear such hateful words from Priya. It was one of the greatest hurt he ever endured, it broke him from within. He wanted to make things right, he wanted to show his beloved daughter that he is not all bad and that he can change and be a loving person, but he hadn’t the time, Priya soon died of leukaemia.

“I know you really love Priya” Pankhudi said in a calm soothing voice “But why do you choose to keep only the bad memories? That picture of hers is so beautiful, then why do you still keep it behind the broken glass of the picture frame that symbolises her hate for you? Perhaps you never even tried to move on. Honey you can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even years over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened or how things would have been different if you would have done things differently... or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on, because nothing can change what has already happened. You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. How much longer are you going to let the bad things of your past get the best of you? It is time to let go sweetheart. Alisha isn’t my flesh and blood, but I have put in my heart and soul in raising her. Priya was a wonderful girl, but her mind was poisoned against you. It was wrong, but now you have the chance to make things right. Priya is dead, but Alisha isn’t. Then why do you want to kill the love she feels for you? She has grown up over these years seeing your cold and distant behaviour, she still doesn’t hate you. She is only upset that you keep blocking her attempts to bond. She really craves for your love and attention.” Pankhudi said softly, “Armaan it isn’t about blood ties, it is the beautiful bond of love that makes us a family”

Armaan had known little love in his life. It was difficult for him to understand at once.
“I know this will be hard for you, and you can’t change overnight, but promise me that you will at least try” Pankhudi said.
“I will” Armaan said.

“Then let’s celebrate your birthday together tomorrow evening, she has been looking forward to it. She even brought you a present, she told me not to tell you though, it’s her little surprise for you” Pankhudi said as she snuggled into his Armaan’s arms. He kissed her forehead and hugged her as the couple fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Next morning, Armaan woke up while Pankhudi was still sleeping. He kissed her forehead and walked out of the room. Alisha was standing right outside waiting for him.
“Dad, I just wanted to say sorry for yesterday” Alisha said.
“You don’t have to, I overreacted, I am sorry” he said as he hugged her.
Alisha was overwhelmed to receive such a warm hug from her father. He never hugged her before, or even if he did, it was very cold and just for the sake of it.

“Happy Birthday...I hope you like my present. I thought I’d give you in the morning itself, coz you said you’ll be working till late today.” she said as she gave him the present she had brought for him.
“Thank you honey” Armaan said with a warm smile. He led Alisha to the couch and made her sit down beside him, and began to open the present with a smile. He found a beautiful picture frame in it.

“This is such a beautiful present” he said as he hugged Alisha, “I’ll put your picture in it sweetie”
“This isn’t really for me Dad” Alisha said calmly with a smile.
“Dad I saw that broken frame in your room..I don’t know who the girl in the picture is. But since you are so protective about that picture, perhaps she is someone really special, someone you really love. I thought the picture of such a special person shouldn’t be in a broken frame, so I brought you a new one.”

Armaan was touched to see how deep her thinking was.
“If you won’t be angry dad, I wish to know who that special girl is.”
“That’s my daughter Priya...she’s no more.” He said.
“I am sorry” Alisha said with remorse. “She would have been lucky. You are a great dad. She must be really special, just like you are special for me”
“I am sorry, I am what...?” Armaan could hardly believe that the girl he never loved much said he was special for her.

“Maybe you couldn’t feel for me the way you do for Priya, and I don’t blame you for that. I was just another orphan. I never got to know who my real parents were. I’ve had a lot of hard years at the orphanage; things aren’t so easy out there. When you brought me here, gave me a home, food, education, everything I needed. I used to read fairytales, and imagine what it would feel like to be a princess, and here I actually felt like a princess – your princess. Mom is so amazing, the loveliest woman I’ve known. She nurtured me with so much love, more love than any orphan like me even dreams about. I got to grow up with such an amazing family; all this means a lot to me. Without you, I would have never got all this. I may not be very special for you, but you mean the world to me.”

The thoughtfulness of her present and her words made Armaan realize what Pankhudi meant when she said she had put in her heart and soul in raising Alisha. He could see Pankhudi’s reflection in her.

“Alisha” he said as he hugged her again, “You too are special for me, very special. And only your picture can complete this picture frame.”
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