Adultery Avi's Sexual Marathon: Family, Village, College, City

[lee.jae.han]

## Update 4: The Secret Behind the Wall

I came home, my head still swimming with the unsettling image of Pooja Bua and Rakesh. I just want to go to my room and be alone. I handed Chhoti Chachi the money and retreated to the dim quiet of my room, intending to sleep, but the soft, urgent voices of Chachi and her friend, a nurse named Riya, drifted clearly through the thin wall. I couldn't help but strain to listen.

"Riya, did you do my work?" Chhoti Chachi’s voice was tense, barely a whisper.

"Yes, I brought your report," Riya replied.

What report are they talking about? I shifted, pressing my ear closer to the wall, trying to become part of the plaster.

"Show me! What does it say?" Chachi urged, the anticipation a low thrum in her voice.

Riya hesitated, the silence stretching. "It’s just that..."

"What's 'it's just that'? Just give it to me!" Chachi’s impatience cracked through her composure.

Riya’s voice softened even more. "Here."

A paper rustled. "I can’t understand any of this, yaar," Chachi said, a sigh of frustration escaping.

Riya paused, choosing her words. "It says that..."

"Yes, tell me!" Chachi insisted.

"All your tests are positive," Riya stated simply.

Chachi’s breath caught. "And Avi's Chacha's?" A thread of desperate hope was woven into the question.

"His are negative," Riya replied.

"Meaning?" Chachi whispered.

"It means your husband's sperm count is very low, and what sperm he does have are weak," Riya explained. She lowered her voice further, though I still caught every word. "In other words, your husband can never make you a mother."

Chacha can't have kids? That's why he married three times? But he always blamed my Chachis. A wave of utter confusion and sharp pity washed over me. I felt a cold knot tighten in my stomach, the world suddenly tilting.

"What are you saying?" Chachi exclaimed, her shock echoing the silence in the room. "How can that be?"

"That’s the truth on the paper," Riya said.

"No, my husband is active. He sleeps with me for fifteen minutes, and I get wet two or three times!" Chachi pleaded, clinging to the physical evidence of their life.

"That's all fine," Riya said firmly. "But you don't become a father just by having sex for a long time. It depends on the sperm."

Chachi was trembling. "So what should I do now? Avi's Chacha will destroy me. He’ll never stop blaming me!"

"Do one thing," Riya suggested, her tone pragmatic. "Have a baby with someone else's sperm."

"Chacha won't agree to that," Chachi said immediately.

"Then don't tell him. Come to the hospital with me," Riya pushed. "I'll handle the procedure. No one will ever find out."

"But this is wrong," Chachi said, her voice heavy with conflict and guilt.

"There's nothing wrong with this. It happens in the city every day," Riya reassured her.

Chachi inhaled slowly. "No, yaar, I can't do this." Sadness weighed down the air.

Riya let out an exasperated sound. "Okay, don't. It doesn't affect me."

"Don't be angry," Chachi pleaded.

"I’m not angry," Riya replied, though the sharpness in her voice betrayed her.

Chachi sighed, changing the subject abruptly. "Okay, forget about that. How are your husband and kids?"

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you in the rush of the report," Riya said, her voice brightening slightly. "My husband has been transferred. We are leaving the city this Sunday."

"What? You're leaving me, too?" Chachi’s voice broke, the sorrow of being abandoned by her only ally palpable.

"I have to go, Meena," Riya said, her expression softening. "I’ll be in touch."

"Okay," Chachi whispered. "Just promise you'll call."

"I promise." I heard the soft padding of Riya’s footsteps as she walked away. "Bye."

Chachi looked heartbroken. She was holding on to the hope of this report, and now it's all gone.

The room was silent, then a small, dry, rustling noise—the sound of the report being crumpled. A moment later, I heard the faint shhh of a match. Chachi was alone, talking to herself.

"Riya, you’ve solved a big problem for me," she whispered into the empty air. "I'll become a mother soon, but I don't know who the father will be. It would be good if he was from this house. If that happens, then Suman Didi and Seema Didi will also become mothers. Now I just have to find a father for my future child."