In the middle of the rainy season, when the stormy winds were at their most violent a young Sanskar was waiting at the shady corner from which the path leading to their school twisted out of sight, until someone came to pick him up. It was a time when some kind of a business swindle was going on and the Maheshwari kids were forbidden to travel on their own; the rude weather only added to this decision. But he was not one to wait politely behind the gates of his prestigious school, instead he had came few blocks outside and was getting irritated with the lateness of his driver.
There were ominous dark clouds gathering ahead of him. Glancing forebodingly at the sky and feeling the approaching rain in the harsh wind around him he pulled up his hood and backed away more towards the canopy of the tree behind him. His brain was urging him to walk home, after all Badi Maa had confiscated his bicycle and would have his hide if he dared to walk home rain soaked. It was when Sanskar was hissing to himself about how he could murder that sorry excuse for a driver, she came skipping in to his sight.
It was the Gadodia girl, he had seen her a few times in their parties but this was the first time he saw her in their school. She was wearing the same school blazer and wooly cap over her neat pigtails. There was a spring in her step as she sniffed the rain in the air, literally ignoring him and standing a few feet away watching the stormy wind making swirls of dried leaves.
‘Swara,’ he had just remembered her name, but unintentionally had said it out loud. She turned towards him, her eyes slightly wide. Shrugging he tried to cover his mistake. ‘You’re Swara aren’t you, Swara Gadodia?’
She was still watching him, as if trying to place his face in her memories and then smiled widely.
‘Sanskar Maheshwari,’ she said. ‘DP uncle’s son, right…?’
An instant thrill at being addressed his hero’s son ran through Sanskar. Oh, how he wished that had been true. He shook his head.
‘He’s my father’s elder brother,’ he told her discontentedly. However she was not waiting for his explanation, in fact she was not waiting at all. Instead she was running after something. After a moment, standing at the very middle of the road she jumped and clasped her hands over something; utter joy lighting up her features.
‘Um, Swara what are you doing?’ Sanskar asked her uncertainly.
She gestured him to join her, still keeping her hands covering whatever she captured. After a moment of staring in disbelief Sanskar strode towards her rather reluctantly. Her eyes were gleaming with excitement as she looked up at him.
‘I saved her!’ She said.
‘Pardon me?’ said Sanskar.
‘Oh!’ she said as she slowly opened her hands. On her right palm a frail white butterfly rested, its wings folded thankfully. ‘You know they can’t fly against the wind.’ she continued, observing the little creature in her outstretched palm. ‘They get caught up in storms and die,’
‘But it’s going to rain soon,’ Sanskar pointed out. ‘She won’t make it home.’
Swara stared at him in absolute horror. She knew that the little thing cannot fly against the heavy rain, but saying it so bluntly was another thing.
‘I’ll take her home,’ she said shortly and looking over his shoulder she saw that her father’s car was already there to pick her up. ‘And I won’t let her go until I am sure she is free.’  She smiled determinedly at him and went to the car. ‘Can I drop you somewhere?’
Both of them had boarded on friendship that day, grew closer to each other with the coming years and discovered more to each other than what they knew on that stormy road. But in Sanskar’s mind, she was always the girl who noticed a tiny butterfly’s dilemma and was naïve enough to believe she was able to save it from nature’s wreath.
In the environment he had grown up, genuine affection and honestly was rarely found, but innocence such as hers, did not exist. It was what bond him to her, what defined her in his eyes. Swara, was plain glass and he was set to destroy that very definition of hers.
*
‘Get in the car!’ That was all Lakshya could say after dragging her in heartless silence to the parking lot. Swara shook off his hold and glared at him, angry tears forming in her eyes.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ She asked him heatedly.
Laksh banged his fist on the bonnet before turning to her, his jaw rigid.
“Why don’t you tell me that?’ he said. ‘What is the deal between you and SK?’
‘Who is SK?”
He let out a sarcastic laugh.
‘Is this another one of those business secrets Papa forbidden you to tell me?’ He held out a hand to silence her when she was about to retort. ‘I know you came here to meet him, the receptionist told me. The phone you forgot in my car had his appointment!’ He threw the phone back at her. ‘But you could have told me you were coming here! But no, instead you drop Bhai back home and drive away stealthily, what kind of a fiancée are you?’
‘I don’t know how I got here Laksh,’ she half shouted. ‘I don’t know who this SK is!’
‘Right, so when you turned me down on dinner last week did you know where you were going? When I asked you out for lunch what were you so busy on?’
Swara could not believe she was having this conversation. Her head that had been dizzy earlier started to throb with frustration.
‘I went for a business dinner with Adarsh Bhaiya that night! We had final project discussions on the day you were planning lunch. I wasn’t avoiding you Laksh! I was busy!’
‘I agree. That’s why I never rebuked you on any of those occasions. I wanted you to know that I understand! But no, now you’ve started lying to me!’
‘I am not lying! I was not having any meeting with any SK. Whoever that man is!’
‘You know who SK is Swara. He’s the chairman of Karma and Co. Don’t tell me you don’t know him...’
Right at the moment Swara’s phone started ringing, disturbing their heated conversation. Glancing at the screen she dropped her angry avatar and answered the call in a small voice.
‘Ah, yes. We are coming. I have confirmed it with Mr. Maheshwari, there’s no problem.’
Disconnecting the call she looked at him, her eyes slightly red.
‘We have a charity gala to attend tonight,’ she took a long breath. ‘Since you keep complaining I don’t spend time with you I’ve been intending to take you with me. But if you’d rather not,’ she gave him a look. ‘I have no complaints.’
With no other explanation she opened the door and sat on the back seat, still rubbing her forehead.
‘I think your SK will be there too. If you have time show me how he looks like.’ There was sarcasm dipping from her voice, Lakshya glanced at her before starting the engines. She ignored him and placed her head against the cold glass. The throbbing in her head was dimming her other senses.
*
One long tear hung from the tip of her nose, another was following its path and a third one dangled from her eyelash. Swara blinked once before shaking her head and starting to pack once more. Being separated was one thing, being exiled was another. She had taken off her precious photographs from the sunflower colored walls and emptied her wardrobes when Sanskar entered.
‘Shona,’ he said in that innocent voice of his. ‘Don’t go!’
She looked up at him and wiped away her puffed eyes.
‘DP uncle wants me to leave. It’s a custom, the bride lives the last couple of weeks with her mother.’
‘He’s a bad man,’ sanskar piped up as he sat on the edge of her bed. ‘He shouted at me when you weren’t here. Said I was playing games with him. If you leave he’s going to torture me!’
Swara gave him a wide eyed look of disbelief.
‘He loves you! He would not do that,’ she said firmly.
Sanskar huffed as she turned towards emptying her drawer once more and his calculating look returned.
He knew exactly why Durga Prasad asked her to leave. He was protecting her, from the danger he could not point out; from him.
Swara had caught up a wrong end, he was not worrying about whatever spat taken place between she and Lakshya. His lips curled a little, it would take a lot more than Lakshya’s whim to break his trust. That stroke was not meant for him either. He clenched his jaw a little, he would not let her go just yet.
With a tinkling of a bell Swara dropped something, her eyes narrowing she picked it up. It was a small brightly purple colored pouch. Her features lighting she turned to him with a smile.
‘Do you remember this?’
Still lot in his scheduling Sanskar briefly looked at her.
‘The Omamori,’ his lips muttered.
‘Of cause the charms we brought back from that holiday in Japan! It was supposed to protect my true love!’
‘They don’t!’ he snapped at her mentally. The pouch brought back some bitter memories.
He had given his to Kavi, in the initial days of their relationship. She kept it with her all the time. But it did not protect her did it? She had given it back to him the morning of their supposed to be marriage and said when she was with him no bad luck would dare to touch her. He was her very personal Omamori. He winced in pain. He could not protect her from his own people.
Swara was looking at him oddly; he rubbed his forehead faking a pained expression.
‘My head hurts,’ he whined. Someone was honking outside.
‘I need to get going!’ Swara said uergently.
‘No, Shona don’t leave me!’
“Oh please Sanskar, I’d come to see you every day!’
‘No, NO!’ he insisted. ‘What if I had nightmares? Who would tell me bedtime stories?’
Swara helplessly knelt before him and held his hands. She handed him the Omamori.
‘Here keep it. You won’t have bad dreams! I’ll phone you and tell you a bed time story tonight.’
She brushed the top of his head affectionately and stood up to leave.
‘I’ll see you soon!’
‘Shona!’ Before he could stop her she left the room. Standing up to follow her he cursed under his breath.
‘Why do you have to be so good all the time?’ he muttered to the Omamori. ‘You just handed your bad luck your good luck charm Shona.’
*