My Dream Marriage

I have completed cleaning the house just in time to make dinner for the family. I miss my parents so much, especially my dad, given his condition. He is still in coma and the last time I saw them was a week ago. I only talk to mom through the phone and get to know about how my dad is doing, though the story is still the same.

I assemble the ingredients ready for preparation. Martha left earlier today for a family gathering and she won’t be back until the day after tomorrow. She is the one who usually does most of the cooking, with me just giving her a hand. Today is now my day, no one is at home except for the gardener and it’s almost time for them to come back home. I want to be done with cooking dinner by the time they get here.

Jackie’s wedding was postponed, well, because of her pregnancy and she said the wedding will take place soon after delivery. She is too excited to meet her bundle of joy, even though it’s still months away, it is only two months. Azila said that we are kind of pressuring her since one of her friends is married, which is me, while the other is already pregnant.

I am cutting the onions when the kitchen door abruptly bangs. I jump in fear and that is when I accidentally cut my finger. I move slowly towards the door to try and see what made it shut so loudly. I open it and look outside but no sign of anything or anybody that could have made it close. It is too windy outside and I guess it could be the reason behind it. Blood is oozing from my finger dropping on my clothes furiously. I need to take care of it first. I take the first aid kit from the drawer and start working on my wound. Thankfully it wasn’t a deep cut so I will have to continue with my cooking.

My phone rings on the kitchen island I had placed onto. I place the kit back in the drawers and get to my phone. It’s my mother calling.

“Hey mom.”

“Hello Neera, where are you?”

“I am in the house. Are you okay? How’s dad?” Her voice is not sounding too good.

“It’s your dad,” she says.

“What about him? Did he wake up from coma?” I ask in high hopes

“Not really but you have to come here immediately. He woke up but didn’t do anything apart from calling your name. Please you need to come here right now,” she says. “What happened? Didn’t he talk to you?” I ask. “No Neera, he only has been calling your name and I don’t know why. I tried talking to him but he doesn’t seem to hear me. After awhile he slips back into coma and wakes up again but the only thing he does when he wakes up is call your name. Maybe if you come here we would understand what he wants or even get to wake up,” she says.

“I am home alone right now mom but I will try to come there as soon as possible,” I say. “See you,” she says and hangs up.

I have to call Piper and let her know that I will be leaving the house. “Neera,” she says from the other end. “Mother, I need to leave for the hospital right now,” I say. “Why Neera, have you forgotten the instructions I gave out to you? You are not allowed to leave the house, especially now that you are the only one at home. Haven’t you talked to them on the phone?”

“I have and my mom says that it’s an emergency and that I have to go immediately. Besides the gardener is here so the house will have someone else to take care of,” I say.

“That is not the gardener’s job, you understand? If you really want to go you have to wait for Edward or Eric to come back. As for me, I have a late meeting so I won’t make it there the usual time. You can prepare dinner as you wait for them,” she says and disconnects the call.

She can’t be serious right now. I call her back but it goes straight to voicemail. I call Edward and the call goes straight to voicemail too, this happens when Edward is busy, he told me not to bother when the call doesn’t connect since he is usually busy when that happens. I don’t want to call Eric because with his wife and son busy, he definitely is busy too so I decide to wait.

I want to stay calm but I can’t. With seconds turning into minutes and soon it will be hours and I really want to go. I move around the kitchen aimlessly praying for someone to come back home. I even forgot that I was in the process of making dinner, everything is still the way it was. The ingredients unprepared with the knife in the sink I don’t bother to touch anything. My mind is still on what my mother told me; my dad won’t stop calling my name. I just want to leave this place. Enough of the waiting.

I go upstairs and pick up my purse. I order for an Uber since there isn’t anyone here to take me. The driver informs me that he is not far from here. I close the main door of the house and tell the gardener that I am leaving. I will deal with Piper later when I come back.

I run all the way to my dad’s ward after alighting from the cab. I open the door and find my mom clutching his hand and calling his name softly.

“Neera, you are here,” my mom says when she sees me. “Mom,” I call. “Neera, is that you?” My dad’s voice croaks. He tries to raise his hand but he is too weak for that.

“Dad, I am here,” I say getting closer to the bed where he is. I hold his hand and he smiles a little, his dry and purple lips make it look like a weird one not the usual that I am used to. “Neera, where have you been? You stopped coming here,” he says. “How do you know that?” “I always heard you whenever you came and talked to me. After sometime you stopped coming. What happened?” “I needed to take care of the house,” I say. “I thought you were going to work?” He asks. “No, I quit recently. I no longer go to work,” I say.

“Neera, I can guess what transpired at your in-laws house. I am not going to condemn you if you decided that. Today I want to fulfil my promise to you,” he says. “What promise?” “I had promised to tell you why you had to get married into the Lawanson family, ” he says and I get it. “Alright dad I am listening,” I have waited for so long for this.

“As you know, this happened between your grandfather and old Lawanson. This was years ago even before I was born. Old Lawanson wanted his son to marry my dad’s daughter when the time comes but as you know I was the one who was born then the agreement had to be passed on to the next generation. Your grandpa told me that he had gone to work one day earlier because old Lawanson had requested him to since he would be out of town. He had to oversee and make sure everything is in order before any work could resume. They used to have a cement factory that they owned together. Since it was still early just one or two workers were already at work. He decided to make rounds on the site so that he could make sure nothing is a miss when the workers start on the day’s activities.

At some point he noticed that there was a machine that hadn’t completed the time needed to finish whatever it was supposed to do, it was like a crashing machine or something. It had been switched off when it was halfway through and since he knew how the machine was supposed to operate. Maybe one of the workers had switched it off unknowingly, as he assumed it, so he decided to switch it back on. Unknown to him, there was someone inside the machine so the next thing he saw was blood splattering all over the place. He had to switch it off and see what was going on inside the machine. That is when he saw a human body crashed beyond recognition.

The body was later discovered to be of Lawanson’s sister. The police wanted your grandpa charged but Lawanson withdrew the claim, saying that it wasn’t intentional and that they would settle it outside the court. That is how the agreement came about, to get one of your grandpa’s woman offspring to replace Lawanson’s sister. So Neera, no matter what happens, I am so sorry that this had to befall you. You are paying for something that you knew nothing about. Please forgive your grandfather wherever he is, and forgive me too, there is nothing I can do to save you from this,” he says and for the first time, I see my father’s tears rolling down from one of his eyes and my mother wipes it off.

“Me too Neera, I failed as a mother to you. I know how it is to get married to someone you don’t love, please if you could find it in your heart to pardon your mother,” my mother says wiping tears off her eyes too. I am shedding tears too.

“Mom, dad, I have nothing against you. I fully understand, it was beyond your will. I also don’t blame grandfather, he didn’t do it on purpose. What I don’t understand is how did she get there, inside that machine?” Did she willingly want to be crashed? If so, who the hell would want such a painful suicide, probably her alone.

“No one knows until now. That scenario was swept away as if it never happened. Whoever witnessed it was told to behave as if nothing happened. Lawanson didn’t want any fuss concerning his sister’s demise. He pardoned my father so easily as he claimed that he was like a brother to him. Neither was the story covered in the news nor did he allow anyone to ask him about it. That was what my father told me,” he says.

That is quite a story, I just have to make peace with my destiny, or is it fate? It is what it is, I will have to live with it, I have already accepted all this. I am in love with Edward, I don’t see any problem with paying for my grandpa’s sins. Now I know what transpired so this makes sense now.

“I know the Lawanson family bears some grudge with us. It is like there is no way out now,” he says.

“Dad, don’t worry about anything. I have decided to make them my family and I vowed to Edward that he will be my husband till death do us part. Besides, I am in love with Edward,” I say shyly. “When did you fall in love Neera?” My mother asks. “I think the first time I met with him,” I say.

My dad starts breathing heavily and mom presses the intercom. The doctor comes in with two nurses. He demands that my dad be taken to the operating theater immediately. He is wheeled out of the ward to the operating room. My mom hugs me and we sit on the bench outside the theater.

The red bulb is switched off and the doctor comes out. I signal to my mom, “the doctor is here,” and we get up to hear whatever he has to say. He checks his file and looks from my mother to me and back again.

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