Mischief

Rani kept herself busy. There wasn’t much to do anyway. Just two lone people in a big haunting mansion.

She looked at the untouched food and frowned. As she bent down to pick up the plates, she caught her reflection in the mirror. The frown stayed a bit longer, as if she looked at a stranger. She noticed the lines on forehead and frowned more. But as her eyes strayed below the neck, she smiled impishly. And then broke into a giggle.

“Laughing at yourself?” asked Saksham, mockingly, as he entered room feeling furniture with his stick.
“Great!”, she thought, “here comes the barrage of caustic remarks.” But she had noticed a slight but definite decline in acerbity of those lately. She wondered why.

He had lost his eyesight on diwali. “What a day to start a dark life”, the irony often made him chuckle. He became a recluse. Family, whatever was left of it, also drifted apart. It is hard to live with a bitter aging man. Well, unless you are an ostracized young widow yourself.

Rani made a face at him as she replied, “I'm sorry, Sir. Just came in to check your food.”

She was a young girl and it showed. She hated this place and the moroseness that floated in the air. So, she would find little ways to have whatever little fun she could have to stay sane - often at expense of Saksham. Off late she took to another little oddity. She would roam around in various stages of undress. She liked the freedom of it. Or may be the little adventure. And it wasn't like anybody came to visit. She could be as naked as she wanted. That too with a grown man in the same room, totally oblivious. Like right now.

“Rishabh is coming today”, he said as if reading her secret thoughts. “Prepare breakfast, again. And make sure I don’t throw it up this time”.
“Sure” she replied through gritted teeth. As soon as I get dressed.

Rishabh prepared tea as Sakhsham sat engrossed in his favourite Braille - War and Peace. Just as Rani left the room, Rishabh lowered his voice to a whisper, “When are you going to tell her?”
Saksham lifted a dirty magazine hidden between the tome and grinned “Soon”.