A secret of Summer (Prologue)

A secret of Summer
Prologue
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Previous Link- intro

Dedicated to ( If anyone is missed I am truly sorry ) – Sus, Phoniex, Sanu, Madhu, Neha, anu, Manu (Manasvi), Parul, a, Kojagori, Aarushi_99, Iqu, Pramudi, ritu, Arshaanya, Gayathri, Anju, Ammu, aashi and Pintumintu_Penguin.

Note: Sorry for my spelling and grammar mistakes, if any.
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Little Swara ran towards her house, she was excited to tell her mom, dad about her day in school today. She stopped by the garden to chase the beautiful butterfly, she had spotted. And afterwards finally entered her house.
Her brother, Rehaan, 5 years elder to her, was out to play cricket with his friends and the house was pitch quiet.

‘Mumma! Daddy!…Bhai?’, The little six year old could find no one around. She ran around in the empty corridor, her cute voice echoing everywhere.
She reached parents room, the door was half open although she could see nothing of inside. Finally happy about finding her parents in the huge mansion, she entered the room, grinning cheekily.

But her chuckles vanished when she saw the dreadful scene in front of her. Her mother and father were lying on the ground with their eyes firmly closed, an empty bottle of poison laid besides them.

It took Swara a lot of time to understand what that meant. Why weren’t her mumma and daddy opening their eyes? Why were they sleeping on the floor?

She stepped towards them with shivering steps.

They were not breathing!

Swara couldn’t handle this much shock and everything went black in front of her…

*

‘Mumma I want a pet! A doggy…’, Swara demanded.

‘But beta it is too late at night..’, Janki, Swara’s mother tried to make her understand.

Swara started crying.

‘Doll, wont you be a good girl? We will go away if you won’t be a good girl!’, Shekhar, her father said.

‘No! No! I want a doggy..’, Swara sobbed.
‘Ok ok shona, don’t cry we will bring a doggy for you! Rehaan, take care of her and yourself, we’ll be back soon.’, Janki said.

‘Don’t worry ma I’ll take care of doll’, Rehaan had promised.

‘Yayyy! Bhai now let’s play’, swara was excited and started playing with Rehaan while Janki and Shekhar smiled and went away.

Swara still remembered how happy she was when she saw a puppy on her doorstep and had named him ‘Babu’ .

*

Swara woke up with a jerk and found herself on her bed. No it wasn’t a dream, but a real incident which she remembered.

”We will go away if you won’t be a good girl! “ Her father’s words ringed in her ears. She had not been a good girl, and that’s why they went away. Swara heard a little bark and a feathery touch on her feet. Babu was lovingly, trying to play with her. Swara took that innocent little creature in her hands and stared it…

Swara started screaming and crying loudly. Hearing her cries, Sharmishtha, her chachi (Aunt), and her cousin sister Ragini ran to the room.

‘Shona! Beta what happened?’, Sharmishtha asked her, she had always loved Swara like her own daughter.

‘I want to meet mumma daddy! Take me to them!,’ Swara said, still crying.
Sharmishtha wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes and took her in her embrace, and walked out of the room with Ragini following them behind.

*

There was a croud of people in the house. Which consisted of some relatives and friends. Why are they all here? Swara wondered.
And then she saw it, the body of her mom and dad, covered with white cloth , their eyes still closed.

Swara collapsed on their feet and started crying loudly, her wails covered the atmosphere.

‘I will be a good girl! Please come back’, was the only thing she was saying. Every single person present there felt pity on her, while some tried to console her.

What will a child do in this situation?

Suddenly she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder she turned back to see her brother, in a white kurta with his eyes all red, indicating how much he already cried. Without wasting a second, Swara hugged his brother tightly and cried.
‘Bhai!!! Tell them to come back na, I promise I’ll be a good girl!’, Swara sobbed.
‘Shhh doll don’t cry!’, Rehaan tried to console her, but only he knew how much he was himself broken inside.

Vikram, Swara’s chachu [ Father’s brother] (He is the husband of Sharmishtha) could not see her like this, and picked her up in his lap.

‘Princess!! calm down! From today you both will live with us, we will be your mother and father.’ Vikram firmly said and hugged her.

‘I want to take babu with me…’, Swara said.

*

Swara remembered how much excited she would always be when it was time to go to Chachi’s house, to play with Ragini. She had often spent her holidays there.
But now, being here, without her parents and considering it as her own home was difficult for her. Her chachi and chachu had always loved her a lot, so did she, but giving anyone the place of her parents was impossible. She was always seen playing with babu to distract herself.

She would often wake up in the middle of the night, screaming, from the nightmares. Sharmishtha had been a strong motherly figure for her and had soothed her, helping her to get out of her emotional trauma.
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13 years later…

Swara’s Pov

I glanced at the delicious looking truffle cake in front of me. Something insides me yells, Do it Swara! Just Do it. This is what you were ever born for!

Well I know that’s not true, because I was born for Ranbir Kapoor and not a food item no matter how tasty it may be.
‘ Doll! Where are you ? Come have snacks with us !’, Chachi yelled from downstairs.

Just for the fact, my room is situated in the farthest corner of the house, chachi’s voice so loud and, I mean it! So loud that it reaches here.
But I was in no mood for eating anything but a truffle cake!

‘ Chachi you guys eat! I am not hungry !!’, Swara yelled from inside not sure if they heard her . Sure enough the reply came soon.

‘Are you sure beta? ‘
‘Yes I am’, I had said confidently.

Here I am, curled up in my bed , regretting my refusal ! You know that feeling when you decide to use the laptop whole night, and secretly sneak your parent’s laptop in your room, and wait for them to sleep. But in the waiting, you yourself fall asleep. Then in the morning, you wake up, realize and regret losing such a chance. And then if someone spotted the laptop in your room, ( Well, in the overcrowded house, you couldn’t manage to keep the lappy back in its place without anyone noticing. ) you’ll be blamed to use the laptop at ‘inappropriate’ time, even though you couldn’t use the opportunity!? And then there’s nothing you can do after that. You know that feeling right? I am sure you do! Same here.
Before I could touch the choco cake, Babu jumped over it and then it was just gone! I rushed down quickly, more angrily though, and I felt someone stabbed my heart when I saw Chachu eating the last plate of truffle cake left in his plate. No! No! No! He cant just eat the reason of my existence!

‘STOPPP!’, I shouted on the top of my voice and ran towards him, tripping from the sofa, stepping on Babu’s dog poop, practicing how to long jump, all for nothing! Because the cake was already in his mouth! I felt the urge to take it out of there and eat it! But of course I couldn’t !

‘What happened ?’, Chachu asked casualy.
My face became like crying.

‘I wanted to eat that!’, I whined.
Chachu looked around at the condition of the room, I had made.
‘You did this all for it?’, he asked surprised.
‘But I wanted it!’, I pouted.
‘Well actually we did offer you, but I guess you were not ‘hungry’ !?” chachu said, even more casualy this time.

Is this even legal !?
‘Are don’t tease my baccha! Baby you don’t worry I’ll order another one for you!’, chachi came to my defense and ordered the servant.

While my phone ringed, ‘’Ragini’’ flashed on the screen. Exactly, what I needed at this moment!

‘Hello’, I said, trying to sound as normal as possible, and also faking my unawareness of the upcoming storm at the door.

‘Hello gaya bhaad me ( Hello went to hell ) Where were from past two hours haan? Miss busy bee blah blah blah blah….’ And then she kept ranting on after that.
I could picture exactly how she would have said this. Her little nose flaring, every time it does whenever she is angry, hands on waist, and strands of her hair disturbing her face. Aww my cute lado! She has this tendency of getting angry REALLY often, if I don’t call her every hour she’ll literally not talk to me for a week, but she can’t live without talking to me either also, I know how to convince her too!

‘Are you listening?’, she shouted.
‘I am.’, I said calmly.

‘I was saying that the last week of our university has started, I hardly have any classes and I need you here!’, she ordered.
‘But lado! How can I come?”, I tried to protest, inside knowing that is all in vain.
‘YOU ARE COMING!’, she said, rather screamed.
‘And what about Chachu and Chachi?’, I reminded her of her parents, whom I can’t leave alone.

‘Go’, I heard a different voice and turned to see Chachi standing there.

That tall women in a colorful Bengali saree, a bold red bindi, dark kohl outlining her eyes, red lips and silky long hair tied in a bun, still looked like she is in her early thirties.
‘But chachi…’
‘She needs you.’
‘Fine’, I sighed, defeated, hugged her mumbling a ‘take care’.
‘Love you!’, Ragini said from the other side and the call got disconnected.

I packed my bags and went to get ready. Half an hour later, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I was wearing a sleeveless , decently plated frock in the prettiest shade of rose gold. Long tacky earrings, red bead bracelet, winged eye-liner, pink lipstick and I was ready.
‘Purr-fect.’, I mumbled before leaving.
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Precap- Ragini

A/N

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! I cannot believe this! Such a great response! Wait….did I forget to wish?…..Hello people!
You guys are so awesome, truly such lovely creatures over here! Love you all to infinity, thanks a real much sweethearts. Thanks again for all your sweet wishes and messages!
And about this part, there was no SwaSan and RagLak sorry for that! In present SwaSan and RagLak’s love story will start later, so I’ll try to show them in flashback for a while. I’ll start showing SwaSan scenes in the 1st or 2nd epi, and raglak maybe from the 3rd.Hope the length is okay, its 1982 words.

Also I got to know many of you liked Swara’s character, especially her smoking, lol~ I am just glad to know that you liked that little effort of mine! And I also hope that this prologue was up to mark and I could reach your merry expectations.

If possible do comment! Well this author’s note became author’s essay already ! So bye.Have a really nice day!

P.S I forgot to mention that in this ff it is 40 percent raglak and 60 percent swasan. Swasan are shown in a little more detail than raglak, but even ragak are the leads.