2 years had
gone by, but the morning ritual had remained unchanged. Every morning, she
would bring two cups of hot coffee to start his day. They had been through so
much over those precious moments shared every morning. Fights settled, promises
made, kisses shared, all with a sweet warm breath. She remembered how it had
started… it was their honeymoon and she had woken up before him. Not wanting to
wake him up, she decided to make some coffee for herself. He woke up from the
sound of the pot and she offered the cup to him, which he accepted with a smile.
That smile… she had never seen him smile like that in their year of courtship
and she knew as long as he had that smile, there was nothing the two of them
couldn’t go through. All she had to do was ensure he began every morning with
the same smile, which he did till date. No words had ever been spoken. He had
never asked. He had never needed to. The ritual had simply manifested itself.
She had
come into his life hardly prepared for anything life would throw at her. Within
a day, her life had turned around and she was not equipped to face it. Her
mother had tried hard to instill some “household” manners in her, but she never
bothered. As long as she could make Maggi and coffee, she could feed her
husband, she used to think with a twinkle in her eye. Now she knew her words
were true when in the middle of his sips he would sometimes silently come close
to her and hold her in his arms, letting her know that her deficiencies didn’t
matter to him. Sometimes, not often, he would allow small words of comfort to
escape his lips.
The day of
her miscarriage, he had brought her back from the hospital and simply laid her
down on the bed without a word before going to sleep on the other end. The next
morning, he woke her up with a cup of coffee for himself and a glass of warm
water for her, taking her in his arms once again and telling her not to worry.
Those were the only words she needed to hear. They had sounded so meaningless
when the doctor had said them. Right now, they brought life back in her soul
and she cried. Tears which had been held back then came rushing out now and he
wiped every one of them. As long as he was there with her, no tear of hers
would ever fall, she thought as she felt the taste of coffee on her lips.
Coming back from the memory, she poured the bubbling liquid in two cups and
made her way to their room.
As his
bride walked in with coffee, he woke smiling… remembering the fragrance of his
Aai’s coffee.
Vishal Gupta
October 2014
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