26 May, 2016

Lost Warmth

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