She sat near the well, staring at her long flary skirt…as the juice of the betel nut in her mouth started to calm her nerves.
She looked back to that day three years ago when she got married and moved miles away from her village. No one had visited her since then. Neither her father, nor her mother. Not even her doting elder brothers. She was no longer their responsibility.
Married at the age of 15, Tulsi was happy to have her own home and more importantly she was happy never to have to go to school again. She was good in studies and always topped her class. But this only brought jealous stares and snide remarks from other village girls. Smart girls don’t marry, they would say.
But that was three years ago and far away from her life today. Her husband worked in the city. He was a big man who worked hard to make big buildings. He had a steady income. Even last year when the village had a drought and most women of her village had to sell off their goats, he bought her new glass bangles. He would come home once a year and mostly treat her fine. But Tulsi could not give him a boy. She had had two daughters and one abortion over past three years. Her mother in law did not want a third girl.
Last time Tulsi’s husband came home, he was very sick. He coughed a lot and sometimes even spat blood. But this did not affect the rage in him when he got on top of her to release himself and then he rolled off and said “Now you have it too”.
Tulsi has not understood the meaning of that sentence to this date. What did she have now? She still wore the old flary skirt, walked a long distance every day to fetch water from the well and came back home to her two daughters and many chores. But yes she did cough blood sometimes and tire easily.
She did not know what she had now but she was glad that she and her big strong husband from the city shared something together.
pixietrying 