She just walked beside him.... silently. He was just walking ahead making sure she's catching him at his pace. They went to the flower plantation. Picked the flowers without any voice coming out from their throats. Young man didn't look at her, she didn't look at him but can feel each other's presence well. Aparna picked up speed in collecting the flowers. While the young man picked two baskets of flowers, she almost picked one and half baskets of flowers. After picking those baskets with flowers, they carried them to grandpa's house. Put them in the room and went to the kitchen and drank water as they used to do. Prabhavathi's and grandma's eyes were moistened at the familiar site that is happening in front of them again. They left the house as usual. Young man lead the way and she followed. He reached the familiar place_river bank. They sat on the rock after the Young man spread his towel on the rock. Despite how much time passed, she still remembers the presence of him. Even when she came here alone, she could feel his presence. "Mm..." she tried to clear her throat. "Mallikarjuna.." she called him after rolling his name on her tongue. "Hmm" he replied. Her yes widened. "Mallikarjuna.." called him again. "Haa" replied again. Silence surrounded them for a while.
"Where were you?" he spoke for the first time. His deep and warm voice struck her so deep that her eyes widened, opened her mouth in awe.."wooaahh" let out the sound without her knowledge. She tried many ways to make him talk or at least make a sound out of his throat. She finally has the moment that she could hear his voice. She didn't register the question he asked but just thought "his voice is so beautiful and deep. How could he keep it to himself all the time? Not fair."
He asked again "where were you these days?" She snapped out of her thoughts and "why...? Did you miss me? Did you want to see me?" asked mockingly looking into his eyes and poking his shoulder with her fore finger turning towards him a little. He nodded. Her poking finger just stopped at his shoulder and "did you just nod your head?" she asked as if she couldn't believe what she just saw. He nodded again. "Wait...." she took back her finger and pinched herself with that hand "aawwww" cried in pain. "Mallikarjuna, are we having a conversation here. YOU AND ME? HAVING A CONVERSATION?" her playful wild character returned to her. "I was carrying my daily routine... helping mother visiting Krishna, talking with Oormila ,visiting villagers now and then and..." she couldn't finish the sentence. "And?" he asked. "Visting this place and sitting on this same rock at this time" she replied in a very low voice that can be gone unheard easily, but he heard. "Here? Why? You didn't like midday sun right?" He asked with a plain face. "Yes I didn't like it. But here I can feel your presence more than anywhere. So I just come and sit here whenever I feel like seeing you." she replied in a very sincere tone. "Oh! Is that so?" he replied with a slight twitch at his lips. "Stop about me. Were you really waiting for me back at the home?" she asked as she jumped out of her sitting position right in front him directly to his face with a face distance between them. He nodded. "You're speaking fine just now. What happened to your vocal cords? Just speak instead of nodding to everything." Aparna snapped. He nodded again as a response to her previous question. "You..... you're mocking me clearly" sat back on her previous position clearly sulking with her whole face.
"Pah..." a sound came from her right side. She looked towards the sound and found herself a mesmerizing sight of the young man laughing out loudly. "Is this how you look when you laugh?" looked at him with a spellbound gaze. He looked at her back with a smile "how do I look?" She just stared at him. He was completely different person whom she's known these past month. He was looking like how his mother described him earlier to his father's death. "You... who are you?" words spilled before she knew it. "Me.. Mallikarjuna. Do you not recognize whom you've been chasing around like a cute dog?" he answered. "No...no you are not the one I know.... no this can't be...no no" she almost had a panic attack seeing his dual behavior as if he was possessed in such a short amount of time. "Aparna.."he called. She became still. "Aparna. I wanted to see you." Aparna's soul left her body for a while and came back. "What did you say?" asked him back. He turned towards her "I wanted to see you , is what I told just now" with a small smile on his lips. "I wanted to see you too..."Aparna replied unconsciously to his words. His smile became a little bigger.
She still couldn't register the person infront of him is the one who always ignored her, treated her like air, whose face have had no smiling or laughing muscles.She slapped herself hard and came back to senses that it really shocked the young man. She couldn't collect those thoughts." Who is this man talking freely in front of me? Is he possessed? Or his usual self? It's nothing like I know. Is he okay? Has he fell from a tree and injured himself in the head...? How could a man who didn't bother to make a sound, is now talking like this. Wait am I the one who's gone crazy.? Am I seeing illusions after seeing him after a long time? Should ask the Head Priest to perform cleansing ritual on both of us? What's happening here....."..
Young man had his share of fun watching her panicking infront of him. "Aparna. Don't behave weirdly" he said. Aparna was flabbergasted. "It's not me who's behaving weirdly. ITS YOU, IDIOT. TELL ME RIGHT NOW. WHO ARE YOU? HOW DO YOU KNOW ME."she is really trying hard to avoid the reality infront of her. "Aparna. Stop it. Can we talk?"he said it plainly causing Aparna to return to her senses.