Chap 18 A surprise visit

It seemed life had even more surprises in store for Ghazal. Three days later, when she was leaving the school, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She turned to see Rimjhim, Vaibhav’s sister,  standing there. Ghazal was pleased to see her old friend, who could have been her sister-in-law, had it not been for that heart-wrenching tragedy. They were seeing each other after years, in fact for the first time after her marriage to Arun. She walked towards her and hugged her tight, both their eyes getting wet, remembering that one person, who was close to them both.
                  They had remained in touch only through their common friends in the past years. Ghazal could not bring herself to visit Vaibhav’s family, neither they tried to contact her directly, for the simple reason that they did not want to disturb her married life. Ghazal asked Vrinda to go home by bus, explaining her that she would reach home later. She then called Arun, telling him she would be home after an hour. Both the friends went to the nearest ice cream parlour and sat on a corner table with their favourite ice creams. They had so much to share with each other and Rimjhim’s heart went out to Ghazal , realising she still had a part of Vaibhav in her life.
            Rimjhim was happily married and settled in USA. While on a company trip to Chicago, She had met Mihir by chance and had come to know all the bitter experiences of Ghazal after marriage. On her trip to India, she had decided to meet her friend and hence this meeting. After an hour of sharing their sweet and sour moments, they got up to leave, hugging each other with a promise to keep in touch. Just before driving away, Rimjhim gave her a gift wrapped packet, asking her to see it after reaching home. Ghazal didn’t have a heart to refuse. Waving at her, she herself took an auto for home.