Stories Varied - A book of short stories

‘But how pleasurable is this nascent longing!’ he thought turning his head towards Diya as if to gauge it in her demeanour, and finding her eyes in wait to espy his full visage, elated, he resumed his reminiscences.

When the court decreed her divorce, Diya wanted to begin her life afresh in her ancestral home in Panaji, and wished Kiara and he should be the midwives, as she put it. Like the infusion of oil imparts a fresh glow to a diya, as her new-found love for life had injected sensuality into her persona, he was readily besotted with the new woman in her. Ever since they boarded the flight at Palam that noon, he was possessed with an irresistible urge for her touch, and as Kiara’s innocuous move paved the way, he closed in on Diya to checkmate her.

‘What a touch!’ he began marveling at it. ‘Wonder how it still lingers! Why Kiara has been no less a woman. Surely there is something in Diya’s flesh and blood specially meant for my bodily needs. Going by her reaction, there could be an element in my body chemistry that catalyzes her arousal.”

As he turned his head towards her, as if for confirmation, her demeanour suggested that she too was thinking on similar lines.

“Rishaan isn’t the scenery uniquely different?” said Kiara ecstatically

“Yes, yes,” he said fumbling.

“But the soul of Goa is in its beaches,” said Diya.

“So, I’m a lost soul’ said Kiara in jest.

“Why so?” said Diya.

“I have water phobia.” said Kiara.

“What about our Kiara-half?” said Diya drawling on our.

“Wait until we reach the beach,’ he said turning his head, “and what about you?”

“You know I’m a Goan-girl, I mean woman,” she said drawling on woman.

When they reached Diya’s place to her parents’ elaborate welcome, Diya motioned the guests upstairs, saying smilingly, ‘you are welcome to carry your bag and baggage’. After ushering them into the sprawling guestroom, she showed them her modest bedroom. When they went downstairs freshened up, they were feasted with fresh seafood to satiate their palates. Resting for a while, the trio rushed to Candolim Beach, reaching which, they began walking on the sands, Kiara keeping her feet dry as Rishaan and Diya wetted theirs.