Chapter 90: chapter 90

Earlier That Day...SRUTHI“Are you sure you will be okay?” I ask for the seventh time.Madhav sighs, “Yes, I will be okay. Just get going. The doctor told me to rest and I am resting. You don't have to stay cooped up in this room because of me. This resort has a lot of activities for its residents; just go immerse yourself in one of them.”We are back at the resort. After the doctor's check-up, I drove us back here.  Madhav looks far better now. There are no visible signs of allergy on his skin. Yet, I am apprehensive to leave him alone in the room. It is not like I would be useful in any way to him if I stayed here but I want to stay here and look after him. But, he doesn't need looking after.“Okay, if you need anything, give me a call; I will come running back,” I say, picking up my phone and walking to the door. I linger there still contemplating whether to leave him or not.“Just go,” Madhav says from the bed. With a nod, I exit the room and close the door. I stand in front of the door, still in contemplation of leaving Madhav when my phone pings with a message. I turn on the screen to find the message from Madhav. The message reads as follows,‘For God's sake Sruthi, I am fine. Stop standing before our room door like a creepy stalker and go tour the resort. If you don't leave the spot you are standing on in ten seconds, then I am coming out to accompany you on a tour of the resort.’Something tells me that he will do that. So, I text him a goodbye text and start walking from the spot. ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥The resort is quite big. It does have many recreational activities ranging from spa to campfire. But, those aren't what interests me. Half an hour into the tour, I discovered a gem in this place. A library for children's literature.A library filled with all sorts of fairy tales and stories from all over the world. For someone fond of fairytales and children's stories, this place is heaven. Of course, the country's largest library is located in the Capital city, but I had no idea that a library specially dedicated only to children's literature is present in this resort.I pick the book that I have been meaning to read and walk back to the reading area. The book is titled, ‘The Princess and the Pirate’. It is a legendary story of the Boiren Mountains. A story that took place a thousand years ago in this place.  It is a tale of a cruel princess and her pirate husband. The story goes like this...When the lands were still ruled by kings and queens, a daughter was born to the king who was ruling over the Boiren mountains. The daughter was renowned for her beauty and wickedness. She was a maiden with a fierce temper and high pride. When she reached the age of marriage, many suitors from different places came and sought her hand in marriage, but she was haughty and insulted them. She turned down any man who approached her. There were a lot of hearts she broke. The king, her father, was worried for her. But even his words couldn't convince his daughter to settle for a man who wasn't like the ideal one she had in her mind.It is said that nature was angry at her for her pride and punished the lands with an earthquake. The place was ruined. The royal palace, along with all its members, were now stranded on the road.No one was willing to help the royal family, as the people believed it was the princess’s arrogance that had brought this disaster upon them. Desperate, the king decreed that anyone who could restore their kingdom would be granted his daughter’s hand in marriage. The princess was angry at her father for providing that decree, but she had no choice but to go along with it because, in the end, she was still living off her father's money.Days passed, but no noblemen stepped up to help. No one wanted a woman from a ruined royal family no matter how beautiful she was. The princess felt bitter and angry at the turn of events and she grew more resentful of the world. Her haughty nature only became more haughtier as she began living like a commoner.Things were like that until a pirate ship sailed into the harbour of the city. The captain of the ship, a notorious pirate known for many crimes, fell in love with the princess at the first sight of her. He approached the fallen king and asked for his daughter's hand in marriage. The king, without any other choice, agreed to marry his daughter to the pirate on the condition, that he must spend his looted money to restore the fallen kingdom.Blinded by his love for the princess, the pirate agreed to the king's condition. So, took place a simple wedding between the princess and the pirate. The pirate was the happiest man on the earth that day but the princess was the saddest woman. With her arrogance and haughtiness, the princess had always dreamed of marrying a king of huge wealth and otherworldly beauty. She wasn't satisfied with marrying a man who looted and cursed in foul language. But, the pirate soon realised his wife's emotion. Though he was known to be a cruel and ruthless man, he became considerate of his wife and confronted about her feelings. The princess told him about the disgust and hate she has for him. The man was heartbroken, but with a neutral face, he asked her what she desired the most. To that the princess answered that it was a divorce that she wanted from him. The pirate was stunned into silence for a few seconds and when he opened his mouth again, his words were cold. He told her that she could divorce him if she gave him an heir. He promised to take care of the child and let her go with a huge alimony after the childbirth. The princess desperate to leave the man, agreed. The pirate had hoped to use the time till childbirth to show the princess how much he loved her and hoped to make her fall in love with him, but things only took a turn for worse again because the princess did get pregnant, but she had terrible morning sickness that made her nauseous just at the sight of food. She had mood swings, and her resentment of her husband only grew more. The pirate tried his best to be understanding and caring but none of his actions moved the haughty woman. In the end, the woman did give birth to a beautiful girl but her heart remained the same. She still resented the pirate and hated the child because it resembled its father so much. The pirate kept his promise and told the princess to leave with a huge alimony. The princess left the place and travelled to a neighbouring country and settled down there with the alimony. Her initial years at this place were nice and wonderful but soon she started to miss her husband. As the months passed, she felt lonely and no matter how many men approached her, she couldn't forget her husband. Every time she saw a little girl, she thought of her daughter. She realised how it was foolish of her to push her husband and daughter away. She decided to go back to them.But what awaited her when she returned was a huge shock. Her husband was living happily with another woman and a little girl. The girl resembled her a lot and she knew he kept his promise to take care of the child. She went around the place asking about who that woman was.  She gathered from people that the woman was a nanny hired to look after the baby girl but soon she and the pirate fell in love. Besides, the baby girl was also very fond of the nanny, so the pirate married the nanny, and now they were living happily ever after.The story ends with the princess returning to the neighbouring country with a broken and unsatisfied heart. She soon falls sick and dies all alone with no one the wiser.The moral the story wants to convey is to be content with what life gives you.I close the book and shake my head. There were many endings written to this story. Some were crueller than others, but so far, this version that I just read is the best. No one knows what the real story was. Each person interpreted the story with their perceptions. I am still thinking about the princess from the story when I feel someone touching my shoulder. I jerk out of my thoughts and turn around to find Ragini standing with a book in her hand.I wasn't able to talk properly with her in the morning because of the outing I had planned with Madhav, but now I have a lot of time on my hands, and from the looks of it, too, I seem to have a lot of time.So, we catch up like good old friends.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥“Wait, so you want to record an audiobook of this story for the blind children?” Ragini nods her head. She runs an NGO for differently abled children through a trust set up by her father. Though there are bad rumours about how that trust is misusing the tax money of people, I know how much Ragini cares for the children. I have never seen a dedicated individual like her when it comes to those children.“And you want me to give the voice for the princess?” I ask again in shock. She saw me reading the story of the princess and the pirate in the library and asked me to do her a favour. The favour is that she is recording an audio version of the story of the princess and the pirate, and she wants me to do it.“I would do that myself, Sruthi,” Ragini explains, “But I am not that good at storytelling like you. I cannot change my tone like you when I tell a story. So, the kids are finding it boring and losing interest easily. So, I want you to try it. I am not forcing you to do it. It is your wish to help or not.”“I will do it,” I agree. “So, how about we go to my room and record?” she asks.“Huh? Aren't you going to take me to a dubbing studio or something?”She smiles, “As much as I want to, people don't let you freely use a dubbing studio. I don't have the budget to afford for a dubbing studio. A phone recording would do.”I shrug, “Okay, then. Take me to your room.”❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥I wave my hand at Ragini to pause the phone recording. She does and I take a sip of my juice. We are sitting by the window in her room. Recording a story is more daunting than I imagined. I place the juice on the table thinking about Madhav. Is he still asleep in his room? I did text some time ago about the children’s library. But I never got a reply, so that could mean he is asleep. With these thoughts, I place my hand on the table but accidentally push the juice and the glass falls to the ground with all the juice going to waste.“Damn it,” I mutter and at the same time, Ragini moves her legs away to avoid getting the juice on her legs. “I will call the room service,” I say going to the hotel phone. Ragini nods and moves to the bed. I try the room service number but I don't get a reply. “The room service in this place is worst. How can they not pick up the phone even after dialling five times?”“Maybe the phone is out of service,” suggests Ragini.“Whatever, I will just go out and see if I can find someone to clean the mess,” I walk to the door and open it. I look in the corridor and luck is on my side today. Because a room service person is walking past my room.“Excuse me?” I call out to him. The man stops short in his tracks and his shoulders stiffen. He adjusts his cap before turning to face me. Something about him seems familiar. His mouth and nose are covered with a mask and I don't get to see his eyes properly because of the cap. Are room service employees supposed to wear these things like this?“Yass Madam,” the man drawls out the word. He seems to be a native speaker of the Boiren Mountains.“Can you come in for a moment and clean the juice I spilt on the floor? The reception is not answering.”“Okie, Madam,” he says and looks behind me at the room door. “I will be back with the cleaning supplies.”I watch him walk to the store room at the end of the corridor. I go back into the room and the door closes automatically. This resort has the kind of door that closes by itself when no one is holding it. “Is someone coming?” Ragini asks from the bed. “Yeah, I asked an employee to come and clean. He is on the way,” I say and assess the juice on the floor. Ragini coughs and I look at her with concern. She is in her second trimester. I grab the bottle from the dressing table and give it to her. At the same time, a knock sounds on the door.“That should be the cleaner,” I tell Ragini as she chugs down the water. I walk to the closed door and open it. The same employee I saw in the corridor is standing but he isn't looking at my eyes. He has a mop and a bucket in his hands. “Where?” he asks in that weird accent.“There,” I say pointing to the window table.As the cleaner passes me, I find his smell familiar. Is it my imagination, or does he smell like a certain someone who is down with a mushroom allergy?I join Ragini on the bed as the cleaner starts his work. I look down at the book but don't remember where I left, so I ask Ragini, “Where did I leave?”“You were telling, ‘The reason why I married him was all political’,” says Ragini.“Oh, yes,” I say finding that line on the book. I turn on the voice recorder and proceed to read the next sentence. I am at the point of the story where the princess is having a conversation with her close maid about her husband's condition. The voice of the maid is given by Ragini. “The only reason I married him was because of the dire circumstances. In other words, there is no way he would have had the chance to stand next to me. I just need to wait for a few months. Once I have an heir, I will discard him.”“So, you don't love him?” Ragini says the dialogue of the maid.“Love?” my voice is cold, “I can never fall for that criminal.”Something suddenly clatters down, and I quickly turn off the recorder. I don't want unwanted sounds in the recordings. I turn to find the cleaner standing frozen on the spot and the mop lying down. He is shaking and looks ill, “Are you okay?”To my utter surprise, he says, “I am not.” He hurriedly walks out of the room, but before leaving, he says, “Someone else will come and clean this.”❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥