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These are some unanswered questions running through my head as I run towards my house. I run through the green field, through the vegetable patch and straight into my house. I jump on the bed and I laughed to myself. I am so much in love that everything I look at seems so new and pretty. As I laugh loudly and jump out of the bed I look towards the broken mirror on the wall and pull the veil out of my face. I stop smiling and stare at the mirror, which shows the ugly burn scar on my left hand side of my face.

I have had that scar there forever. It looked ugly, actually very ugly and I always had that hidden with my veil. I was pretty, very pretty but only when the veil was covering the scare. I always cursed God for the scar and I knew that the day Vick would see that he would no longer love me. He had on few occasions asked me about the veil covering my face but I always changed the topic.

We were in love and so much love. I felt as if I was the luckiest person on the earth. Vick was in my small town on an excursion trip from city. They had been here for over 5 months now. I was standing on the cliff with my hands held high and he thought I was jumping down when he came and grabbed me. I shouted, kicked and punched him to let me go and that I was not trying to kill myself. When I turned around, I slapped him hard across his face and ran back home. The next day when I got there he was again there and when I saw him I started laughing and that's how we became friends and now lovers.

In 3 weeks he would be going back to the city and I was a worried sick. What if he never comes back to marry me? Every time I thought about him going away my heart sank but whenever we met I forgot all about him going away. I pulled the veil back on my face and went out and had dinner. I folded my legs and sat on the freshly polished mud floor and ate thinking about Vick. My brother was no where to be seen and my sister in law was giving me lecture for spending the whole day out in the field running around with kids.

"You should not be playing with the kids."

"Why?"

"You asking me why, she shouted. Just wait till your brother comes home and I will get him burn the other side of your face."

"You can do whatever you want as I know that I am still prettier than you with this burnt face."

"You stop talking back to me, she shouted."

Just than my brother walked in and my sister in law ran to him with tears in her eyes and started complaining about me. My brother who trusted every word his ***** wife had to say. He picked up a burning wood from the fireplace and started threatening me. I pushed the wood away, which accidentally landed on the floor and pieces of the hot coal went on my sister in laws foot and she screamed out in pain. I saw my brother turn around to hit me and I ran out of the house. I ran as fast as I could and didn't stop till I reached the cliff. I climbed down the cliff carefully and sat on my favourite spot. I was crying and shivering in the cold.

I would have spent few hours there when suddenly felt someone's hands on my back. I turned around in haste nearly pushing Vick off the cliff.

"What you doing here at this time of the night, I asked him."

"I think I should be the one asking you this."

"I had a small problem at home, I told him. I had to run away otherwise my brother would have beaten the crap out of me today."

With these words I burst into tears and Vick held onto me tightly.

"You are so cold, he said running his hands on my back and on my hands."

I tightened my grip on him as his hands over my body. I could feel him breathing heavily and in the darkness and the silence I could hear my heart beat. He placed few kisses on my neck and as he tried to go further I pushed him away. I was scared, very scared and we both sat down on the rock and started discussing about various things. I could feel a drop of rain on my back and suddenly it poured down. We both carefully climbed up the cliff and ran towards Vick's camp. By the time we got there we both were completely wet. Vick gave me a towel and one of his shirts, lite a lamp and went out in the rain. I changed and called him back. While he changed I looked away and suddenly I said to him.

"Do you really love me?"

"What kind of question is that, he said with a giggle."

"I want you to see me without my veil."

I could feel he had moved closer to me and was just behind me and I turned around. He was gripped with fear and shame. He was lost for words and he turned his back on me.

"I don't know who you are, he said but definitely you are not the person I fell in love with."

"But I thought you loved me for who I was and not my face."

"I am not making myself a laughing stock amongst my friends, thus I will appreciate if you forget whatever happened between us and go away before anyone sees you like this."

I picked up my clothes and started running in the rain. I was crying loudly and running towards the highway. I just wanted to die. How could Vick say that? Just because of the scar on my face he rejected me. He forgot about all the promises he made. I changed into my clothes just before I reached the highway and waited for the very next car to appear. As it did I jumped out of the bush and felt a sharp pain on my hips and I fell hard and that was the last thing I remembered.

As I opened my eyes everything around me looked fresh and clean. I am dead, I thought to myself and felt so happy about it. But I felt pain and as I tried to getup and I knew that I was not dead.

"Please don't try to get up. Tell me what you need and I will get that for you, I heard a voice."

I turned my head slowly only to see a stranger next to my bed.

"Who are you?"

"I am Shiv and you collided with my car two months ago. Thank god you are ok as I was really worried about you."

"Where am I?"

"You are in Royal Hospital in Paris."

"Paris!"

"Yes, Paris. Your condition was really bad so we had to bring you here plus you collided with my vehicle and I had to look after you."

Suddenly I remembered the scar on my face. I pulled the white sheet over my face and started crying out loudly. I was crying and just wished I were dead. I remembered how Vick had treated me that particular night.

"Hey listen, I don't know you name but will you stop crying. I have to show you something."

I stopped crying but while sobbing as I peeped from under the sheet. Shiv was standing with a small mirror in his hands.

"Have a look, he urged me."

For the first time I was actually seeing my face in a proper mirror and noticed that my scar had disappeared.

"While you were unconscious I got the doctors to do a plastic surgery and remove the scar."

I starred at the mirror for a long time and couldn't believe my eyes.

"Do you like it?"

I started crying again, this time in confusion.

"Why did you have to spend so much of your money and bring me here? I wanted to die and you did your best to save my life. "

"I saved you because you are a human and I would have done for any other human if they had collided with my vehicle."

"How would I ever repay you?"

"You can think about all that when the plaster comes out of your leg. You broke them when you collided with my vehicle. What were you doing there on the road at that time of the night anyway?"

"Running."

"Running, he said with a laugh. That was just not the time and place for you jog. And I don't think so you needed to reduce weight. You are very pretty the way you are and you don't seem to need to reduce any weight."

I smiled at him and turned around to sleep. I was very tired and confused. It was around 10 at night when I got up and realised he was still next to my bed. As I opened my eyes he looked happy and smiled at me.

"I want to get up."

"You can't but I can help you to sit up."

He placed some pillows and I placed one of my hands across his neck and with the other I pushed my body up with Shiv's help. He gave me a sip of water and he sat down on the chair looking very pleased.

"I am sorry for all the trouble I have caused you. I was running away from home that night as my brother wanted to burn the other side of my face. I ran to Vick but when he saw the scar on my face he froze out and he simply said he didn't know who I was and that I would bring shame on him."

"So you decided to kill yourself?"

I nodded with tears rolling down my eyes.

"Does Vick live in your town too?"

"No he doesn't live there but he was there on an excursion trip with his friends and I got to know him. I thought he loved me but I suppose he just wanted to use me. He didn't love me for who I was but just my beauty when I hid the scar."

"Do you want to go back to your brother?"

"No, I said scared. I never want to see him and I never want to see Vick. They must be thinking that I am dead and I want to pretend that I am dead and I want to live away from them."

"When I was bringing you here I gave you a name, he said, Shivani. Hope you like the name and remember you are just a girl and you need a place to live."

"But I can look after myself. You have done enough for me so if you want you can go back home and forget about what all happened."

"You are such a mean person. I do all these for you and all I get in return is, I can look after myself and for me to go back."

"I didn't mean to upset you but why would you be wasting so much time for a person like me. You don't even know my real name."

"There are times in life when you just see a person and you want the best for them and you don't have to dig into their history."

I looked up at him and I saw how calmly he was talking to me. No one ever had spoken to me like that. Well yes Vick did till he saw the scar on my face.

"I have a house here. Why don't you stay here and look after the place. I am usually travelling due to business reasons."

"But you have already done more than enough for me."

"I am going back to India tomorrow as I have an important meeting and I will be back within few weeks. When I get back I will sign your discharge papers and will take you home."

With these words he went out. I was still sitting up, rather uncomfortably due to the pain. I tried to move slowly down so that I was flat on my back. As I did so the pillows fell on the floor. I tired to reach to them but somehow I slipped and landed on the floor with a bang. There was a beeping sound, which scared me, and I started to cry out. Just than the door opened and few nurses came running in. Behind them was Shiv and he didn't look happy at all. The nurses placed me on the bed and went out after a while. I didn't want to look at Shiv because he looked angry.

"What the hell were you doing?"

"I was in pain because I was sitting up and I was only trying to lay down."

"You could have waited for me. I had only gone for few minutes as I had to go to the bathroom."

"I didn't mean to fall on the ground."

"You don't mean to do anything. You didn't mean to jump in front of my car, you didn't mean to say for me to go away and now you didn't mean to fall on the ground. Life cannot just move on because you didn't mean to ok. So just appreciate whatever you have and live your life. I am going away now and if you think that you want to live or need my help, call me. Here is my number and this phone is for you," he said angrily and he stormed out of the room.

Keyword: Love Me Not My Beauty - Part I

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Posted by ShinyPebb1e 2008-05-02 05:18:53 Interesting We can see why she is afraid to trust again, but we also she how much she wants to be truly loved. + Report this comment

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