innovate-issue-005

We got out first night of solitude. It was our first night together after our marriage.When I entered the room, I found her sitting on the bed in her bridal dress. The bed was decorated withall kinds of flowers and fragmented artistic pieces. She was wearing all the jewellery she had and athick veil covered her face.I was nervous, more than nervous; I was terrified of it all. Everything happened so fast that my headhad hardly any time to register what had happened. Before I knew it, I was married to a stranger andthen I had to spend my whole life with her.I made my uncomfortable journey towards the bed with my wobbly legs. I sat beside her, but she saidnothing. She offered me with company without robbing me of my solitude. May be she was alsoscared; it was a lot harder for her to leave her home and her parents and to come to a house that wastotally unknown to her. She was now tied into a marriage with a stranger, about whom she knewnothing, except the name.Gradually, with soft shaking hands, I lifted the veil to reveal her tear stained face. The khol had pavedits way from her eye lashes to the corner of her lips.She looked vulnerable. It was nothing like my friends told me about how a first night should be. Theywere generous enough to share lewd secrets about their sex life, so I played them over and over in myhead to reduce the nervousness that was flowing through my veins. But I felt guilty. It felt wrong.One by one I took out her bulky jewelleries. She never protested or showed any signs of dis-comfort.She just sat there, still, like a doll. May be this was how a perfect bride had to behave in her first nightin company with her husband.Before I could go any further, she said to me a meek voice.“Can you please switch off the lights?” those were the first words that she ever spoke to me.I switched off the lights.After those initial moments of fright, my nerves slowed down and we both embraced each other in asensual dream.All the tips, all the lewd secrets that my friends shared with me, gradually faded in my head as shetook control over my body and soul without doing anything.I felt the sensual pleasures cutting through my skin and I lost control over my body. My body burnedlike the sun and our flesh became one.We woke up next morning, arm in arm, having discovered each other’s soul and body. It was the startof the rest of my life.Rizu was born nine months later. He looked very much like Urshula. He had her smile and my facecut. He was still bald so I had no idea of knowing how his hair pattern would look like. It wasfascinating to watch him grow up.He grew up rather fast; soon he was walking around the house.