Ahaana left the shop 10 minutes later with a tiny brown cover in her grasp. She put it inside her purse and started walking towards the autostand. It was midday and the sun was burning up with no care of the time nor the season. The weather widget on her phone showed that it was 36° C but felt like 39° C and she would have scoffed and started rambling about global warming in her head for the day was the 17th of January aka the middle of winter. It was not always like this. Winters in Kerala used to be cold. The average temperature remained 28° in the morning and went as far as 17° in the night. But the climatic conditions these days were unpredictable and affected weather patterns in a way never before. She wiped off the beads of sweat from her face and her neck.
She boarded one of the auto rikshaws parked in the auto stand and told the man the location. She sat close to the opening of the auto and leaned her head against the material covering the auto. The vehicle started with a loud sound. The man turned around the auto from where it was parked without looking at both sides and Ahaana didn't even bother rolling her eyes at the sight for she was practically raised having to witness such atrocities. The vehicles coming from the opposite direction honked, angered at the driver's action but the man simply dismissed it as a regular event. For all Ahaana knows, it might as well be a regular event.
The wind fluttered against her face and Ahaana closed her eyes for a moment. When they opened she was back at her residence in Kollam playfully running after Samreen after she picked her up from the daycare centre. Samreen would rush towards the door at the sound of the bullet horn, towards Saidh and cling to his legs until the man would lift her and swing her up in the air giving her all the princess treatment in the world that she deserved.
A smile unknowingly made its way onto Ahaana's face. However, all those. moments came to a halt when the auto driver pressed the brakes hard enough to pull her out of her seat. She immediately grabbed onto the iron bar before her. He looked at her through the rearview mirror.
"Are you alright? I didn't mean to press the brakes hard. A cat suddenly jumped in front of the auto."
"It's fine." She looked to her left. Indeed a cat was rushing after something in that direction. She sighed and scratched her head.
"You see that house on the left? The one with flowers hanging outside the walls? Stop before it."
"That one?"
"Yes, that one."
The auto slowly came to a halt and Ahaana stepped outside. She fixed her clothes and faced the auto driver. "How much?"
"60 rupees."
Ahaana searched inside her purse and pulled out two twenty-rupee notes from it. She handed it over to the man. He took it out of her grasp and left without looking back.
She approached the closed gates of her house and lifted up her arm to open the lock. The purple embroidered net shawl of hers fell down her arms to her face. She pulled it off her and now this time, without the previous hindrance on the way, she tried to pull the lock again.
She pushed the gate ajar just enough for her to enter and shut it closed behind her.