The Wrong Woman

25. Mouna

Just as I had decided the night before, I was going to find the man who had given me the bracelet. After work, which I had done surprisingly well and managed to get through unscathed, I rushed to go to the street where I worked.

There. I saw the usual beggars lined near the pavement behind the mini sweet stall, raising their hands out for some money or food. There was Laxmi! I thought. She would know something..what could go wrong in asking her?

"Laxmi," I whispered, smiling at her.

She stared at me as if I had threatened her with a knife. "How do you know my name?"

"Huh? Don't you reme—" I trailed off and looked down at myself. I was Rani to her, not Mouna. Nearly facepalming at my utter stupidity, I corrected myself. "I found out from Mouna. She talks about you a lot."

She relaxed at my explanation and I gave myself a mental pat on the head. That was quick thinking for someone who nearly sounded crazy! "My name is Rani," I continued, after giving her a few coins. "Can you please help me with something?"

"If you are Mouna's friend, then yes, I can try."

"Have you seen a short man wearing a black blanket around him? He was selling bracelets."

Laxmi pursed her lips and squinted her eyes in thought before asking the man on the skateboard—the one that I had promised to give cake too and never did—who glanced at me from head to toe. He shook his head. Laxmi turned back to me. "No, sorry."

I looked at the man. He was there when I had spoken to him. "You had seen him, hadn't you? He sold Mouna a bracelet for free."

His eyes lit up. "Oh him," he mumbled. He outstretched his hand and I placed a few coins in them before he said, "I haven't seen him after that. The fellow disappeared. Like he never existed."

So none of them had seen him? What was I going to do? I hoped coming here would give me the answers I needed to save myself. I mumbled a thank you and a forced smile before leaving. Everything was a dead end. It was looking more and more like I was destined to be Rani forever. Should I be accustomed to this new life then? I didn't want to be, but I thought about the tale. Either it was temporary or forever. Forever is what my fate was looking to be like.

I wanted to go home.

When I got to Dhruv's house, it was even quieter. The plants that stood outside as guardians to the door looked almost black and ominous as if forewarning me from stepping inside. Only I knew that the inside was more comforting than the outside world playing tricks on me.

It wasn't until the silence bore down on me that it was evident to me that Dhruv was not home once again. I wondered where he was. Then I spotted those same frames I had seen the first time I had arrived in this new body and my curiosity shifted to that, instead. I looked around, biting my bottom lip.

Going through someone else's items was indeed very wrong. But Dhruv wasn't here and if I was stuck in Rani's body for who knew how long, I would have to know what things were and where things were, right? Convincing myself of that, I inched closer to the antique shelf placed up against the white wall and picked up the black frame. Placing it upright, my lips separated. Then I put up the next frame. I glanced around for more—and saw that there was one above the fireplace on the black mantel and stepped back.

These were wedding photos.

Rani was adorned in gold jewellery and a gorgeous red-gold lehenga; she looked every bit the model everyone knew she was. Dhruv wore a tight-fitting white sherwani with what looked like gold patterning and a white headpiece; they both looked like celebrity couples and I couldn't help but gasp.

All the photos were professional but also fun—they were happy together and one could see just from a glance at these photos. One was of them nuzzling each other's noses and Rani being in the middle of a genuine laugh; the other a standard pose. Dhruv's angled jaw could slice through those incredibly pesky coconuts and his brown eyes were intense as they zeroed in on the camera. Rani, too, with her pouty lips pulled into a small smile and her deep-set eyes knocked me off my feet.

In this close-up photo on the fireplace, they were smiling at each other. Rani's white teeth and bold makeup enhanced her every feature and Dhruv's crinkled eyes and sharp cheekbones were very much the stars of the show.

They looked so happy. So perfect.

But if that were the case, why were these frames placed down? Why did I not see the same smile or atmosphere from Dhruv that he was giving off in these photos? What had happened? Who was Rani? Who was Dhruv?

Because even though I was living Rani's life and in Rani's body, I knew nothing about her. My heart stopped beating for what seemed like a moment when an idea hit me. Maybe...maybe this was fate. Maybe I was put into Rani's body for a reason. In every movie where people swapped bodies, there was always a life lesson to be learnt—maybe it was for me to do a selfless act in Rani's body. Believe love conquers, the man's words repeated in my head.

That had to be it! The reason was to bring Dhruv and Rani together. Somehow, I didn't know how or why completely, but it made sense. Whatever the issue and regardless of how or who was the cause, I could do the things that Rani perhaps didn't do—show appreciation and be kind and maybe that could fix everything.

The more I thought about it the more the nagging and twisting in my stomach disappeared.

Maybe that was it.

Maybe I'd found the way back home.