She blinked.

She blinked. And hope still remained.

Kruti believed in blinking. Every time Ved asked her the reason, she would say, "The way to someone's heart is not through his stomach, but the blinking of his eyes. Everything can deceive, but eyes can't. You look at those eyes and you'll know when a person is blinking in pain or joy, love or hatred, and even desire or despise.", and giggle. Ved never understood his 'Masters in Psychology' wife, but he knew her eyes way too well to not understand anything else. 

Ved remembered how Kruti blinked her heart out, the day he had proposed her. After his five years of relationship ended up in ruins, Ved's friends suggested him to visit a counselor. He was reluctant at first, but after a session with Kruti, she became his walking and talking personal diary. Every day, after work, he would run to her clinic and grab a mug of coffee on the way; and the whole evening, they would sit on the terrace of her clinic and chat. On one such day, Kruti had told him about the power of blinking and how it always helped her judge people better. That was the day when Ved had looked into her eyes and realized that they spoke volumes. And since then onward, her blinking became his daily dose of 'rebound'; and eventually 'hiccups' after she became his wife.

Sitting outside the ICU, after three years of their marriage, he remembered her hazel brown eyes and their unflinching faith in blinking. As tears trickled down his eyes, he blinked at the thought of losing her. Just after three months of her pregnancy, she was diagnosed with grade 1 Leukemia. The doctors assured him of her well being, which could come, only at the cost of aborting their child. Kruti didn't let that happen. She blinked those stubborn tears every time her eyes would meet his and he blinked away. Days passed and she stopped blinking. Her body gave up as she held on, to not eating, until she could talk Ved out of the abortion. Ved had to give in. Treatments started. The best doctors were called. And in the blink of an eye, nine months passed. 

Ved returned from the flashback as soon as the doors to the ICU opened.  Few minutes later, the doctor arrived and took him inside, where he saw her and their baby. He blinked overwhelmingly, as he saw his daughter blink, and looked at Kruti. 

She smiled back and blinked one last time, and so did the heart monitoring system. 

The Confusion

Twenty two years of their marriage took a toll on him. He was unaware of the tiredness that grew within him. It wasn't that he didn't love her, but he was getting bored of her eventually. Flashbacks of the promises that he always made to her of staying together haunted him day and night. He needed an escape. 

Nisha was approaching her early 50s. Anant's indifference was known to her as well. But she kept quiet. Twenty two years of happy married life with him always made her content, even when Anant didn't. She never wanted much for that matter. she had Diya, their eighteen years old daughter to always accompany her. They had become more of friends as Nisha singlehandedly brought her up. 

Anant's transferable job never allowed him to experience Diya's childhood and he regretted it every moment of his life. He asked Nisha not once but a hundred times to move with him wherever he goes. Nisha didn't. She knew the problems Diya would face every time she changed schools, as she had gone through them herself. Nisha and her family were poor. She didn't have the opportunity to excel in her life even though she desperately wanted to. She wanted her dreams to come true for Diya, and hence the decision of staying back that Anant could never understand. 

Today, after twenty two years, when Anant blamed Nisha for not staying with him when he was alone and working, Nisha didn't know who to blame. Anita's entrance to Anant's life had come like a shock to her. She didn't realize when and how Anant became so disloyal to her. 

As the marriage was slowly treading towards its death, The Confusion remained within her, "Was it Me or You?"