The old man gnashed his teeth. He seemed ready to take off and launch toward him but settled down in the chair when Raesh grabbed one of his arms and pulled him back.

“I thought we had an understanding.” The old man said gravely, without glaring murderously at Mannat. “You promised to break up with Sharmilla if you couldn’t be a full-time blacksmith. YOU PROMISED!”

Mannat kept silent. He found it a better option to let the man speak than to interrupt him and earn his eerie.

“I thought we had an understanding. I TRUSTED YOU. I believed you. And what did you DO?” The old man snatched his arm free and stood up again. The floor screeched as the chair slid away from the table. Raesh didn’t stay still either. He was right behind Sardar, ready to take action according to the situation. He understood the old man’s anger, but that didn’t mean he would let him harm his son.

“I would have been less surprised if your friend, the hunter had done something like that. Worse is that I’m not even angry at you. I’m disappointed and I have no one to blame but myself for what happened.”

“Sir,” Mannat said and was shown no mercy.

“SHUT UP!” The old man yelled and glared at him with bloodshot eyes. He then franticly looked around for something and angrily grabbed the liquor bottle from the table. Mannat’s heart fell further. He thought the old man wanted to attack him, but Sardar cursed loudly and started drinking liquor straight from the bottle.

Mannat glanced at his father and saw him helplessly shake his head.

Meanwhile, the last drop of liquor slid down Sardar’s throat and he took a resounding breath after removing the bottle from his mouth. Then he went to slam it back on the table and turned away as it bounced up, rolled down the table, and fell to the ground with a muffled clang.

It didn’t break, surprisingly. Raesh was thankful. There was already a mess on his hands to clean. The broken glass would have added another stake in the sizzling situation.

“I don’t want to hear from you!” The old man told Mannat with a pointed finger. “You did what you wanted to do. Now, I will do what I have to do. You want my sweet angel?” He slanting forward on his toes glaring at Mannat with bloodshot eyes.

Raesh grabbed for Sardar’s arm believing he was going to fall down. The man somehow latched onto the chair and kept his balance. Mannat rushed to help the old man, but his father was faster. Raesh held his shoulders and forced him down on the chair.

“I’m not going to let you dine and dash.” The old man said. “You wanted to take be responsible for her? Now I’m going to force her down your throat and make you choke on it.”

Mannat thought the old man would never agree to him, but the man surprised him again. Sardar stood up straight and made a beeline toward him. “You better come to take her when she turns fifteen!” he said poking Mannat’s chest with his finger. “Or I’m going to find you and bury you alive in the fields. Then I will plant rice over your body and feed them to that bloody raven.” The old man pushed the finger as if trying to dig a hole to heart. Mannat gasped in pain. His eyes squinted and his lips quivered. His waist bent, but he stared straight into Sardar’s eyes.

The old man then pushed Mannat out of his way and left through the front door.

Mannat was left bamboozled and in pain, not sure what to say or do. What the hell did his father say to the old man?

They kissed! It was a kiss! He didn’t force himself upon her!

He found his father standing with a hand on the table for support. The man looked ashamed, and couldn’t meet his eyes. It was all wrong. Mannat felt just like… like he had in the morning.

“Father,” Mannat called. Raesh only heard him the second time around and let out a sigh when they saw each other. His face was devoid of all color. “I think we had a misunderstanding between us.” Mannat continued in stupor. “I wanted to clear it in the morning, but then we got busy and I forgot. I think I have to tell you or it might cause trouble.”

Raesh glared at Mannat as if he was not his son but a criminal, a lunatic… a pervert. “Haven’t you already caused enough trouble, boy?” He said gnashing his teeth. Something was building inside his father and Mannat didn’t want to find out what. However, he had to talk to him.

“Father,” The word seemed to make Raesh angrier. “I don’t know what you think Sharmilla and I did, but we only kissed.”

Suddenly, Raesh’s arm supporting his weight buckled and he fell into the chair behind him like a defeated sack of potatoes. Perhaps, the old man wasn’t the only one who was drunk.

“You only kissed?” Raesh said with a hollow chuckle.

It was more a statement than a question, but Mannat decided to explain so there was no longer any confusion between them.

“You can ask Pathar if you like. He was there at the pond and there were also some women washing clothes by the shore and children playing in the water.”

“You basically announced your relationship to the whole village,” Raesh mumbled under his breath, but Mannat heard it perfectly loud and clear and his cheeks grew red.

Mannat calmly stared at his father. “What did you say to the old man?”

Raesh found some vigor and slapped the table in anger. “What do you think I said to your old man?” He tried to stand up but fell back into the chair. He slouched over the table in defeat and grabbed his temples as if to squeeze the pounding out of his head before it could deteriorate into a migraine. He was ashamed. “As you said, I misunderstood what you did.” He said softly. It was almost a whisper. Noor would have kissed his cheek had she heard it.

He let his hands fall on the table then raised his head and peered at Mannat as if to make sure of something. He said, “Did you two really didn’t have sex?”

Ah, shit! Mannat also stumbled in surprise. Was he also getting drunk on the vapor?

“What? NO! How could you… Why would you think we­— this is not a misunderstanding, father. This is the start of a tragedy. You didn’t say it to the old man did you?”

Mannat gasped in horror when his father looked away. “How could you! We need to tell the old man and clarify his doubts. No wonder he was so angry!” Mannat trailed off.

“Settle down will you,” Raesh interjected after a while. His voice was back to its normal strength. His eyes glowed with mischief. “We are not going to tell him anything.”

“But, But, why?”

“He agreed, didn’t he? Isn’t that what you wanted?” Raesh answered. As for Mannat… well, it was time he took a seat and worried whether a lie that could join two hearts was a just misunderstanding or pure evil.

Back at Sardar’s manor, the whole family gathered to hear what the old man had decided. He seemed to have aged on the way back. He looked for Sharmilla in the crowd, and then fell beside his mother when he didn’t find her. For once, he looked his age.

Sharmilla hid in her room while Chahhat stood right outside the door, eavesdropping on her elder’s conversation to keep her sister informed. Suddenly, Chahhat grew silent, and Sharmilla who was anxiously waiting for her feedbacks grew nervous.

“What happened?” Sharmilla whispered aloud only for the door to open. She gasped as one of the protruding door handles, marginally flew past her nose. She screamed and fell on her ass. Not that anyone heard her. Chahhat rushed into the room and hurriedly locked the door and bolted it shut. She then moved over to Sharmilla, grabbed her shoulders, and started shaking some sense into the poor little girl.

“You… What is your age? How young are you? How could you do it at such a young age?” Chahhat hurled nonstop at Sharmilla. “I feel ashamed as your elder sister. Even I haven’t done it with a boy yet… and I’m older than you!” Her breathing grew haggard and her face grew a blush, but that didn’t stop her from harassing Sharmilla. She didn’t see the confusion in Sharmilla’s eyes, but hugged her tightly and buried her face between her supple breasts.

“How could you be so impulsive?” Chahhat said softly, caringly, rocking back and forth while holding Sharmilla to her chest, as if trying to put a baby to sleep. “You should have held back, restrained yourself. Love is a fickle thing. He will be looking for more now that he has the taste of your blood. Boys,” She said with a sigh, “They are the same. They are no better than monkeys in heat.”

Sharmilla didn’t move. The more she listened to her sister the worse she felt. Offsetting it was a unique wave of pleasure that broke through her chest and spread to the rest of her body with her heartbeats. She remembered her first kiss and her blush deeper. It flushed her cheeks and burned her ears red. She couldn’t help hugging her sister back and rubbing her face against Chahhat’s soft breast.

“I don’t mind,” Sharmilla said calmly. “He can kiss me as many times he wants. I won’t stop him.”

Her words were not less than a thunderclap in Chahhat’s ears.

“Wait, wait, wait,” She clawed her love-struck sister away from her. Chahhat grabbed her face with both hands and squeezed her face tight enough to pucker her lips out like a rat. She didn’t slacken though, but stared deep into her sister's brown eyes and asked with the utmost seriousness, “You kissed him. And it was only a kiss?” nodding her head shallowly every time she said the word ‘kiss’.

“Yes,” Sharmilla squeezed out. Her face had grown so red it was impossible to see the freckles around her nose. “But why do I feel like we are talking about two completely different things?”

She heard a snicker. Chahhat released her and fell on her back laughing. “A KISS, of course, she wouldn’t know anything about that! How stupid! I never had that kind of talk with her. That foolish boy definitely has no thoughts besides his work. Of course, she is clueless.”

“I’m not clueless!” Sharmilla fought.

“Yes, yes, you ARE!” Chahhat answered between coughing and laughing. Sharmilla got scared as tear-filled her older sister’s eyes and she started wheezing. Chahhat laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe. Sharmilla rolled Chahhat on her chest and started rubbing her sister’s back in frenzy, but her lost breath refused to come back.

“MOTHER!” Sharmilla yelled when nothing she did seemed to help. She rushed to her feet to get help when Chahhat grabbed her arm and stopped her. She pulled the girl into her arms and put a hand on Sharmilla’s mouth to stop her from screaming. She still chucked and coughed, but could breathe in between them. She put a finger on her mouth to gesture silence and Sharmilla frantically nodded in understanding. Only then did Chahhat release her foolish sister. Chahhat cleaned her tears and snot with the hem of Sharmilla’s skirt, and she was rebuked for it.

They both calmed down after a while. They sat facing each other, exhausted and silent. While Sharmilla looked the same, her sister had lost a few of her girly charms. She was twisting her hair into a bun behind her head. The action was pushing her chest out and straightened her back, giving an eyeful to her sister. Her face was red from the incessant laughing and coughing. Even at her worst, Chahhat looked nothing short of heartbreak.

“No wonder all the boys are crazy about you,” Sharmilla mumbled, causing Chahhat’s eyes to twinkle. She heard her sister’s comment but didn’t react to it. She handled her hair and then grabbed Sharmilla’s hand.

“Don’t tell anyone that you only two kissed, especially Baoji. Do you understand?”

“I don’t understand why you have to say tell me that.”

“Because Baoji agreed to you two getting together. He’s very angry, but also helpless. He agreed, but he might change his decision if he found out the truth.”

Sharmilla’s eyes trembled in excitement and confusion. She ecstatically hugged her sister, and Chahhat rubbed her back in a practiced manner. The sisters talked all night and didn’t get much sleep. They shared their experience with boys. Chahhat had a much larger pool of stories to pick out from, and Sharmilla learned many new and exciting things from her to try out with on Mannat.

Sharmilla didn’t think most of her sister's methods would work on her clumsy boyfriend, but she was going to try them regardless. The storm had passed. Now it was time for her to build a house from the rubble.