counterpart world
Aai looked at their wedding photo with nostalgia. OB had looked mad young then! Thick brown black hair, a huge smile cracking out of his face, wide enough to startle the cameraman. It was a shabby ceremony, "shotgun" wedding as far as nomenclature goes. "Arranged marriage/ love marriage/ hindu marriage/ parsi marriage/ muslim marriage/ intercaste marriage/ shotgun marriage/ same sex marriage/ marriage of convenience?" Aai had smiled looking at the boxes to be ticked. She had picked up the blue pen and circled "love", "intercaste" and then with a naughty smile "shotgun". The clerk had looked startled, since they definitely didn't look the part. The type to have sex before marriage, and to get knocked up as well? They looked sexy, yeah sure, but irresponsible? Not at all. OB used to look like the kind of person who could run for President. "Hey it's me Ob- van- kanobe, and I'm going to make America great again!" She used to look cuter, with pink cheeks and a smile that covered 42 percent of her face. She hadn't come up with that statistic, OB had! He had measured her face one day: "area is equal to Pi, r squared," he had said, tracing his index finger round her face, pivotting from his thumb pressing down squarely on her nose. "And then your smile, well that's 46/105 x 100." He had turned to scribble on a paper.
"That's....ummm....42 percent."
"So 42 percent of my face is my smile?" Aai had asked, laughing.
"Yeah, and after that you are all arse," he had said, squeezing her buttocks, drawing her towards him. They had kissed, nibbled on each other's lips and laughed into each other's mouths. She loved laughing down his throat. It was like shooting happiness out straight from her breath, to him.
The D ward office clerk had averted his eyes seeing the gentle bump on her belly. She looked around restlessly, wanting to exit the hot and humid room, rubbing her tummy.
"You could have made some effort to dress up," her sister had admonished.
"Why? Isn't this how intercaste, love marriage pregnant people look, when they elope?" laughed Aai.
"You are beautiful," OB had consoled, kissing her damp forehead. "You are painted in hormones."
"Gross," she had said, wrinkling up her nose, scratching her belly.
"Have you decided where you are going to live?" her sister had asked pertinently.
"I'm first off to Chhatisgarh, with MSF, then I'll see where the next posting is," replied Aai.
"How do you let her do these things?" the sister had said accusingly.
OB looked at Aai helplessly. "I don't own her. She is her own person. We are both free to do what we please!"
Aai had planted a kiss firmly on his lips, smack in the middle of the entire dilapidated municipal office, shocking them all with the deep lip to lip contact, as she sucked on his tongue.
"Sir, all done, you can go," urged the clerk, tapping OB's shoulder.
"Thank you so much," OB said, unfailingly polite, paying the bill and stuffing the receipt into his pocket.
Aai and OB left the D ward, very married, very pregnant, ready to seize the world.
"You guys will make the worst parents," predicted her sister darkly.
Aai smiled, recollecting the memory. How clueless they had been that day! The twins were now 15, both a dark delicious chocolate brown like their mother, with their father's light brown eyes. They had identical smiles, covering 42 percent of their faces, and if one didn't have a tiny cut on his eye brow from falling off a table, you would never be able to tell them apart.
"How lucky you are to have your counterpart exist in this world itself!" OB always told them.
"I wonder what your counterparts do in the other world?" they retorted.
"Mine must be doctor in Mumbai, married to a love marriage/ same caste, orthopedic surgeon with two kids," said Aai laughing.
"And mine must be a doctor in Srinagar, marriad to a gorgeous, love marriage/ same caste OBGYN with three kids!" said OB, smiling.
"Want to visit them?" Aai asked him.
"Maybe soon!" said OB, leaning in for a kiss.
The twin groaned and rolled their eyes while their parents rubbed noses. Sometimes it was better when they away on deputations and missions. The kids didn't have to deal with all this PDA!
(( Counterpart world 🌎 spins at 35 hours per day, and each year is shorter. Hair doesn't change colour and love grows stronger each day. Breasts stay uplifted and the air is overall cleaner. And oh yes, math homework and taxes are purely OPTIONAL.))