Week 9 Story: "The Secret"

"Can I tell you a secret?"

"Counselling". Source: Pixabay

Saliq looked at me with her sad brown eyes. She always seemed to have something on her mind, and as I nodded quickly so she wouldn't shy away from telling me, I considered what the quiet girl who had been attending sessions with me for over three months now would say. She usually only talked to me about school, extracurricular activities like her archery practice, and philosophical readings. She would explicitly state anything that was going on, but never how she was feeling. 

There were times she would be on the brink of showing me a glimpse, but she would quickly pull back. It was clear she either still didn't trust me well enough or was just too used to closing herself off to people. I tried to hide my eagerness to hear what she had to say and gestured for her to go on. Saliq wrung her hands, signalling that she was very nervous. She and her mother shared the same tell tale sign. It was one of the only traits they shared, I'd noticed.

Her parents were the ones sending her here. Both legally blind though the mother still wore glasses for her own comfort. Bless their souls they were sweet people, but they were forcing their reluctant daughter to attend sessions she clearly didn't want to be at. And I still hadn't been able to discover what the real purpose of sending Saliq to therapy was. We had the superficial goals and "what do you want to get out of the time?" list from the beginning of our first meetings, but I felt there was something else. 

Saliq seemed lost in thought, and so I continued to give her more time to think about what she wanted to say. Finally she took a deep breath.

"I tried to kill my brother," she said warily, "It was a long time ago, but he ended up stronger for it."

I kept a neutral face, but felt shock course through my bones. She came from a huge family and unusually, I hadn't been able to get them to tell me exactly how many siblings she had as yet. Her cool tone in saying that he became stronger after her attempt to murder him made the hairs on my skin stand on edge a bit.

"Why?" I asked steadily. Saliq looked around the room, and I thought she was trying to avoid looking me in the eyes, but I suddenly realised she was checking to see if anyone was listening. I couldn't imagine who

"Because he was becoming the favourite," Saliq grounded out, "Because he was everyone's first pick. Because he was threatening on my birthright."

"Because I am going to be queen."

Reference: Epified, Mahabharata Episodes 1-8. [Youtube].

*Author's Note: For Week 9's Reading, I chose the Epified Mahabharata to watch on Youtube. One of the episodes is entitled Hate and Hurt and tells of how the rivalry between Duryodhana and Bhima begins to grow from childhood. Duryodhana, who is part of the Kauravas clan, tries to drown Bhima, who is one of the Pandavas. Much of the rivalry comes from Duryodhana's jealousy of Bhima and the favouritism he receives as part of the Pandavas and because he is considered a warrior from young. Duryodhana also sees Bhima as a threat to the throne. One day, Duryodhana drugs Bhima so that he falls asleep beside a river, and binds his feet and pushes him in. Bhime, who is already very strong and tough, survives and actually becomes stronger from the near-death experience. Duryodhana is enraged and his hatred only grows. In my retelling, I wanted to approach the story in a more modern way. Here Saliq is Duryodhana, and she is going to counselling. She has also already tried to kill her brother. I wanted to give her character more of a silent and deadly feel than Duryodhana.