The Families Return

Parashurama had gone towards the mountain. The dust had settled. The road was open again.

Dasharatha's company travelled on to Ayodhya.

The city came out to meet them. The streets had been washed, garlands hung at the gateways, people stood on the rooftops. Four brides were entering, for the first time, a city that was now theirs.

Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, and Sumitra welcomed them. They took Sita, Urmila, Mandavi, and Shrutakirti inside as though they had been waiting a long while.

Then the ordinary days began.

Ram sat in the court each day and listened. He learned people's names and their complaints. He asked his father questions, and where his father had no answer he asked Vashishtha.

Lakshman stayed near Ram. Wherever Ram went, he was a few steps behind.

Bharat and Shatrughna kept together — they had been like that since they were small.

Sita settled into the household. She spent time with the queens and began to learn the city.

Months passed like that. No war, no weapons, no sage at the door.

Then one day Yudhajit came to Ayodhya. He was Kaikeyi's uncle, come from Kekaya, and he wanted to take his nephew home with him for a while.

Dasharatha gave his permission.

Bharat made ready to go, and Shatrughna went with him — the two of them did not separate.

Ram and Lakshman walked them out beyond the city. The brothers said goodbye the way people do when they expect to meet again shortly.

Bharat and Shatrughna rode away to Kekaya.

In Ayodhya life went on as before — the court, the seasons, the festivals. Dasharatha was growing old and he knew it. He would look at his eldest son and think that the time was coming.

He had not yet said anything to anybody.

And Bharat was not in Ayodhya.