CHAPTER : 9
"I was thinking, honey, what name did you prepare for the child?"
She looked in the direction of Father and asked.
There was silence in the room for some time.
Everyone looked at him with eyes filled with expectation.
She, with the little strength she had left, asked again.
"So what name did you think of?
It's a boy, so it has to be a cool name.
If not, he will hate you when he grows up."
She spoke calmly, with a joy-filled expression, in a low voice that was enough because of the warm silence in the room.
He felt pressured for a second because of all the eyes on him.
But he composed himself.
He had an expression with a huge smile and excitement clearly written on his face.
"What, did you think I forgot the most important job of a first-time father?" he said.
"It's a tradition of the village that the father decides the name for his firstborn.
I can't let such a chance—to talk about it for years to come—go to waste.
I thought long and hard about the name.
And the name that I decided was Adword for a son, and Liniya for a daughter."
He told it with the same confidence.
"Adword," she said.
"It's a good name for him.
He'll be the son of EDRIC and LIARA—Adword.
It matches both of us perfectly.
I like it."
She said it with a gentle look in her eyes.
"I thought really hard," he said.
"So it's obvious that you like it.
It took a long time to choose from."
He said it like he did something extraordinary.
"So what does the name actually mean?"
She asked with genuine confusion on her face.
Father was satisfied with the name,
but not prepared for the question about its meaning.
So there was only one choice now—he had to improvise.
"Good question," he said in a hurry.
"Do you know, it's really easy to answer.
You can just feel that it has lots of meaning as a name.
It could be anything, depending on the situation.
It has multiple meanings… and I just forgot what it was.
It was right at the edge of my mind, and it slipped away."
There was uncertainty in his voice.
"You understand, right?" he said, trying to survive it.
"Ohh, multiple meanings depending on the situation," Mother said with a knowing look.
"So basically what you mean to say is that you're the one who chose the name—
you chose it after months of thinking and deciding—
and you forgot the meaning of it."
She said it in a sarcastic tone.
He was shocked by it, thinking, and couldn't find the words to respond.
"What can I say to you now?
It's a good name, so I'll leave it at that."
She said, giving him space to breathe.
My father survived that day by a miracle, and with the luck he was saving for the coming year.
Everyone started talking to the child by his name right there.
The room warmed up.
But both of them were not prepared for the child at all.
It was literally calm before the storm.