Chapter 63

59. Strange Bedfellows

‘Aah,’ She was dropping puris into the frying pan when she pulled her hand away quickly as some of the boiling oil splashed on the back of her palm. In her absent-mindedness, she had dipped her hand too low into the vessel.

‘What happened? Go put it under the tap,’ Ammaji who had been standing next to her, instructed. 

‘It is nothing, Ammaji. Good, that it was the last batch of puris,’ Kirti acknowledged, putting the gas off and walking to the sink. The force of cold water against her burnt skin felt comforting. But the moment she pulled her hand out of the water, the skin began stinging with a renewed vigor.

‘I will go and see if Mayank has taken a bath.’ Ammaji walked out of the kitchen and Kirti followed suit. But instead of returning to her room, she wandered off to the backyard of the house where certain herbs and trees grew unabashedly. Crossing the gravelly path, she stationed herself in front of a flourishing aloe vera plant. Bending one the fleshy leaves until it snapped, she rubbed the sticky, gooey gel on her wound. The cooling effect of the succulent plant was soothing.

When she returned to the house, Mayank was standing in front of the mirror, applying moisturizer to his face.

‘Did you eat? Or should I plate it for you?’ She asked, walking on eggshells around him. ‘It’s Puri and aloo ki sabzi.’

‘I am not hungry,’ he said, rubbing his hands, a fresh fragrance filling the house.

‘If you don’t mind, can we sit and talk?’ She asked. He had been distant since his arrival.

He shrugged and followed her to his - now hers - room.

‘What is it?’ He said impatiently, breaking into the hesitancy that had come upon her.

‘Mayank, I am sorry, you got entangled into this because of me. I did not know it would get this messy. I just thought...you know...that we’d go our separate ways. I did not think...’ she halted, the hiss of her burning skin potent now.

He remained silent and continued to look at her with his penetrating gaze. 

‘I know you loathe this. You didn’t want to marry me. And I am sitting on your head now as a burden. Exploiting your friendship and I am really sorry. But now that it's already happened. It would be nice if we can just accept and make it tolerable for both of us. I want this arrangement to be agreeable for both of us.’

‘How long do we stretch this charade?’

‘How long...I don’t know...maybe I would leave after your mother gets well?’ She proposed.

‘Leave where?’ He asked. ‘You are planning to sell the house.’

‘I would rent a place when I come by money. I am waiting for the home to be sold. I obviously have my salary, but you know Dadi’s medical bills….’

‘How do you intend to make it tolerable and more agreeable?’ He changed the topic.

‘Firstly, we do not have to be so awkward around each other. Can we go back to being friends, please? As for arrangements, Mayank you don’t have to worry, I won’t stand in your path. You can go along with your life as you used to. The only part that I would claim of yours...is this piece of room until I can find someplace to go. That too, if you are uncomfortable I will move out…I’ve been looking at houses...There will be no change to your life…’ So, please stop hating me and being so distant, please she wanted to add.

‘Cool,’ he said. 

‘Hmm?’ 

‘I’m okay with the arrangements. And stay here as long as you want,’ he stood, ready to leave.

‘Oh,’ she stopped him from leaving. ‘I was thinking about admitting Radha in a school. She’s five and she... Is it okay?’

‘We had enrolled her in a nearby prep school,' Mayank said defensively, ‘but she would throw tantrums, cry profusely and it was too much for Amma…’

‘I understand. I will see it to it that this time Radha doesn’t drop out,’ she promised. Then perking up, she asked, ‘Now are you hungry? Maine banaya hai...Look I even burnt my hand,’ she displayed her burnt skin that was quickly turning to a blister.

‘Thank you, but you did not have to. I follow a different diet.’

‘Oh. Okay. I will go and have my breakfast, I guess.’

Inspite of their conversation, the rest of her days with Mayank at home were stressful. He did not go along with his father, she had a vague idea about it but that they were always getting into arguments, she had no inkling. They did not see an eye to eye and fought over grave matters like money and Mayank’s choice of living and also over matters as inconspicuous as contestants on a singing show, political jokes forwarded on a Family Whatsapp group.

At times, when she approached Mayank to extend a friendly company, he would either act as if was least bothered or he would simply shun her. Perhaps he thought she was pitying him. Perhaps this was why he was so averse to the whole arrangement. Because the life he had so fiercely guarded was transparent and open for her to see and judge now.

At night, when even the hard day’s tiresome work failed to bring sleep to her eyes, she would often wish he would stop pushing her away. They could still be friends and share each other’s miseries. That if he was lonely, she was too. If he felt trapped, she did too. 

Marriage, Shruti had said, chases away loneliness. It had chased away her friends. And she had no one to blame.

XxxX

‘Doraemon...Doraemon…’ Radha continued to pester her as Kirti waited for the rain to stop so that they could leave the mall. They were here to buy a pair of school dresses and some stationary tools for Radha. Kirti had enrolled her in a primary school and Radha was supposed to start classes from the next day. The school clerk had categorically stated a uniform house name from where to buy dresses and hence their presence in this part of the town. 

They had been leaving after their shopping when it had started raining heavily. The shower bursts were so fierce that even the one with four-wheelers wanted to wait it out. It was an effect of some cyclone. The weather reports had assured that only the outskirts of Maharashtra would be affected. Seems, they miscalculated. 

There was quite a colorful crowd downstairs, the place abuzz with talks.

‘Doraemon…’ Kirti’s hand was pulled again.

‘Radha...we already bought you a racket,’ Kirti reminded her but the stubborn girl refused to listen. Decked in a frock, her hair combed back into a high ponytail, round face housing a pair of twinkling eyes, a short nose, and tiny rosebud lips, Radha made a pretty picture. But her constant badgering for a stuffed toy was exhausting. 

Kirti was about to state the rules when she sensed her phone buzzing. 

‘Hello, Yes Sir. Which papers, Sir?’ Her attention got divided on answering her boss’ call. 

Radha meanwhile had spotted a familiar face. A man who had spared her and her aunt a passing glance, and turned away before his eyes locking on them again. Gingerly, traipsing the distance between them, she was at once before him, patting the fabric of his trousers.

He smiled, disinterestedly at first, then openly at the display of obtrusive familiarity of the girl.

‘Heyya Dolphin,’ he bent down a little.

Kirti, who found her surroundings too quiet despite people around her, looked down and found Radha missing. Still, on the phone, her eyes frantically searched for the girl and found her with…

Their eyes locked. Her and her ex-squad leader’s. It took her entire strength to remain still as she watched him fill the distance between them, the child’s tiny palms secured in his large ones.

‘Mrs. Ojha,’ he acknowledged. His tone, shards of ice piercing her heart. ‘How have you been?’

‘Good,’ she managed. ‘And you? Are you well?’ The question was out against her will. 

His visage betrayed no sickness if he was suffering from any.

‘Very well, thank you for caring.’

Kirti shuffled the shopping bags in between her hands, under his watchful gaze, to keep the nerves at bay.

He nodded and silent awkwardness immediately slipped in to take it from there. 

Radha was the buffer, smoothing out the creases of the tensed air.  

Shaking his hand to draw his attention, she demanded a stuffed toy from him now.

‘Radha,’ Kirti warned but unfamiliar to Kirti’s ways, Radha still had a lot to learn about the inflections in tones of a mother and its meanings.

When she saw he was ready to get the toy, she quickly halted their progress, ‘No! Don’t indulge her. It will spoil her. She’s obstinate.’

He nodded, then delinking the child’s hand from his, walked away, much to Radha’s disappointment.

As for Kirti what she felt seeing him walk away, she knew not for she felt too much to tell the emotions apart.

He had stepped on the escalator, disappearing away. Kirti turned to the child now, explaining the rules to Radha who listened to all of it with a crestfallen face. They were engrossed in each other when the air felt charged once again. Kirti did not have to turn to know who it was.

‘Here, for you,’ He extended a paper bag to the now gleeful child. 

When Kirti protested, he said, ‘It’s nothing. Just a few chocolates,’ and left to stand in his corner.

Until the rain slowed, Kirti had to exercise immense restraint to not look his way. 

He left before her.

At home, when Kirti curiously glanced inside the bag to see what he had bought for Radha, she found in it, an antiseptic ointment for her burn.

That night she fell asleep in the bed, the pen still forked through her hair.

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