ch 27: ''turns of fortune''
shalini mehta sat watching her best friend chat with her son and the artist girl. heer. pretty little thing. quiet too. not what she had expected from what gayatri had told her. she'd have thought that someone who had been as successful as gayatri said heer had been, would have quite a few airs to her. she would have certainly been entitled to it. but this child was quiet, the most noticeable thing about her being her eyes, unusually long, unusually dark. of course, there were also the shadows under those eyes that made them look so stark in her face.
what a tragedy, thought shalini. she could not imagine surviving if her husband and her precious children had been all wiped out in one stroke. she shuddered, making her son hiten bend solicitously over her, asking if she wanted her shawl. she watched heer's face change and sparkle as gayatri recollected her superb performance at the dinner last night. apparently, the councilman's p.a. had confirmed the set of dates for the next meeting, to talk about the next steps for the cathedral project.
poor child. so alone. at least her father had been sensible when he had set up that fund for her. and from what gayatri told her, heer's paintings sold well. of course, that would probably not be needed once she got married, and settled down with a family of her own. yes, thought shalini, that is exactly what she needed. someone to make her his own, give her children to make up for the loss of her parents and her sister. shalini mehta looked thoughtful as she watched heer.
after prem and heer took their leave, hiten seeing them out, gayatri smiled at her friend, ''
sorry, shalini, i hope you didn't mind prem bringing heer along. he knew i wanted to know she was okay -- it is uncanny when your own child knows so much about you, no?'' shalini nodded,
''by the way,'' gayatri continued, ''
how is hiten handling the move to the w.coast? any new conquests? has he found the girl of your dreams yet?'' she teased. it was a long-standing joke in their circle of friends that the only thing that stood between shalini and ever-lasting peace was hiten's refusal to get married. the third of her children, and the sole cause of her grief when he had refused to comply with her wishes to marry the girl of her choice last year. gayatri thought his reason was impeccable -- even she had agreed that it was absurd for hiten to get married just because his younger brother was ready to.
shalini had never understood how gayatri was so calm about her children not being married. she supposed it was all those years of being with lalit juneja, who was quite the maverick in their circles. he had given up a conventional lucrative career in a firm to set up his own company. how lucky had it been that he lived to see his sons follow him into the firm that he had so lovingly set up. the junejas had always been lucky with their boys.
even preet, who had been such a trouble-maker. and who had turned out to be the jewel in their crown when he joined his father. and, she still remembered feeling amazed when gayatri rang her up to tell her that preet had announced he was getting married. gayatri had been so happy. and then came the tragedy.
shalini shook her head remembering it, making gayatri stop in the middle of her teasing hiten, to look quizzically at her. ''
isn't it all a strange coincidence, gayatri? you said heer did not know about preet and her sister? and yet, out of all the apartments in this city, she ended up living next to yours? and out of all the architect firms, she had to get enraptured by lalit's cathedral? and now, she is actually able to stand in at a dinner, and present lalit's vision so well that even a man who never agreed with lalit, promises to do what he can for his cathedral?'' shalini mused.
gayatri's face softened. ''
i suppose it is strange. but really, shalini, you remember how i had told you of her even before i found out she was meher's sister. it was so easy to get close to heer, to like her. and if meher was anything like heer,...'' gayatri paused, as if struck by a new thought.
''what is it, dear? what happened?'' shalini touched her arm, startled by the look of sadness that crossed gayatri's usually laughing face.
gayatri's smile was a little wobbly as if she was trying not to cry. ''
it's just that... i had the oddest thought... i have had such fun with heer. i have begun to understand what it would have been like to have a daughter. and if meher was anything like heer,'' she swallowed hard before continuing, ''
i would have loved her like a daughter more than as my son's wife. and my poor baby would not have been so unhappy, so alone. if you could just see him with heer, shalini. even when he didn't know it, he used to come alive when he was around heer. he used to be a little like the old preet that we used to know. maybe even he was responding to the part of heer that is connected to meher. but it is so good to see him come alive like that.''
shalini squeezed her hand, and murmured that ''
everything'' would be alright.
gayatri nodded, ''
i think you are right. heer coming to us, to preet, does seem to have been fated, doesn't it? and if the fates want it, who are we to stand in their way?'' the two friends smiled happily at each other.
after five minutes of trying, heer decided that it was just not in her fate to be able to move prem juneja to do anything she wanted.
on the way down in the hospital elevator, heer had asked if she could ride back with him to the brownstone to meet up with the team. prem had first looked a little cagey, and then told her brightly that since she had messed up on catching the meeting in the morning, the guys had gone back to their original schedules. the only time they had left to meet with her was the evening -- would that be okay with her?
heer's face had fallen a little.
then she had figured that she could hang out with rajat and soni at the prototype. she had only seen it briefly before the dinner last night, from the vantage point of lying on top of prem juneja. she had noticed that they had done quite a bit of work filling out the inner space, and was quite excited about seeing it as it stood now.
but, prem informed her gravely, rajat had taken the day off. soni was helping out at the local conservatory. and there were too many precarious beams holding things in place -- the guys had cordonned off access till they got back and there was no way he was going to let her walk in to explore. especially given the way -- and here prem's face had become wicked -- she had such a terrible tendency to walk into things.
when they had stepped out of the hospital, heer had stood in front of him, shuffling her feet a little, feeling a strange reluctance to get back to her paintings in the apartment.
prem had stood looking at her, struggling not to grin at the sad little picture she made. ''
y'know?'' he started. heer looked up, and was startled to see a mournful look on prem's face. ''
it was not such a great idea to get you to the hospital to visit ma.'' he remained poker faced as heer's face fell, and continued blithely. ''the way she went on about how rude i had been to yank you out of bed, and present you before her, without so much as a coffee, a tea, some milk.... ''
heer had just begun to politely protest that it was okay, but he was not taking any chances. it was a well documented fact at ''
lj&sons, ltd.'' that when prem juneja started, he could overwhelm better than preet.
''
... horror of horrors, no breakfast! the first sustaining meal of the day. how could i? i was such an insensitive person, a beast. was this the training that she had given me -- to push people to miss the most important meal of the day? she said she was never going to forgive me. ever.''
prem peered into heer's wide eyes, decided that she had been overwhelmed enough, and moved in for the kill. ''
heer, please, you have to get her to forgive me. would you please come have breakfast with me? please? then you can tell her all about it whenever you talk with her next, and maybe she'll forgive me some day? please?''
heer looked at that plea, so unusual a look on prem's face, and nodded. she thought to herself that he needn't have worked so hard to ask her for breakfast. she'd have done anything not to have to go back home. and hoped that it was not going to be too boring for him to take her. she was wondering whether she should offer to tell him that she could just lie to gayatri about his taking her to breakfast, when his voice cut into her thoughts.
''ya, raj, we're done here. could you pick us up at the side street of...''
driven by an impulse, heer reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling the phone off his ear. prem turned back to her in surprise.
''would you mind terribly if we walked?'' heer asked shyly. ''
i mean,
i know this nice place three blocks from here, around the park, with very good bagels. they serve nice coffee as well. milk too if that's what you want.'' she added hastily. ''
and it's just, i haven't walked for a while..., i mean, i understand if you need to get back to work soon, we can take the car. i mean, actually if you want, i could just tell gayatri that you had taken me, but you don't have to...'' she was babbling. she knew she was babbling. and wanted very badly to stop. but couldn't. and she winced, preparing herself to walk alone to ''
holey bagels''.
not taking his eyes off her, prem slowly put his phone back to his ear. ''
actually, raj, i just remembered john uncle saying that he needed a ride to get stuff for tonight. you go there? we'll just walk. ya.. i'll do that. bye.''
prem tucked his phone into his pocket, and silently gestured for heer to lead the way. he couldn't have said much anyway. the smile in heer's eyes did what they always did to him -- made him feel dazed.
and that was nothing compared to how he felt when her hand crept into his, giving it a brief and excited squeeze. as they walked side by side towards her breakfast place, prem juneja, who was almost always the one in control, was feeling very overwhelmed indeed.
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