Inconvenient Relations (7 page)

“Hey, Grey! Is this your girlfriend?” She was staring riveted at the LCD screen on the camera.

“Give it to me!” He snatched it from her hands. Yes, it was a picture of Des and him taken when they had travelled together on a company trip to San Diego several months ago when he had still been in denial.

“She’s beautiful, Grey, very beautiful.”

But she has a heart of stone, and unlike you, she won’t hesitate to squeeze your life out and leave you for dead.

He erased the memory card and handed the camera back to her. “Here you go. A clean, new start.”

“Yes, but over a cemetery of old memories.”

Apprehensions

S
haan dropped her off at the nearest bus stop with clear instructions, $100 in tens and twenties, some loose change, and a VISA card, which he stuffed in her purse when she refused.

“You don’t have to use it. Keep it for emergencies.”

“But I—”

She tried to hand it back and, when he didn’t accept, moved to shove it in his pocket.

“Damn you, Bee! I said emergencies all right? Say if, if…”

“What?”

“If you saw something nice in a shop you wanted to buy.”

“That isn’t an emergency, and anyway, I wouldn’t want to buy anything for myself with your money, Grey!” she said, getting flustered.

“I didn’t mean for you, I meant for me, Bee. What if you want to buy something for your new friend?” he asked softly, his eyes smiling.

Her brow creased for a moment, then she snickered. “I should have known, you’d always think about you first.”

“But, Bee!”

“All right, I shall keep it, but there are no guarantees I’ll get you anything!”

“Understood.” He uttered, laughing with relief. She had bought the ruse, and he didn’t care now about what she thought of him. “Are you really serious about this?”

“Yes, I am. And I’m not being impulsive. Don’t worry, I have all the important numbers written down, and I will call you if I need to.”

“All right, I tried. Bye, Bee.” It was difficult, but he was getting used to calling her by the weird name. He was certain he would miss her sting. He raised a hand to squeeze her shoulder then dropped it. With a short wave of his hand, he got into his car and slowly drove away.

She stood for sometime looking after him, wondering what still kept them going for each other’s throats. It’s me more than him. But he has hurt me and I cannot forget that. But I’m trying to.

“Hello there!”

Ruhi wheeled around, but failed to spot the voice. Then her gaze fell upon a fragile-looking creature sitting on the bus stop bench, so innocuous anybody could have passed by without noticing her there.
She must be really old,
thought Ruhi. Older than even Grandma with her back bent forward like a tired old tree branch, her stature tiny, as though she was slowly eroding into the surroundings, soon to disintegrate and disappear.

But her smile proved that she was very much alive and living, for it transformed her entire face and made it beautiful.

“Hello, my dear, are you new to this area? Haven’t seen you around before.” Her voice was soft but strong.

“Yes, I am new,” Ruhi said, sitting beside her on the bench.

“You are very pretty. I hope you don’t mind my saying so.”

Ruhi smiled shaking her head. “Of course not, but so are you.”

The old lady laughed, obviously pleased. “You think so? That’s what my Jeremy used to say all the time. He must have been right!”

“He is truly right.” Ruhi nodded.

“
Was
my dear, was. He’s gone, the old rascal is gone.” Her face suddenly crumpled like a piece of parchment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s all right, my dear, you didn’t know. I’d gotten so used to having him around, it’s hard to get used to him being gone. I had known him for sixty-two years out of which fifty-five we spent together, and I never got tired of him,
never
.”

There was a prolonged moment of silence as Ruhi pondered over this piece of information. She was having trouble spending even a day with the man she had agreed to marry.

“What is your name, my dear, you look so young, like a teenager.”

Ruhi replied, laughing, “Call me Bee, and I am not a teenager. I am twenty-three going on forty.”

“Then I am seventy-five going on sixteen and my name is Sunshine. Nice to meet you, Bee!”

“Very nice to meet you too, Sunshine. I guessed you were around eighteen, sorry,” Ruhi countered with a wide grin, sensing an immediate kinship with this little old woman.

“People often make that mistake, and I have to correct them.” One could spy a mischievous glint in Sunshine’s bright eyes, which shone blue like the sky from in between her wrinkled lids. “Who was that young man who dropped you off. Your husband? He seemed nice.”

Yes, but looks are deceiving, and I learned it the hard way.
“No, he is not my husband. He’s a friend.”

“Just a friend?”

It was an uncomfortable moment for the younger woman. “Yes, just a
friend!
” The emphasis was an effort more to convince herself than Sunshine.

The blue eyes continued to twinkle.

With a pounding heart, Ruhi sprang up to her feet. “I think my bus is here. I should make a move.”

“Take care, my dear. I’m sure I’ll see you again.”

Sunshine’s young companion raised her hand in a brief wave; a part of her wanted to flee while another wanted to stay and bask in her maternal warmth.

***

“Where to, miss?”

Fraught with anxiety, Ruhi scanned the interior of the city bus she’d just boarded without any knowledge of the number or color. There it was! Her eyes zeroed in on the orange-colored strip running alongside the roof, then poured over the map Shaan had provided.

“What’s your stop, miss? I can’t wait much longer. I’m already running behind.” The driver seemed to appear calm, though she could sense an edginess in his voice, and the rest of the passengers weren’t far behind.

Spotting the name of her husband’s college, she eagerly pointed to it. “I need to get there.”

“That will be the fourth stop from here. Seventy-five cents.”

With nervous fingers, she dug through her purse. “I’m missing five cents.”

“I need exact change, miss.”

She bit on her lower lip to keep it from trembling. “Please…”

“Here you go! Five cents,
sahi
?”

Ruhi glanced over her shoulder to see a tall thin young Indian man proffering a nickel.

“Thank you. But I need to pay you back,” she said gratefully while moving down the aisle behind him. Settling herself down on an unoccupied seat across, she removed a dollar note from her purse.

“Hey, don’t even mention it. This change is weighing my pants down,” he exclaimed with a cheerful grin, brandishing a large plastic bag full of coins.

She smiled back. “Perhaps I should carry something like it, too.”

“Perhaps you should, comes in very handy in situations like these. By the way, are you new here? Haven’t seen you on the bus before. We ride this every day, me and Surjit.” Indicating at a little boy in a
patka
next to him who was propped up on his knees with his face pasted to the window. “My sister’s son,” he added as an afterthought with a self-conscious smile.

“Get down, Surjit! Don’t lick the glass, one day you’ll get stuck to it!”

The little boy seemed enthralled by his reflection.

“He has a learning disability you know. He is autistic. My sis has a hard time with him,” the young man volunteered as an explanation.

Ruhi smiled, clueless about what he was attempting to tell her. All she could gather was the little Surjit wasn’t “normal.”

The bus came to a standstill.

“Villa and Lake. We need to get down here.” He stood up in a hurry, and after some difficulty, extracted Surjit from the window. At the door, he looked back. “Do drop by sometime. My sis owns the convenience store near the gas station, and yes, you do owe me a nickel.”

He jumped off, and as the bus moved on, Ruhi could see him struggling to hold on to his little charge who in turn was intent on making a dash for it.

Just like me, she thought, running without knowing where to go.

***

“Hey, this is great, dude! Your wife is awesome!”

Shaan was sitting with his colleague and so-called “friend” Eric in the cafeteria. So-called because Eric had suddenly discovered his love for all things Indian after Ruhi had started sending packed lunches. Shaan hardly got around to tasting them as Eric was always there “to try a sample” and ended up finishing the entire box.

He watched Eric as he eagerly placed a large piece of bread in his mouth, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He was wondering about her; it had been two hours since he had left her at the bus stop.

And I know quite well she won’t call even if she gets lost. She is stubborn as hell. How stupid of me to let her go without a cell phone.

“Man, this is way too good. Your wife is crying hot!”

Shaan nearly burst out laughing when he saw tears streaming down Eric’s face. It had turned bright red, and he was chugging down on a soda can as if his life depended on it.

“I think I need to take a leak. See you later, bud. Do invite me to your place for dinner someday soon. Can’t wait to shake your lovely wife’s hand,” he said before hurrying away in the direction of the restrooms.

Placing a piece of the suspect
paratha
in his mouth, Shaan chewed on it slowly. The heat made a rapid ascent to his ears. He reached for a glass of water.

Ms. Bee, if nothing else, I do like your style of revenge.

Suddenly, he was alerted to the ringing of his phone. “Where are you Ru—I mean, Bee. Do you want me to pick you up?”

“It’s me, Des, Shaaan! And who is this bitch Bee? Doesn’t sound like your wife or is she?”

“Damn you, Des!” He was infuriated she had chosen to call from an unknown number. “I don’t appreciate you sneaking up on me like this. How dare you call my wife that? Anyway, why am I talking to you?” He hung up.

“Shaan, you can’t shut me off like this!”

Lifting his eyes, he saw her in front of him, dressed neatly in a crisp suit of soft blue wool, her manicured hands poised on the cafe table and carrying a desperate plea in her eyes. It appeared as though she hadn’t had her beauty sleep in a while.

“Wonder why you should say that?” An unsympathetic smirk formed on his lips. “You’ve never lacked for attention, have you?”

Standing up, he quickly made for the exit.

“Shaan, please listen to me!” She caught his arm. “I know I shouldn’t have said what I did the other day, but frankly, I thought it’d work best for both of us. I didn’t mean to put your…your wife down at all. You can’t keep ignoring me. I know you still love me, you just won’t accept it.”

Prying her hand gently off, he regarded her coldly and found himself oddly bereft of any emotion.

It’s amazing that I ran like a madman after this woman for a couple of years; at one time even fancying myself to be in love with her. But now, it all appears like a gross hallucination, a terrible blunder.

“Des, you are mistaken like I was at one time. I don’t love you. I never did. It was just a prolonged fling. You could even perhaps call it an obsession but not love. Never was it love.”

Then taking a quick glance at his watch, he said, “I need to go. People like us have to work for a living.”

She stood barring his passage. “Fine, if you say so, but you can’t deny there was something between us. A need we fulfilled for each other, a want, a desire. Something very palpable, which still exists and is very strong!”

He burst into a sneering laugh. “There you are. You said it loud and clear. You were fulfilling a basic need, and I like a fool mistook it for something deeper while you very knowingly played with my emotions.”

“Shaan, I didn’t! I was a victim who was suffering, and you helped reduce the pain and made me feel loved again, and I couldn’t let you go!”

“BS! You, a victim? I am the victim and so is your poor husband who has trusted you and has stuck with you throughout!” He saw her face flush with guilt, yet it didn’t evoke any sympathy in him.

“Are we getting together again or not?”

“No.”

“Really? You don’t want me anymore, Shaan?” she asked, incredulous, a frown on her lips.

“No, I don’t
want
you, neither do I
need
you! We are over, Des! Now will you let me go? I have an important meeting to attend with your husband.”

She stepped aside to let him pass. “You are fooling yourself, Shaan. You will live to regret it. I sense your sweet little wife has something to do with this.”

He spun around angrily. “I’m regretting the day I met you! And for heaven’s sake, don’t pull my wife into all this rubbish. I’m done with you. I wish you’d realize your mistakes and make up to your husband. He’s really a nice guy.”

“You don’t have to give me any bloody advice. I can take care of myself!” she blistered.

“I bet you can. Just be sure to pick up all the pieces!”

He walked away without a backward glance thinking,
I need to get a cell phone for Bee. I hope she’s okay
.

***

“This is where you get down, miss,” Advised the driver with a kind smile. “The U is down south about four blocks then due west. You cannot miss it.”

“Thank you,” Ruhi said, smiling back as she got off and tried to get her bearings. She wasn’t used to the lingo, preferring right or left to east or west. But she wasn’t one to give up easy. Taking some time to orient herself to the street signs with the road map gripped firmly in her hand, she proceeded confidently toward East California Street, the one on which the college was supposed to be located.