The Cries of the Butterfly - A LOVE STORY (67 page)

After Robin had had enough, mother and child would seek out a vendor outside the park gate. The first day it was peanuts, the next day candy ice-cream, and before they knew it, it was dark. Back home, Savannah would prepare dinner, with Robin eager to help. Now that she had a new member in her house, Savannah never got slothful. Alone, it didn’t matter if she skipped a meal and subsisted on a sandwich and a coke. But there was no way her daughter was going to miss out. She
had to
have a proper full meal every time.

Robin would be all over Savannah.

“No, no, let me do it…me, me, Mom, pleaseeeee…”

Whether it was peeling potatoes, or mixing the ingredients, or placing the bowls in the oven, Robin simply had to get involved. Although, the upshot would be more mess than any real help, and then when she still wouldn’t relent, Momma would get a little angry. And Robin would first frown, then begin to sulk, and Momma could bear it not and she would sigh and shake her head and take her baby in her arms. An hour later, the arduous task of cooking a meal for two would somehow be accomplished.

They would sometimes eat before the television. Thereafter, Savannah would clean up and Robin would want to help here too. Once in her ardor, she broke a crystal glass. Momma pressed her lips tight, shut her eyes for a second, then said, “Well, never mind…it happens. But do be careful.” After all, she wasn’t financially endowed like the Butchers—a crystal glass was a rare luxury for her.

Sometimes after meals they would play some video game. But it didn’t really matter what they did—all that mattered was that they had each other…that they breathed the same air. Eleven pm was bedtime. Momma saw to it that her girl freshened up, changed into clean night clothes, brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and emptied her bladder. A half glass of water and the lights would be switched off. Daughter slept with mother, their arms around each other. Deep sleep, secure sleep, no-worries sleep. Glad sleep.

Good-morning for Robin was seven am. Mom had risen an hour before that and she would be busy in the kitchen. Chores over, the little girl headed for the dining table. Breakfast was lavish. Chocos or Frosties, milk (one tall glass obligatory), an orange, a banana…

“Mom, I can’t eat anymore…it’s tooooo much!” Robin would squeal.

To no avail. “It’s your first meal of the day, it’s the most important meal. Don’t you want to be strong and healthy?”

But she
was
strong and healthy! Yet, there was nothing to do but soldier on. She didn’t want to upset Mom too much, yes?

Back in the bedroom, it was dress-up-for-school time. Savannah would have laid out the clothes on the bed, neatly ironed out.

“I can do it, Mom, you don’t have to!” Robin would howl, embarrassed, as Savannah began dressing her.

“I don’t want you creasing your clothes. It doesn’t look good. Your friends will only laugh at you.”

Robin would roll her eyes.

Around eight-forty-five they would leave home. Mom would drive her ancient car and Robin would sit by her side, clasping the schoolbag to her chest and staring at the street ahead. It was a new experience. Well, everything was a new experience and sometimes it felt a little…strange.

Mom would be back by one pm. Coming home, Robin would quickly doff her uniform, wash up and leap to the dining table. Lunch would be ready, hot and fresh, and ravenously hungry, she and Mom would pitch into it without further ado. While they ate, Mom would ask constant questions about her day in school and Robin would answer with equal keenness. She realized she loved sharing things with Mom, like she had loved sharing things with Dad. It made her feel more close to her.

“Speaking with your mouth full is bad manners, Robin!” Savannah would sometimes admonish.

Then stop asking me things when I’m eating!
“You are doing the same, Mom,” she’d point out.

Savannah would wink. “I know. But remember, while it’s alright when just the two of us are around, you should never do it in front of others. Alright?”

Robin would nod wisely.
I understand, Mom. But I never do that in front of others anyway.

Lunch over, Mom would tidy up, while Robin messed around with her school bag. She was too tired to help Mom now. Not that Mom expected her to help. Soon she would begin to yawn, but Mom was having none of it.

“Never lie down for at least an hour after a meal. That’s the surest way to get indigestion…and the surest way to grow fat.”

Finally, they would take a little nap, together. A half hour of revitalizing siesta, no more. Then it was homework time again.

.

W
hile mother and daughter found supreme bliss with each other, Wolf’s heart was nothing but a deep hollow.

He knew things had changed somehow. And irrevocably so.

When Robin came home to Savannah permanently, Wolf spent the first afternoon with them, reveling in the company of the two women he loved more than life itself. It had been a day of complete rapture.

Then in the late evening, as he was about to leave for home, Savannah took him aside.

“Wolf, there’s a small request I seek from you,” she said. Her voice was low and serious.

“Shoot.”

“Don’t take this in the wrong sense, but I’d be grateful if you could stay away for a few days.”

“What?”

“Look, I need to be with my daughter as much as possible and I need to be with her exclusively. We need to bond; there’s a lot of catching up for us to do.”

“And I’m in the way?” he asked incredulously.

“Hey, don’t make it sound so scandalous. I just need a few days alone with my daughter. Please try to understand.”

He could
not
understand. “Sweet shit, you’re joking, right?”

“Do I come through like that?”

No, her demeanor was solemn as could be.

He was taken aback. But he stayed away from that day, talking to Robin and Savannah on the phone a couple of times a day. Even that, he sensed, Savannah did not quite approve.

It hurt. Boy, it hurt! It tortured his soul. From being the sole focus of Robin’s life—her dad, her mom, her soul-mate…the center of her universe, to be suddenly relegated to the backwaters. What ached even more, however, was that Robin herself seemed suddenly indifferent now. Once, where she waited all week just to see his face again, his presence or absence didn’t seem to matter anymore. It was all Mom now. He was suddenly the outsider.

.

T
he newspapers got into musth once more. And not just the Tribune. Vultures from around the globe descended. A buzz spread through the city-state. It soon became a boil. Office-talk, coffee shop-talk, street-side-talk… The common man began to get involved in a big way all over again. Butcher Garden became a tourist spot. With Grant still refusing the Presidential security in the normal course of things, Art had to hire an army of armed private guards. Helicopters began droning overhead and now Savannah couldn’t take her daughter to the garden across her home anymore. And when she went to the school, she needed a police escort, for the predators were eternally in pursuit. It was all reminiscent of the time Wolf was to marry the first time around. Only, things were even more fanatical now.

Wolf’s exclusives to Maddy continued—innocuous inner happenings of his life…what he had eaten the previous evening, what he expected to eat for his next meal, what clothes he wore that day, and the color of his underwear, when was the last time he sneezed, and went to the loo, and on a more profound note, when was the last time he spoke with Savannah and Robin…which, nevertheless, enthralled the public no end. He couldn’t desert Maddy now. The other newspapers cried foul.

“Favoritism!” they howled. “Most unfair…most unethical!”

Wolf told them to go fuck a lamb.

The court monitored DNA tests confirmed what was widely known. There were no doubts anymore, no more impediments to daughter and mother uniting legally.

Two days later—three days from the wedding date—Ian Cass, who had withdrawn his resignation as chief of the NAB, reluctantly facilitated the process and Savannah was officially granted full custody of Robin. That evening, they had a ball at Savannah’s house, attended by Lianne, Rochelle, Maddy, Knott and Wolf. Mother and daughter cut the cake and fed each other, while the others stood around and cheered and clapped.

Earlier that day, Wolf had handed Stanley Knott the keys to the maisonette on Dias Street, Rochelle’s former home.

“It’s yours, Stan. Get the girls out of the tin shed and live here for now. Later, we’ll think about a bigger place.”

Knott broke down and wept.

The next day, Friday, was Robin’s last day at the Home school. She had already been enrolled in New Halcyon’s best school, the exclusive Bishop Cambridge School, three miles east of Salisbury Park and by the ocean. She would attend from the following Wednesday, two days after the wedding.

It was a tearful day for Robin. She was going to miss them all—miss them badly. Especially Moon-Moon. She asked her mother if she could stay back till evening.

Savannah assented reluctantly. “But no longer than six. I’ll come fetch you then.”

After school was over and they’d had their last lunch together, Robin and Moon-Moon went out to the grounds and settled down under the cool shade of a large Banyan tree. For a while, they just chatted, holding hands. Then Moon-Moon began to cry.

“I’ll miss you so much,” she sobbed, clinging on to her best friend. “Why couldn’t I too have parents who loved me and took me with them to their home.”

Her friend’s anguish made Robin feel really terrible.

“But you will come to my house one day,” she said. “Daddy has promised me.”

Moon-Moon shook her head. “No, no, no, they only say, they never do! I know once you leave me, you’ll never come back. I’ll never see you again…”

Robin winced. Moon-Moon was clasping her left arm too tight.

“But I will! I promise you I will,” she said. “I’ll come to see you every week, promise. I’ll even ask Mom and Dad to bring you home on every weekend.”

“No…you’ll just forget about me. I know you will. You have rich parents who love you so much. But no one loves me…no one. I am fat and big and ugly, they will not want me.”

Robin cried out in pain as Moon-Moon suddenly grabbed the stump of her amputated limb and squeezed it.

“No, that’s not correct!” she protested. “You’re
not
big and fat and ugly. You are lovely and good. See, I too don’t have one hand, still they like me so much. They’ll like you also, I swear. You are my best friend and I love you so much. Don’t I love you?”

“You’re the only one. No one else loves me. And even you are going away. I’ll be left all alone now…” Moon-Moon wailed.

.

I
t was just past three pm when Savannah got the call.

“Ms. Burns?” a faint female voice said.

Something in the tone made Savannah tense up. “Yes?”

“This is Sister Toynette from the Teresa Home.”

“Yes?”

“Ma’am, we need you to come over immediately.”

“What? What’s it?”

“It’s Robin, ma’am. She’s…”

Savannah stopped breathing. “What’s happened to Robin?”

There was a slight hesitation, then the voice said, “She’s been kidnapped, ma’am. But the police are on their way and we trust everything shall be alright. Yet, if you could kindly come over…”

Savannah felt her heart plunge down into her slippers. She began shouting.

“What do you mean
kidnapped
…who kidnapped her?! She was in your care, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, ma’am, but…”

“But what? She was your goddamn responsibility, wasn’t she? What have you done to her! … Look, you! If anything happens to my girl, I’ll kill you…!” She realized the line had been severed at the other end.

For an instant, she sat immobile on the edge of the bed. Then her heart began pounding, so brutally her whole body quaked. She thought she was going to lose her mind. Yet, somehow, she picked up her cellphone and pushed the button.

“Wolf…” she stuttered.

“Hey, baby,” he said at the other end. “How come you remembered me today?”

She tried to speak, but now no sound came out. She felt as though someone was garroting her.

“Savannah, that’s you, right?”

The handset dropped from her hand. It hit the mattress and sat there. There was a sudden explosion in her skull—a flash of killing white light. Then an ugly wave of something swept over her and she began to retch.

Somehow, she managed to scream. “HELPPPPP…!”

.

W
olf reached her in fifteen minutes.

When the door wouldn’t answer, he threw it open with the spare key he had.

Wolf’s hair stood on end when he saw her—she was on the settee in the living room, convulsing violently. He dashed over and grabbed her.

“Savannah!” He shook her, but she wasn’t cognizant of him. He shook her again, then yelled to his bodyguard to call for help.