Ride on Time

Chapter 2

Now, the geishas were dancing a slow yet graceful dance, holding onto their paper fans. Shruti was bored, yawning. Her brother, on the other hand, was watching with great interest as the geishas performed their slow and immaculate movements. She decided to give him a light smack on the back.
"What you want?!" Shri spat.
"That interesting ah?" Shruti asked in surprise. "You watching with your mouth open."
"Hello, this is giving me ideas for a new book," Shri frowned. "I'm thinking of writing a story that takes place here, in Japan."
Shruti rolled her eyes. "You get idea from everything. Next, you're gonna get idea while pooping also!"
"I already got an idea from there," Shri smirked. "A whole character has formed too!"
"What kind of a character is based on your poop?" Shruti asked in surprise.
Shri's smirk never left. "You."
Shruti lost it. She flew at him, throwing him off his zabuton. Shri crawled away and got up, casually excusing himself to the toilet.
'What a monster,' Shri frowned, seeing how Shruti was still scowling at him. He shuddered and went towards the men's room.
Shri looked at the toilet stall with the squatting toilet and made his way to the seated toilet. Squatting toilets weren't anything new, especially since there was at least one stall with a squat toilet back in Malaysia. In fact, most of the public toilets had the squatting toilet bowls.
He just entered one of the stalls, secretly hoping that Shruti would be thrown out of the the restaurant for bad behaviour or something. Though she was a girl, he always thought that she ought to have been born a boy instead.
Shri flushed and left the bathroom before going back to the chabudai that his family were seated at. Shridhar was eventually called to join the meeting while the others were left to enjoy the performance.
"Ma, can you switch places with me?" Shri asked, poking his mother's shoulder. "I don't want to sit next to this idiot."
"Just wait until we go home," Shruti threatened. "I'll kill you."
"But we're going home only in two weeks!" Shri smirked. "I still have time to flee."
"Ma!" Shruti whined.
"Correct, what he saying," Suganthi chuckled. "We're only going home after two weeks, what."
Shruti frowned. "Fine, I'll kill you when we get back to the hotel. Are you happy now?"
Shri grinned. "Extremely."
He also made it a point to go on a long walk back to the suite to avoid his sister.
The meeting went on and on, and the performance was getting boring to watch. Shri eventually pulled out the translated novel and continued reading it.
Shridhar finally returned and frowned at his son. "Mohan, where's your Om?"
"Huh?" Shri frantically looked for the golden pendant, but it wasn't there. Only the chain was left. "Nuts!"
He got up and started looking for it all around the room. He even retraced his steps to the bathroom, but it wasn't there.
"Great, my grandfather's Om, passed down to me, and I lost it in Japan..." Shri sighed, going back to his table.
"Kyaku-san!" A female voice exclaimed. Shri turned around and saw one of the geishas, holding the golden Om pendant in her small hands that were barely visible under the long sleeves of her kimono. "Is this yours? I noticed you searching for something.
Shri looked at her in surprise and nodded. "Yes, yes. That's mine. I must've lost it on the way to the bathroom."
The geisha smiled and handed it to him. Shri took it, his olive hand contrasting her pale one.
"Thanks, I've been looking everywhere for it," Shri bowed. "I was afraid someone would steal it."
"Oh no, that would not be right," the geisha bowed too. "I didn't know who it belonged to and saw you looking around for something."
"It used to be my grandfather's," Shri smiled, looking at the gold Om on his hand before turning back to her. "He passed away before I was even born, so I really treasured it."
The geisha nodded. "I know how you feel. I always cherished my grandmother's kanzashi too."
"Is it the one you're wearing now?" Shri asked, noticing the ornate red flower pin on her hair. The pink dangling petals that landed just above her ear reminded him of the jasmine garlands that his mother sometimes made Shruti wear to weddings.
"Yes," the geisha nodded, fingering the dangling strands of petals. "She made it herself."
"It's really pretty," Shri smiled, revealing his dimples which were fairly hidden behind his beard.
The girl bowed. "Thanks."
"Oi, Mohan!" Suganthi called. "Found ah?"
Shri glanced back for a moment. "Yeah, found already, Ma." He turned back to the geisha girl and bowed again. "Thanks for finding this for me."
She smiled and nodded. "You're welcome. Thank you for helping me earlier today too."
Shri looked at her in surprise, but smiled and bowed again. "It's my pleasure."
He returned to his family with a smile, remembering why she looked familiar the whole time.
"Did you find it?" Shridhar frowned as soon as he came. Shri just grinned and showed it to him. "Oh good. Tomorrow we go goldsmith and try to pateri it back."
"Where you gonna find pather here?" Suganthi pointed out. "This is Japan."
"We'll try to find and see lah," Shridhar shrugged. "Where did you drop it, Mohan?"
"I think I dropped it when going toilet," Shri explained. "Luckily, that geisha girl found it and gave me."
"Which one?" Suganthi asked, looking at the two kimono-clad women going around. "The one playing the guitar or the one playing drum. That drum looks like uduku a bit lah."
"The one with the tsuzumi," Shri said. "The drum."
"Oh," Suganthi nodded, watching her bow at the guests and thank them for coming. "Nice girl. Normally, if people see gold, they steal it."
"Why were you talking to her so long?" Shruti asked, much to her brother's dismay. "You flirting with her ah?"
Shri frowned. "I was just telling her how much I treasured the Om and she agreed, saying that she treasured her grandmother's kanzashi just as much."
"What's kanzashi?" Shruti asked.
"The hair pins that ladies normally wear when wearing kimono," Shri said, pointing at his head. "The flower one she's wearing, it seems that her grandmother made it."
"Oh!" Shruti nodded. "Can I have one of those? It's really pretty. The flower one, I mean. The iron one looks kinda heavy, like wind chime..."
"If we see, we'll buy for you, okay?" Shridhar chuckled.
"Pa, no need lah," Shri smirked. "For what she want all that?"
"You very mean!" Shruti whined.
"Shruti, we're in public, don't forget that," Suganthi frowned. "Fight later once we go back to the hotel, okay?"
"Fine..." Shruti scowled.
Shri smirked and pocketed the golden pendant.

-pateri means solder, like melting metals.
-pather means Indian goldsmith.
-uduku is a small Indian drum, looks very similar to a tsuzumi but smaller and louder.