Now We Got Bad Blood

Chapter Five- The Hanged Man

Monami sat in her cabin with her nose pressed against the table, willing time to speed up. The clinic was never overrun with patients, but it was unusually quiet tonight.

A knock on the door made Monami look up. "Come in".

Koel entered the cabin with a smirk on her face. She came and sat on the chair opposite Monami. Picking up a paperweight from the table, she spoke, "Toh tumhara woh shadow wala ladka... Singhs' ke koi dur rishtedaar hai kya?"

"Haan", Monami said, stifling a yawn. "Shayad".

Koel laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard of. "Kitna embarrassing tha, right?"

Monami glared at her. "Badi hasi aa rahi hai tujhe.'"

Koel grinned. "Waise banda hot tha kya?"

"Banda murderer bhi toh ho sakta hai?", Monami counter-asked.

"Oh come on Mona, teri sense of adventure kidhar gayi hai?"

"Theek hai, main promise karti hoon, agli baar main bande ke saath full-on makeout karungi, OK?!"

"Chal jhoothi", Koel got up from her chair. "Ab mujhe jaana hoga. Tu Saturday ko basketball tournament mein aa rahi hain, right?"

"Of course," Monami answered. Har saal ki tarah is bar bhi trophy meri hogi. Sid bhi aayega".

Koel shook her head dreamily. "Mujhe to sirf hot bande dekhne hain. Waise woh Singhs'.. wo log ayenge kya?"

Monami contemplated on the question for a bit. "I don't know Ko", she finally replied. Yawning she got up from her chair and checked her watch. It was 10. Now no patients would come. She could finally call it a night.

~~~~~~~~~
Monami arrived home to find a silver BMW parked outside. She rounded the car, which exaggerated the pitiful state of her mother's Alto just by being near it. The BMW was empty and unfamiliar. A sense of hysteria grew inside her. Her mother was usually in bed at this time of night, not welcoming affluent visitors.

Monami began to panic that she was welcoming a visitor - the kind of visitor who was going to try and replace her father. Maybe her mother was already tired of waiting. Perhaps she didn't want to face the next four years alone.

She centred herself. There was only one thing to do. And that one thing was not to stand outside panicking.

She let herself in through the front door and shut it quietly behind her. Voices could be heard from the kitchen - a man's voice! She padded down the hallway, stopping just behind the door that led to the kitchen. It was ajar.

"Mujhe pata nahi tum aise kyun behave kar rahe ho. Tum usse dara doge", she heard her mother speaking.

"Ek baar ke liye aap meri baat sunte kyun nahi ho bhabhi? "

The distressed voice of Prakash Mahajan, Monami's uncle surprised her more than if it had been a different man entirely. Historically, her mother and her father's younger brother had never gotten along. He was the only person in the world whom she refused to tolerate.

Growing up, Deepak and Prakash Mahajan only ever had each other- a result of two absent, alcoholic parents - and with Prakash being younger, and always refusing to settle down, he had relied a lot on Monami's father.

But despite the negative side, Monami knew the other parts of him- the man who took her into the city to an Arijit Singh concert just because she once said in passing that she liked listening to his songs; the man who purposefully lingered around her conversations with Koel and Sid so he could chime in with his advice and the man who would buy her the latest iPhone. Monami saw the man who did his best to step in and protect her when her father went to prison.