Last days

Chapter 11

After dinner, at 8:30 PM. I told my mom that I am going to Krish's and will probably be staying there a night. She nodded as she was absorbed in some detective movie on TV. I called Krish and instructed him to do his duties as my alibi. "Yes, boss," he said.

At exactly 9 PM I reached the park, unlike morning. It was filled with kids and elders. Kids playing on swings and slides, elders taking walks and or talking on the bench. I leaned onto the railing of the park and opened my phone. I did not have her number, and vice versa.

For twenty minutes or so I watched people and cars walking past, doing their chores. She was wearing black jeans, a peach oversized t-shirt that read "Human", a backpack (probably supplies) and her candy pink shoes.

"Hi," She said.

"Hii," I said and asked, "So, what's the plan?"

"I was thinking marine drive," she said.

***

We reached marine drive in 40 minutes of the taxi ride. Marine Drive was filled with night joggers and tourists.

We sat on the other end of the marine drive, facing the Arabian sea and in distance glimmering skyline of Mumbai. The waves hit the tetra-pods at intervals that felt almost metronomic.

People were taking selfies, walking with their partners, laughing or just sitting quietly, listening to waves hit the stones. listening to the sea telling them, his story, one wave at a time. Avani and I sat there talking about mundane things, like how yellow light add to the beauty of the night, how pav bhaji tasted better without butter ( to which she strongly disagreed ) and how people here always seemed in hurry.

"When we were in 9th grade, about four years ago," she said looking far into the horizon, breeze in her hair made visible her blue star-shaped earrings. " I used to go to this piano class in Bandra. This lady run the classes, she was my mom's college friend. Every day after school, I would go there. And in the evenings my dad would pick me up. It was February 12, I reached her home at 3 in the noon, like always. That day she said she was going to teach me the fifth symphony, a composition by Beethoven. It was hard, to say the least, I would get one stroke right and another wrong. Before I knew it, it was already 5 PM, but I had hardly made progress. my teacher told me to keep practising, saying my dad had called her and that he will be arriving late. That was unusual, I had been going to piano classes for a year now and he had always arrived on time to pick me up. I kept practising the symphony, and an hour passed. two hours passed. I was worried and about to cry. my teacher was also worried, she decided to drop me home. My mom was on the floor crying when the maid opened the door, the maid immediately escorted me to my room, and my teacher went straight to her friend's aid. I couldn't look away from my crying mother. My stomach was turning upside down. My five-year-old brother was sleeping in my bed. "What happened, Tai?" I asked Sharda Tai, the maid. She could not make eye contact, "Nothing dear!" she said, "You just stay here, I'll bring you the dinner." "Where is my dad?" I asked, she tried to avoid it but when I asked it again, she sat down and told me, "He left." The next few hours were the most terrible hours of my life, next morning, mom and my little brother were on a flight to Chandigarh. I heard her saying to my Nani, "He cheated on me." we stayed there for a week, and then my mom left one morning. She stayed here, working her job and paying our fees. I came to realize what happened as I grew older. My dad cheated on my mom with his colleague, and one day they just decided to run off. He was a good father, I never could have thought that he would leave me." She tried her best to fight back against the tears, but after some point, even for humans some waves and tears are unstoppable. I put my arm on her shoulder, she rested her head on mine.

She continued, " My dad is a rich man, family fortune and his own business. My mom, on the other hand, works in a bank. with her salary, we are barely able to pay off our school fees and her living expenses here. Two weeks ago, my dad came home. he wants to divorce and custody. My mom can have the apartment, but he wants custody more than anything else. His lawyers asked the court to let him meet with me and my brother, so we were brought back. He still behaves like he used to, a good gentle father. But I don't want to leave my mom. When I told them that at our first meeting with lawyers present, his lawyer threatened that he would take away home if custody is not given. It would ruin our already ruined life. I don't know what to do."

Listening to her problems, made me realize, that my problems or my reasons for unhappiness with my life are utterly frivolous. I squeezed her hand, "It'll be alright, everything will work out." I said, not knowing what else to say. I told her about my true reason to stay up at night, about Ananya. "That must've hurt," she said. "Yeah. It sure did." I said. "I know it's not her fault, but I don't know why I want to blame her."

"Why didn't you tell her earlier?"

"I don't know, I was scared. Scared about her never talking to me again. I was or maybe still am a coward."

"And how do you feel now?"

"I still miss her, I haven't really told her about my feelings yet," I said, looking at her candy pink sneakers. "Your ruins are much more ruined than mine," I said. She smiled and said, "Ruin is a gentle term, Right now I am in the ashes."

We walked up and down the marine drive and talked about Ananya, "Do you still love her?" she asked, "I don't know, my brain tells me not to, at the same time it keeps reminding me of good times with her." I said. And then we talked about board exams, a much lighter topic we agreed upon. It seemed way less stressful. I told her about chemistry, equilibrium and elements that are always in search for it. 

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