BREAKING EVEN

Chapter 2

There are days when everything seems to go wrong!

Rohan had gone to bed with a slight fever, and had kept tossing and turning until midnight and had finally settled down to sleep in Mama's room in the spare twin bed. After putting Rohan to sleep, Pooja ,unable to sleep, had watched a late night film and had slept through the wake up call and opened her eyes blearily to find she was fifteen minutes off schedule! After making her bed hurriedly, she rushed to wake Rohan up and found him still looking a little flushed, although the fever had subsided. She glanced at the wall clock and decided that it would be better if the boy stayed in bed. She called out to her mother, who was already in the kitchen, 'Mama, I think Rohan should spend the day at home. He is not looking good.'

At this, although he was still groggy with sleep, Rohan sat up and cried

" But it's open day at school! I have to go!"

He liked going to school but he was particularly upset because this day was a special day at his school. Every three months, the school had an Open Day during which various activities, an art exhibition ,and a cultural program in the evening was arranged; parents were invited to participate, give suggestions and also perform as resource persons for following events. Since Pooja couldn't participate during daytime , she usually made sure that Mama and she were present for the programs in the evenings, even if it was only for a short while. Rohan was particularly excited for on this evening, a collage created by him had been selected by his class teacher for display in the art exhibition. He was very proud about this and he wanted photographs of his exhibit with him, Pooja, Nani and his father.

But Nikhil, as was his usual practice, had begged off from attending the program with the excuse that he had a very important meeting from which he absolutely could not absent himself! Typical! Pooja had mollified the disappointed child by promising that she would try to be there for the full event this time, instead of just picking him and Mama up at the end.

Rohan now wailed hoarsely from his bed, 'But Mom, I have to help Ma'am in putting up the exhibition! I promised!'

'Baby, there will be other children who will help her I am sure.'

'But I promised..."

'Never mind, sweetie, I will call her and tell her you are not well. Be good now, and rest during the day, so Nani can take you to the school for the program in the evening. I am getting late baby; let me get you ready.' Pooja began to get him out of bed so she could dress him up and give him breakfast before she left.

'Will Papa come to school in the evening?' he asked, as he slipped out of his pajamas.

Pooja hated dealing with such questions for there was no easy way out. She replied tactfully, 'You know he is very busy with work. It is hard for him to get away in the evenings...'

'But, you also work. You always come.... .' he protested.

'Well, even I get late, don't I? And, he has a more important job. It doesn't matter sweetie, Nani and I will be there, okay?'

Rohan's face fell, and then he said rather grandly, 'I will call him and ask him to come today to see my art work!'

Pooja hoped Nikhil would give a decent excuse to pacify Rohan. The fact of the matter was that Nikhil was not interested in Rohan's school activities and always found a reason to stay away from them. There was no use appealing to his parental instincts; even the bimonthly weekends that the boy was supposed to spend with his father could not be taken for granted; very often Nikhil would be out of town on those weekends and Pooja would have ways to keep Rohan distracted so that he would not fret too much. Sometimes it was hard to remember that the same guy had given her such a hard time over their boy's custody three years ago!