Crush - KarEena

Chapter 26

Mahipal shook tobacco from the cloth pouch onto the strip of paper and carefully passed it to Karishma, who tapped the tobacco into a straight line down the centre of the paper, moistened the edge of it with her tongue, and then tightly rolled it into a cigarette.

Mahipal watched her with interest. Karishma figured that by knowing how to roll her own she had elevated the cattle-man's opinion of her. In the older man's eyes, she had adequately performed a rite of passage.

Karishma silently thanked the high school friend who'd taught her the skill by rolling joints until Anubhav found out. After the threats she'd taken from Anu, she had decided that smoking anything was bad for her health, especially her Asthma triggering back.

Mahipal struck a match and lit the roll. Their eyes met above the glare of the match, "This another of your cardiologist's recommendations?" Karishma took a puff but ended up coughing, maybe her lungs were still weak, she passed it to Mahipal

Mahipal inhaled deeply, "Don't tell my wife, and if you can't smoke why did you agree"

It was damn strong tobacco. It stung Karishma's lips, tongue, and throat, "I used to then Asthma relapsed. You weren't surprised to see me here"

"The exterminator told me Haseena had company. I figured it was you"

"Why?"

Mahipal shrugged and concentrated on his smoking.

"You came here this morning to check on Haseena, didn't you? See if she was okay"

"Something like that"

"Why would you think I'd harm her?"

The older man looked off into the distance for a moment before his unnerving gaze resettled on Karishma, "You might not mean to"

Karishma still resented the man's implication, "Haseena's a grown woman. She doesn't need a guardian. She can take care of herself"

"She's fragile"

Karishma laughed, "Fragile isn't a word I would free-associate with Haseena Malik"

"Goes to show how ignorant you are then, doesn't it?"

"Look, Mr. Rathore, you don't know me. You don't know anything about me. So, don't go making snap judgments about me, okay? Not that I give a flying-"

"I knew her daddy"

The curt interruption silenced Karishma. Mahipal was giving her a look that said Shut up and listen. She backed down.

Mahipal said, "Before I inherited this place from my folks, I lived in Lucknow and did some work for Idris Malik. He was a mean person"

"That seems to be the general consensus"

"He could be a charmer. He had a smile that didn't stop. Came on to you like he was your best friend. A glad-hander and backslapper. But make no mistake, he was always looking out for number one"

"We've all known people like that"

Mahipal shook his head, "Not like Idris. He was in a class by himself," He took a last greedy drag on his cigarette, then dropped it on the ground and crushed it out with the toe of his shoe. The cross-trainers looked conflicting with his cowboy attire, with him.

He turned to face the corral and propped his forearms on the top rail of the fence. Karishma, hoping to have some light shed on Haseena's secrets, because all her moves to bring the truth out of her even by enraging her ended up her falling on her face and feeling like shit for hurting Haseena, she moved to stand beside him and assumed a similar pose. Mahipal didn't acknowledge her except to continue talking.