Helen Goes for Mr. Sunday

The Evening That Changed Everything: Part 4

Helen crawled inside the room and feebly got up on her feet. The air was cold and heavy and smelt of a combination of some sort of body perfume, a sickly-sweet butcher shop odor, and the stink of rotting flesh. Helen swatted the flies away, unzipped the mosquito net, and slid inside. She zipped the mosquito net back up and sat next to her thirty-eight-year-old sister's bony body. Then she carefully lifted Karishma's head and tenderly placed it on her lap, stroking her hair.

Karishma's face was a sorry patchwork of gross textures and colors--there was significant facial hair along her jawline, her cheeks had several boils and scars, her eyelashes looked unnaturally thin, and her lips were various shades of red, brown, and black.

Helen's eyes filled with horror. She bent down to inspect Karishma's face more closely. Cysts had formed on her eyelids around her hair follicles, and there were blackheads all over her face. She looked much older than thirty-eight.

After a minute or so, Vidya returned. "There's a backpack lying in the garbage bin outside the second room."

"What sort of sick fun have you bastards been having with my sister?!" yelled Helen. "There's heavy makeup on her face!"

"Can't she have worn the makeup herself?" asked Vidya.

"You know very well she never wore makeup."

"Look, I have no clue where the makeup came from. There's a backpack lying in the garbage bin outside the second servant quarter. Londhe will be here with a car--you only have until then," said Vidya, getting on to her mobile phone, walking out through the door.

"I'll get you guys for this--just you wait!" screamed Helen, unzipping the mosquito net, getting down, and teetering toward the garbage bin. She returned with a large torn and dirty backpack. She zipped the mosquito net back up from the outside and surveyed the room.

It was a single room--there was a bed, a kitchenette, and two large cupboards. There was a clothesline suspended along the solitary window, with some clothes hanging on it. On the walls were hung photos of Helen as a child and teenager, paintings she had made in school, and the various hand-made birthday greeting cards she had gifted Karishma over the years. Right in the middle of the wall hung an empty frame that Karishma had meant to adorn with Helen's MBBS certificate. Next to the frame was a photo of their mother dressed in a beautiful sari. Along a wall was the bed, and next to it was a small dressing table on which several items lay cluttered--Helen's old makeup kit, Karishma's knitting kit, and an audio cassette player. Helen stared at the makeup kit with a wrinkled brow.

Then she opened the first cupboard. On the top shelf was a bunch of documents. She skimmed through them--education loan documents, marksheets, bank statements, and some other legal looking documents. She shoved the bunch in the backpack.

On the second shelf was a breathtakingly magnificent little forest fairy dress that Karishma had stitched for her when she was six. It had a green bodice with a shimmering net, a tutu with purple and green layers, a green belt with a gold-leaf-and-flower design, the cutest matching headband, and a pair of silver and green sparkly wings with straps that could be worn over the shoulders. She had been after Karishma to recreate the exact same dress to fit her current size, which Karishma had declined to do, stating she would never wear it now. Helen sniffed, her chin trembling a little, and placed the dress on the floor.

Then she came across a set of photo albums that she flipped through quickly. One of the photos--where Karishma smilingly held a terrified little Helen while on their way down a water slide in an adventure park--had slipped out of the holder slightly, which she pushed back in. She was about to throw the album in the backpack, she took the photo out and took a long look at it. Drawing deep breaths, she slipped the photo back inside the holder, and threw the album inside the backpack.

Then her gaze fell on the laminated undertaking that she had made Karishma sign, promising they will be twin sisters in their future births. She stared at it for a minute or so, and then dropped it to the floor, wiping at her nose. Then she opened the locker. Inside was some imitation jewelry she wore when visiting India between semesters. She closed the locker.

"Where the fuck is your own stuff, didi?!" she muttered, looking in the direction of Karishma's dead body, her voice breaking.

She opened the second cupboard--it was a wardrobe. Most of it had Helen's old clothes from various ages and a few of Karishma's own clothes, which were extremely plain in comparison. A hint of color returned to Helen's face. She took all of Karishma's clothes that she could find and stuffed them in the backpack.

Next in the pile was their mother's old but classy sari, the one she was wearing in the photo on the wall. Helen choked up, digging her fingers deep into the sari, slumping into the bed. She held the garment close to her face, smelt it by taking in a deep breath, looked up to her mother's photo hung on the wall, and closed her eyes tightly. Several moments later, she opened her eyes, which had become red and puffy. The backpack was almost full, but she somehow forced the sari into it.

She got back up and was about to close the door of the wardrobe when her eyes fell on a cardboard box covered in a gift-wrapping paper on the top shelf. Hesitating for a moment, she drew the box out, placed it on the bed, and sat next to it. There was a pretty label stuck to the box on which was handwritten "Happy Birthday, Ladybug XO." Helen rubbed the heel of her palm against her chest, staring at the box. She clenched her teeth, carefully took off the wrapping paper, folded it, and put it inside her purse. With quivering hands, she took the lid off the cardboard box.

Inside was the impossibly exact and much larger replica of her forest fairy dress.

Before she knew, warm tears started streaming down her cheeks and onto the bed. "I'm so sorry, didi," she whispered between sobs, maintaining her blurry gaze on Karishma through the unrelenting flow of tears.

The faint melody of a reversing vehicle could be heard in the distance. Helen sniffed hard, wiped her cheeks using her hands, and got up weakly. There was a sound of an approaching vehicle. She sprang to her feet and rushed to the door. A car had just stopped outside their door. It had black-tinted windows and a massive golden-colored party logo attached to its bonnet.

Helen got back inside the room and quickly slammed the door shut.

There was a sound of the car's door opening and then closing.

Helen fastened the bolt.

"My name is Londhe; madam has sent me...," a deep voice with a feminine edge rang out from outside, followed by a rush of footsteps.

Helen picked up the fairy dress.

There was loud banging at the door.

"Give me five minutes! I'm changing!" Helen screamed at the top of her voice.

Loud blows from outside started shaking the door.

"Stop it!" yelled Helen, yanking off her top, keeping an eye on the door. The top gave away at the seam while on its way off her.

Letting out a guttural growl, she quickly took off her jeans.

The blows at the door continued, and it appeared as if the bolt would give way at any moment.

Helen started slipping into the forest fairy dress.

There was a loud crash and the door fell inward with a boom, splitting the panel in half.