Margo The Mystery Girl

Chapter 14

n my dream, her head was on my shoulder as I lay on my back, only the corner of carpet between us and the concrete floor. Her arm was around my rib cage. We were just lying there, sleeping.

God help me. The only teenaged guy in Gurgaon who dreams of sleeping with girls, and just sleeping with them. And then my phone rang. It took two more rings before my fumbling hands found the phone lying on the unrolled carpet. It was 3:18 A.M. Sunny was calling.

“Good morning, Sunny,” I said.

“YESSS!!!!!” he answered, screaming, and I could tell right away that now was not the time to try to explain to him all I had learned and imagined about Margo. I could damn near smell the booze on
his breath. That one word, in the way it was shouted, contained more exclamation points than anything

Sunny  had ever said to me in his entire life.

“I take it farewell party  is going well?”

“YESSSS! Siddharth Jha ! SID , India's greatest Siddharth Yes!” His voice got distant then but I could still hear him. “Everybody, hey, shut up, hold on, shut up—Siddharth Jha.

INSIDE MY PHONE!” There was a cheer then, and Sunny's voice returned. “Yes, Siddharth ! Yes! Bro, you have got to come over here.”

“Where is here?” I asked.

“Aisha's! Do you know where it is?”

As it happened, I knew precisely where it was. I’d been in her basement. “I know where it is, but it’s the middle of the night, Sunny And I’m in—”

“YESSS!!! You have to come right now. Right now!”

“Sunny, there are more important things going on,” I answered.

“DESIGNATED DRIVER!”

“What?”

“You’re my designated driver! Yes! You are so designated! I love that you answered! That’s so

awesome! I have to be home by six! And I designate you to get me there! YESSSSSSS!”

“Can’t you just spend the night there?” I asked.

“NOOOO! Booooo. Booo on Sid. Hey, everybody! Boooo Sid!” And then I was booed.

“Everybody’s drunk. Sunny drunk. Aisha drunk.T he Geek drunk. Nobody drive. Home by six. Promised

Mom. Boo, Sleepy Sunny ! Yay, Designated Driver! YESSSS!”

I took a long breath. If Margo were going to show up, she would have showed up by three. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YESSSSSS!!!! YES! YES!”

I lay there for a moment, telling myself to get up, and then I did. Still half asleep, I crawled through Troll Holes past the armour gallery and into the office, then pulled open the back door and got into the minivan.

I turned in to Aisha's subdivision just before four. There were dozens of cars parked along both sides of Aisha's street, and I knew there would be more people inside, since many of them had
been dropped off via limo. I found a spot a couple cars away.

I wanted to go home, but I knew I couldn’t rush Sunny. This was probably the single greatest day of his

life. He was entitled to it. So instead, I found a stairway and headed down to the basement. I’d been in the dark so long I was
still craving it, and I just wanted to lie down somewhere halfway quiet and halfway dark and go back to imagining Margo.

After a long time of half an hour which seemed years for me, they decided to leave.

I drove across the subdivision. It wasn’t night and it wasn’t morning. Sunny snored quietly in the

back. I pulled up in front of his house, got out, opened the sliding door of the minivan, and unfastened his seat belt.

“Time to go home, Sunny.”

He sniffed and shook his head, then awoke. He reached up to rub his eyes and seemed surprised to find an empty can of Kingfisher attached to his right hand. He tried to make a fist and dented the can some, but did not dislodge it. He looked at it for a minute, and then nodded. “The Beast is stuck to me,” he noted.

He climbed out of the minivan and staggered up the sidewalk to his house, and when he was standing on the front porch, he turned around, smiling. I waved at him. The beer waved back.