Weaving Dreams

Chapter Two : Thy Backeth Off

It took almost an hours drive to finally reach Brooklyn heights. I had dozed off a couple of times but each time my eyes shut down, all the lectures my uncle and Pa had given me in the past two weeks about safety- ranging from my personal safety to thefts to drug dealers to terrorist attacks ( I stopped before the topic of natural calamities started)- pulled open my eyes and somehow made me stay awake for the ride.

By the time I finally reached my new 'house', I was drunk without drinking. I had to make the driver say the price thrice and then I fumbled with my purse searching for money. The best part, there was no streetlight. I somehow managed to identify the correct notes I had exchanged from India and gave it to the driver in my phones torchlight. After he left I turned back and looked at the house.

It was just a plain two-storeyed apartment with a small garden. There was a rusted mailbox right next to where I was standing, a fence going around the place and a car parked in the porch next to the house. Painted white with a wooden door on the right and a medium sized window on the left and top floor, it was identical to the three or four houses on either sides of it. As I continued staring at the house the streetlight behind me blinked twice and then came to life. Of course the universe hates me.

I dragged my bags to the house and rang the bell. After a minute I heard footsteps and finally the door opened. A short, plump middle aged woman stood with a bright smile on her face. I assumed that she was my aunt, Madhvi Mehta, who owned this house.

"Mauli! Oh my, you've grown so much since I last saw you. So tall, like your dad." She took my bags from my hand and ushered me inside.

I went inside to be greeted by some wonderful, mouth-watering smell. She walked up the stairs holding my bag as if it was feather-light. A girl was sitting on the couch doing something on her laptop. She smiled at me warmly and stood up and put forward a hand.

"Nitya. Nitya Sanyal." She smiled at me and took off her spectacles after our brief handshake.

"Mauli..."

"Mehta. You don't need to tell me anything. I know everything about you as much this old lady knows. She wouldn't stop talking about you from the time she came to know that you are coming to New York. She had me come home early from work today because she wanted help to cook your favourite food and make your bed. You have no idea how excited and happy she is to have someone from her family here." She concluded with a gentle smile.

I stood there not knowing what to say when my aunt appeared at the stairs.

"What wrong information is this crazy lady feeding you about me? I swear there is no tenant like her who goes on gossiping about her angel-like house owner like this." I smiled widely at her before replying.

"She was just telling me about how you cooked me my favourite dishes and was excited about my arrival."

"Tell me she didn't call me an old lady, didn't say I was a chatterbox and did not mention at all about how I made her come early today and made her tidy your bed which she considers her attic." She said with her hands on her hips.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and a pretty big smile came to my face.

"Oh please, you are an old lady, and a chatterbox too. And the second part is correct if you erase the last 5 words. I was just stating facts, I don't gossip." Nitya too concluded with her hands on her hips.

"Every woman who ever walked the planet has, have and will gossip. And you may or may not gossip about others, but you do about me. I've heard you, and people have told me too." She walked back to the kitchen with those words.