Chapter 6

The living room now felt a little too empty with the bed still here but the old man gone. Sheetal got up, walked to the kitchen and washed her plate.

Once done, she was dragging her feet back and her phone chimed. It was a text from Sharini.

The gloom on her face flew out the window when she saw the message. The teacher’s presence somehow cheered her up even without her knowing.

“Amma! I’m going to the terrace with Sharini.”, she yelled out and ran without waiting for a reply.

“Heyyy teacher!“, Sheetal panted, having climbed the stairs skipping two at a time. Sharini stood with her back facing her friend, her posture relaxed, resting her hands on the parapet.

She didn’t turn, neither did she respond. Sheetal walked closer to Sharini and covered her eyes from behind, smiling wide. But Sharini just pushed the former’s hand with a tch.

“Would it hurt your hands to leave me a message before you run away like that? “, Sharini asked. Anger was evident in her voice and rightly so. Last wednesday, when Sheetal got to know that she didn’t have a schedule until the next week, she simply boarded a bus to Cuddalore right after work.

And this wasn’t the first time. She kept frequenting back since her grandpa passed away. Sharini initially thought that she was hurting and just wanted to be with her family. But it became difficult when she started to disappear each time without any notice.

Sheetal’s expression changed and her face hardened. “So it is like this now? Do I need to get your permission to go home or to grieve my grandfather?”

“Where did the word permission come from? All I asked was you to simply let me know. Is that too much?”

“Whatever, I thought you called me so that we can talk about something lighter. I didn’t expect it would be an interrogation session!”, Sheetal scoffed.

Sharini just stood there baffled. She was already angry and here, her friend was blaming her for getting angry, with zero interest in addressing the actual issue. “Interrogation session? You think I shouldn’t ask even when you keep vanishing?”

“Fine! I’ll let you know next time. Happy? Can you please stop questioning me now?!”, the shorter yelled and moved a few feet away.

“Oh yeah, thank you so much for considering. I’m so honored!”, Sharini said sarcastically and turned her back to Sheetal.

The wind whooshed as a few prolonged minutes of silence passed.

Sharini decided to speak again before it could turn awkward.

“Had dinner?” This time her voice was calm, so casual, as if the two weren’t going at each other’s throats just moments ago.

“Yeah, fish curry, want to know how it was? “, Sheetal asked, pushing her hand up her friend’s nose. The other female scrunched her face, swatting the hand away and gagging, her vegetarian self unable to bear the smell. “Idiot! I missed you”, Sharini cooed, staring into the other’s eyes.

Sheetal just smiled and nodded. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss the latter. “Let’s sit somewhere ” she said, pulling her friend to the stone overhead tank in the corner of the terrace.

The both sat with their legs stretched, while leaning their backs onto the water tank, their shoulders touching. The crescent lit the night dimly, they sat surrounded by cloth lines, with the slight smell of detergents mixed in the chilly but still wind.

“I’m often thinking about him lately. You know, he’s the first reason I wanted to be independent, and to love and appreciate the people that are family despite what some situations make us feel about them.” Sheetal spoke, as she drifted into a core memory of her late grandfather.

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Samuel hurried to the school reception while holding a hand over his shirt pocket. He jogged to the door as he heard the bell go. “Excuse me”, he huffed.

A lady in her late 40s sat in the small room, typing something. Adjusting the thick rimmed glasses perfectly over the bridge of her nose, she nodded at the sweating man to enter.

“Late fee?” She enquires, her voice flat as the wall.

“Yes madam, my daughter’s name is Sheetal. Sixth standard A division.” he recites from his memory.

The lady started pressing onto the keyboard. “Do you know her enrollment number?” she asks.

He tries to recollect but fails. “Sorry madam, I don’t know.”

She continued to click away without a reply. After a few seconds, she spoke again, “how many months are you defaulting?”

“3”, the dad huffed, counting the notes in his hand. “But I can only afford two months fee for now. My family is under financial crisis. Please give me some time, I will surely pay the remaining amount by next month.”

“Sir, your daughter’s fee has already been paid. Did she not inform you?”

“But I never gave her any money, are you sure you checked the correct name? Please look again.”

“I have verified it, sir. Let me call your daughter to check with her once. She paid it herself saying that you gave her the money, but you couldn’t come in person because of some health issues. She even produced a letter signed by you.”

The lady finally looked up from the screen. “Can you write down your daughter’s name and class details in this slip?”, she asked, sliding a small piece of paper and a pen.

Samuel scribbled down the details and pushed it back, the receptionist then called in a peon and passed him the paper. He left and returned a few minutes later, with a little girl who was trembling at the sight of her father.

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“You have told me this story at least a hundred times Sheetz”, Sharini wanted to say, but kept staring at the shorter as she went on and on, narrating how she was beaten up by her parents, how the bedridden old man she had hated all the while, was the one who spoke in support of her.

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“Son, please stop. It’s not entirely her fault, and you hitting her is not going to make things right”, the wrinkled old man took it to himself to stop his son in law from hitting his granddaughter.

“Appa, she stole from her own house. Do you know how ashamed I was at her school today? And she had kept her mouth shut about it for all these months. I fought so much with Regina thinking that she had overspent the money. I was saving it for your asthma medicine”, Samuel was furious.

Samuel, the man grew up without the warmth and love of parents, and that made him care for his in-laws a tad bit more than he intended to. More than he cared for his children, more than his wife cared for her father. And he was afraid of the deteriorating health of his father in law, making him feel angrier at his daughter who somehow added to his fear. But the old man spoke again.

“I have lived and spent my life, son. I am just grateful to have someone like you who takes care of me when my own son threw me out. I can go without some of those medicines and it wouldn’t matter more than that child’s education. She only paid her school fee. Remember, she’s just a kid. And she said that she was bullied as a fee defaulter at school. Just let it slide this once please”, the grandfather said.

He was, a little happy, that the girl was brave enough to pull the stunt, even though he knew it wasn’t the right way.

“What are you talking about? This girl doesn’t know her limits. Sending her to school is itself a burden. And she wants to steal for that now? She needs to be punished. You stop interfering in this. And don’t you badmouth our son for nothing.” The grandmother piqued in, angry at the little girl who went as far as stealing just to pay some stupid fees.

Samuel might or might not have paid much heed to the old man’s words, and might have starved his daughter all night.

Though ultimately the day didn’t go well for Sheetal, she found that she didn’t have to hate the smelly old man too much anymore.

That night the grandfather-granddaughter duo spoke in muffled whispers, the elder silently telling her to ask him for the money if she needed it, instead of stealing. He said she must respect and listen to what her parents say, but also told her to sometimes keep herself as first priority, her health, her education, regardless of what the other elders at home said.

After that day they got along pretty well. They started talking a lot at nights like this, and some of his words etched themselves in her heart, “At the end of the day, family is where you return to. Never let any fear or anger or hatred push you away from them.”

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Sharini thought what he said about family was not completely correct or applicable to everyone, but she would keep her thoughts to herself now.

The two were now lying on the red terracotta tiles on the terrace floor. Sheetal was facing the sky with her hands underneath her head, her focus keen on the brightest star, which she assumed was Venus, twinkling right next to the crescent of the moon. There weren’t many stars tonight, the sky was almost clear.

Sharini laid on her side, one hand supporting her head while the other played with the beads at the end of Sheetal’s dupatta. Sheetal knew those beads wouldn’t be there when they’d decide to retire to their houses, but she could care less.

“I’m sorry “, it was Sheetal. “You were right. I should stop running away like that.”

The two smiled a little before the teacher spoke, a little hesitation in her voice was not missed by the other. “Did you mean it that day?

“Mean what, which day?”

Sharini tsked. “You know, t-the I love you.. when your grandpa…”, she dragged, now feeling stupid for asking it. No, this was a bad idea. She did mean it, right? Her hands stopped abusing the beads and she finally looked up to meet the shorter’s eyes, only for her heart to crack a little.

Sheetal looked confused. “We have always said I love you’s, isn’t it? What’s new about that?”

Sharini smiled, small and quiet. Of course they had. She just wished, maybe, this one had meant something more.