Swimming in the Monsoon Sea

by Shyam Selvadurai

  “You girls and boys, what are you doing here?” They spun around to find Mrs. Kuruvilla standing with her hands on her hips.

  Selvi and the SNOTs turned and fled, followed by Mrs. Kuruvilla. Niresh signaled to Amrith and they leapt over the short boundary wall. They hurried away, laughing and shaking their heads.

  They walked along the railway line, while Niresh finished his cigarette. Amrith was glad to have his cousin to himself.

  Niresh put his arm around his shoulder. “So, are you a tits-man or an arse-man?”

  Amrith thought desperately — tits, arse, tits, arse — this could be important, like which sports team you supported. “Um, arse.”

  “Yeah! Alright! Me, too.” Niresh gave him a mighty whack on the shoulders.

  Despite the sting spreading through his shoulders, Amrith felt a great relief to have given the right answer.

  They sat on some rocks that bordered the beach. The shore below had been eaten up by the monsoon waves, which came right up to the boulders. Niresh took a last drag of his cigarette and threw the butt into the sea. His face became grave. “So, I have bad news. Tomorrow, I’m going with my dad to stay, for a few weeks, at some place outside Colombo. He says he has some business to do there.”

  His uncle was going to try and sell Sanasuma. Yet Amrith, at the moment, did not care about this. “Ah, do you have to go?”

  “Yeah.” His cousin frowned, gazing out at the sea, his face gloomy. “What else would I do?”

  “Niresh … perhaps … perhaps you could come and stay with us!”

  “You think?”

  “Would you like to?”

  “Yeah, of course. That’d be great.”

  “I’m sure Uncle Lucky and Aunty Bundle will say yes.”

  Niresh laughed and clapped Amrith on the back, nearly knocking him off the rock. “And here I thought I was going to have to leave, just when we were getting to be friends, you know what I mean?”

  Amrith nodded. He did know.

  Amrith was certain Uncle Lucky and Aunty Bundle would agree to Niresh staying with them, as they maintained an easy hospitality at their house. He was more worried about Niresh’s father. Though Amrith felt sure that his uncle would be glad to leave Niresh behind, he wondered if he might refuse to let his son stay with the Manuel-Pillais, out of spite.

  When they got back from the club, he went looking for Aunty Bundle. Her face became very serious as he made his request. “You know, son, that I would love to have your cousin to stay, but your uncle …” She sighed. “Let’s you and I take Niresh back this evening.”

  He saw that she, too, suspected his uncle might refuse, just to be nasty.

  When they entered the Mount Lavinia Hotel, Niresh led the way up the stairs and along the corridor towards the terrace. Amrith could tell that he was worried about what state his father would be in. As they approached the terrace, they could hear the mirthless crack of his uncle’s laugh, the guffaws of the other men.

  Aunty Bundle came to a stop when she saw his uncle. Her face turned to stone. He sat with his legs sprawled out, the empty bottle of arrack before him. The men with him were thuggish-looking and peppered their English with vulgar Sinhalese idioms, referring to each other as “oo” and “oomba,” using derogatory verbs like “vareng” and “palayang.” Aunty Bundle would not approach men who were in such a state of intoxication. She sent Niresh to fetch his father.

  “Ah, you bloody bugger, returned, have you?” his uncle cried, as Niresh came up to him.

  Niresh leaned close to his father and spoke to him softly.

  His uncle peered in their direction. He tried to rise out of his chair, nearly did not make it, but finally tottered to his feet. He straightened his shirt, flattened his hair, and came towards them. He stopped a little distance away, regarding them with hostility.

  “Hello, Mervin.”

  “Yes, Bundle, what can I do for you?” Alcohol had removed the thin veneer of civility that his uncle had been able to maintain on their last visit.

  Niresh was looking anxiously at his father.

  “I understand, Mervin, that you are going to be traveling outstation for a while,” Aunty Bundle said.

  He nodded, but looked guarded. Amrith could tell that he was wondering if they knew about Sanasuma.

  “The boys, well, they’ve been getting on like a house on fire and they seem keen to continue seeing each other and so —”

  “Dad,” Niresh broke in, “can I stay with Amrith while you’re away? Please.”

  His uncle’s expression was unreadable.

  “The boys seem really keen, Mervin, they really do,” Aunty Bundle said.

  They all looked at him, beseechingly.

  His uncle’s chest expanded; he stood up straighter. “Niresh, I expect you to come with me and I am very angry that you would rather pass time with strangers than with your own father.”

  Niresh’s face flushed.

  “You are coming with me, and that is that.” His uncle gave them the briefest nod, then walked away.

  They went back through the hotel in silence. When they were at the front doors, Aunty Bundle touched Amrith’s arm. “Son, I’ll give you a few minutes to say good-bye.”

  Amrith saw what she meant. It was good-bye forever. His uncle, out of spitefulness, was unlikely to permit them to meet again.

  The moment Aunty Bundle was gone, Niresh grabbed his arm tightly. “I’m not done with that jerk, I’m not.”

  Amrith’s eyes filled with tears. He did not believe Niresh could make his father change his mind.

  “Don’t worry, Amrith, I’ll fix things, I will.”

  A tear ran down Amrith’s cheek.

  “Hey, buddy.” Niresh hugged him tight. “I can make my dad change his mind, I can,” he whispered in his ear.

  Amrith broke away and ran through the hotel doors.

  As they drove home, it began to rain. Aunty Bundle looked out of the car window, a melancholy expression on her face. As for Amrith, he knew now what he felt towards his uncle. Hatred.

  It was still raining when they got home and, as Amrith and Aunty Bundle hurried inside, they heard the phone ringing. They entered the living room just as Jane-Nona was picking up the receiver. She turned to them. “Amrithbabba, it’s for you.”

  He rushed to get it.

  “See, I told you!” Niresh cried. “I’m coming to stay.”

  Amrith could not speak for the surge of joy that rose in him. “You are?” he finally blurted. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, sure I’m sure. So, what do you have to say?”

  “I … I’m so happy.”

  “Yeah, me too, Amrith, me too.” There was a tenderness in his voice that Amrith had not heard before.

  Amrith went to tell Aunty Bundle the good news. She was helping Jane-Nona move a tin tub under the hole in the roof, the barrel having already filled up with rain. She paused in the middle of her task to express her delight.

  Afterwards, he longed to be by himself, to savor this wonderful turn of events. Just a few minutes ago, he had been sure he would never see his cousin again and that his life would settle back into its lonely routine, with only typing and the upcoming Othello rehearsals offering any relief. Now the future seemed bright again.

  When it stopped raining, he went up to the terrace and let himself into the aviary. As he fed his birds, he thought of how, in just five days, such a strong bond had formed between him and Niresh. It felt like he had known his cousin for much longer. Nearly losing Niresh like this had made him realize he loved his cousin. And he knew that his cousin loved him, too.

  12

  Kinross Beach

  Later, when the girls found out from Amrith that Niresh was coming to stay, they were overjoyed. Yet, their jubilation made him wary. They had monopolized Niresh for large parts of the day and he did not want that happening during his cousin’s stay.

  His fears were confirmed that very evening. He was in the aviary, cleaning up and preparing things fo
r the night, when Mala and Selvi came up to the terrace and let themselves into the cage. Their faces were bright with excitement.

  “Amrith,” Selvi said, as they joined him in the hexagonal flight area, “guess what? I told my friend Tanuja about Niresh coming to stay and she has invited him — and you, too, of course — to spend the day with us girls, at her father’s hotel in Bentota. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  “Yes-yes, Amrith,” Mala added, “now Niresh will get to see a little bit of the countryside, nah. He was telling us that he has not yet been out of Colombo.”

  Amrith glanced briefly at the sisters and went back to sweeping the floor.

  “So? Don’t you think it’s a wonderful plan?” Selvi asked, a slight pucker appearing on her forehead.

  Amrith stooped down to collect the dirt, then put it into a bin. He took his time, keeping her standing there without an answer. Finally he turned to them. “No, I don’t think it’s a wonderful plan at all.”

  “But why, Amrith?” Mala asked, in surprise. “It’s such a jolly day trip. And the hotel is famous for its massive pool and delicious lunch buffet and —”

  “Look,” he said fiercely, “Niresh is my cousin and he is only here for three weeks. I want to spend that time with just him. Not with a bunch of stupid girls who are constantly giggling and carrying on and acting like fast-pieces.”

  Selvi flushed at his calling her and the SNOTs fast-pieces. “Don’t be so jealous,” she said, looking him up and down with disdain. “You don’t own Niresh. And how rude of you. Here Tanuja kindly offers to have your cousin, a stranger, to her hotel and you —”

  “Kindness? Rubbish! Tanuja just wants a foreign boyfriend.”

  “That’s not true, she was being nice. She has a very generous nature and is —”

  “If she is so generous, why didn’t she invite me before Niresh arrived, ah? You and your friends had already planned this trip, weeks ago, and you never thought to invite me. Now that I have a foreign cousin, you want me to come. No, I won’t, and I won’t ask Niresh, either.”

  He pushed past Selvi and went into the shelter area, where he began to fill up the feeders with seed.

  “Fine.” Selvi stormed past him on her way out. “You claim to like your cousin, but all you want to do is deny him pleasure. You’re selfish. I’m going to ask Niresh. Why should he suffer because of your —”

  “Don’t you dare talk to him about it,” Amrith yelled. “If you do, I’ll … I’ll …”

  “You’ll what?” Selvi made a dismissive sound. She put one hand on her hip and wagged her finger. “If I want to ask him, I will. You can’t do anything about it.”

  She let herself out of the safety porch onto the terrace. As a parting shot, she flung at him, “Maybe Niresh will come with us and you can stay at home!”

  Amrith went back to filling the feeders, his hands shaking. He felt furious and yet desperate at the same time. Selvi and her friends wanted to draw Niresh into their world, and he had already seen that his cousin was amenable to this. If they monopolized Niresh, Amrith would have to tag along silently, largely ignored. These three weeks were so precious. It was already bad enough that he would have to start attending rehearsals again in eleven days and spend mornings away from Niresh. Now it looked like the girls would be intruding on the time he did have alone with him.

  “Amrith.” He turned to find Mala regarding him sympathetically. “I’ll talk to akka about it.” She touched his arm. “You’re right. You have only three weeks with your cousin and you should spend all the time you possibly can with him.”

  Her sympathy made him suddenly teary. He turned away, shrugging her hand off. “It’s just not fair,” he said, after a moment. “Selvi has so many friends and now she wants to try and take away the one person I have.”

  “Yes, I know, I know,” Mala said soothingly. “I’ll have a chat with akka.”

  By the time they went to bed that night, Mala had talked to her sister. Selvi was no longer angry and, in fact, joked about the whole thing. She presented Amrith with an itinerary she had drawn up for Niresh’s three weeks here. Beside each activity, she had written Amrith not included.

  He knew this was her way of saying sorry, and so he took the joke in good grace.

  Amrith wanted to spend every minute he could with Niresh, and the thought of having to practice his typing each morning, in addition to rehearsals, was unbearable. He went to ask Uncle Lucky to let him off.

  Uncle Lucky, after some token resistance and a lecture on the hazards of sloth, agreed to free him from typing until his cousin left.

  The next day, when Niresh arrived, the boys stood for a long moment, looking at each other. It seemed to Amrith, as he took his cousin’s suitcase from him, that there was a new depth of affection between them.

  Niresh had not swum in the sea yet. Because of the monsoon, the waves were too high, the pull of the current dangerous. Amrith suggested that they try Kinross Beach. With the reef not far out, it was relatively safe.

  Kinross was only ten minutes away. They went down their street to the railway lines that ran alongside the sea, and walked beside them until they got to their destination.

  When they reached Kinross, Amrith saw that the beach was half its usual width and the encroaching sea had pushed the sand up into banks. He signaled to Niresh, and they made their way to a grove of coconut trees. They stripped down to their trunks. The sky was clear, with clouds like lengths of gauze fluttering by. The sea, despite its swell, was a brilliant blue, tipped with emerald green.

  When they got to the sea, Amrith went in up to his ankles. The water was cool. He never liked to plunge in and, instead, preferred to wade out slowly, hugging himself. Niresh, however, splashed out and, the moment it was deep enough, he dove into the water with a whoop. He swam out swiftly, then turned around and let a wave carry him back.

  “Am-rith, Am-rith,” he intoned, as he drifted close to him, “time to go in.” Niresh splashed some water at him.

  Amrith grinned. “Fuck off.”

  Niresh pretended to be absolutely shocked. He wagged his finger at him and, in mock-punishment, splashed him again.

  Amrith feebly splashed back.

  Niresh laughed wickedly and began to circle him. “Time to go under, cousin.”

  Amrith quickly sank down into the water and came up spluttering. He pushed his hair back and wiped the water off his face.

  “There, isn’t that better?”

  Amrith nodded.

  Niresh was looking at him, smiling oddly.

  “What?”

  His cousin shook his head. “Nah, you wouldn’t understand.”

  “Yes, I would. Come on.”

  “Okay, but don’t take this the wrong way.”

  Amrith drifted closer.

  “You and your sisters, even their friends, you guys are all about my age, but you seem much younger.” He held up his hands. “It’s not a bad thing. I really like it, because I’m having so much fun. But I see that you guys can afford to act young because everything is taken care of in your life. There are always people to watch out for you. I mean, even those damn change-room attendants at the club.”

  Amrith was silent, absorbing this. He had never thought of his life as being this way.

  “So,” Niresh said, splashing some water at him, “aren’t you going to ask me how I got my dad to change his mind?”

  Amrith had wondered.

  “I told him that I was going to be so bad at school that the authorities would take me away from him and send me to live with my mum.”

  Amrith wanted to know if he would like to do this, but he did not dare ask.

  “I wouldn’t go, of course,” Niresh said, as if he had read his mind. “I hate her. She’s married to this rancher in Alberta and is happy as a pig in shit. I mean, sure she calls me every so often, but that’s just her guilty conscience. This one time, I went to visit her in Alberta. Her new husband — he’s a Jesus-freak — thought he could act like my father and t
ell me what to do. He tried to send me to a Christian camp. I told him to go fuck himself. So he hit me. Can you believe it? And she just stood by and didn’t do anything. So I went to my room and began to pack and she came in and started trying to make me stay, telling me that he was a good man, and that people in rural Alberta raised their children differently than what I was used to. I guess she must’ve thought I deserved it, eh. I threatened to call the police unless they put me on the next flight back to Toronto.”

  Niresh’s face had grown increasingly angry. He turned and thrashed out into the sea. Amrith knew not to go out to him. As Amrith bobbed up and down in the water, he found himself thinking of how his uncle had wanted to pack Niresh off to camp, but his cousin had begged to come here instead. The more Amrith got to know Niresh, the more he felt that Niresh’s life in Canada was not as much fun as he made it out to be. He did not know enough about that country to be able to tell if Niresh’s stories — about being on the football team with his three friends and all the things they did together — were true, but he suspected some of them were made up.

  When they got back to the house, they used a shower in the side garden that had been built for rinsing off after sea-baths. Amrith found himself watching Niresh, the way he stretched his arms above him and held his head back, the way the water trickled down his stomach. Niresh noticed that Amrith was looking at him. He grinned and splashed some water at him. Amrith grinned back.

  In the bedroom, Amrith waited for Niresh to use the bathroom first, as he might want to shower properly with soap and shampoo.

  Jane-Nona had taken his cousin’s clothes out of the suitcase and put them on shelves in Amrith’s almirah and in the chest of drawers. Niresh went through his clothes in the almirah and threw a pair of white underpants, denim shorts, and a red golf shirt onto the bed. “So you’ve told me that most Sri Lankans don’t have vacuum cleaners or dishwashers. But what about washing machines?” He came and stood by the bedpost. “I mean, what do you guys do with dirty clothes?”