“You're just eager to see me screw up, that's all.” She playfully tugged my ear. “Bring in the videos, Rory. He has to see the peeing on the audience moment.”
“The...The who now?” I heard myself ask. Peeing on an audience? That was something I was not expecting and I was sure the audience hadn't either.
“Oh, you'll see. Trust me. If you think Dylan's bad, you never saw Cal in full form.”
She was right of course. There was pee all right and it was all on the stage and on people. I didn't believe it until he unzipped his pants and a stream of liquid came out. The only time I had seen such things was in India. But that was different. There weren't very many bathrooms or at least not many clean ones. People had no other choice but to pee in an open field. This? This was done on purpose and I could tell he was pleased with his deed. I didn't get to see the appendage, thank Lord Krishna for it, but I knew it was probably flopping around. The video was just too blurry to catch it.
“So what do you think?” Rachel asked.
“What do I think? I think this is...this is...I don't what to think of this!” I exclaimed. “He had to be drunk or high or both!”
“That, I don't know about. I think only Cal would know whether he was sober or not. But I'm sure he wasn't doing drugs then.”
The peeing did not stop right then. I was now curious to know how much he had drunk and why he chose to let it out right then. I was also glad that my mother wasn't around. She wouldn't just say 'Cheee!' with the high voice ; , she'd throw the video in the trash. Never mind that it was someone else's property, she'd just take it and chuck it.
“Seriously? Can't he find his zipper or something?” I demanded.
“He zipped them up eventually.” Aurora said.
Oh yeah. That was comforting.
The peeing on the stage moment was something I never wanted to see again. But apparently that moment was not the only time he had done it. There was at least one more. Rachel had warned me of it as soon the first moment was done. I wanted to go home but there was no escape now. As soon as Aurora got that video and forwarded it to that point, I began to feel nauseous. Apparently, the guy had been drunk and replying back to protesters of some sort. I wasn't sure what this motion proved but it did get a huge reaction from the audience, most of it positive. Aurora herself was laughing in the video and taping everything from the ceiling to the floor. I barely listened to the song but I was captivated by the other guy. He had a lot of similar features to Dylan. Even from the distance that Aurora took this performance, I could see the same dark hair and lanky body. I felt more sick sicker when I remembered that Rachel said he had been murdered. Murdered. I still wanted to know the whole story but I didn't want to jog horrible memories for either Aurora or Rachel.
Another thing that shocked me was this guy seemed more wild wilder than Dylan did. He was romping about in torn clothes, drinking beer, smoking up a couple cigarettes, and spitting out stuff at the audience. He used a lot of words that I had never heard of and I had listened to enough Cradle of Filth and Children of Bodom to know what dirty, violent things were. I was disgusted by the act but the rest of the world seemed to love it. I didn't know how many bras and thongs were thrown at the guy. But he seemed to be loving every minute of it. I could tell that he lived to perform. It was a shame that he wasn't performing anymore unless the afterlife held concerts.
“Was he nice? Underneath this. . .persona, that is?” I asked.
“He was an angel.” Aurora said.
“An angel? He was quite the character.” I noted. “I see no wings or halo on this guy.”
“Oh yeah. He was a contradiction of all sorts.” Rachel agreed. “I wish you got to meet him. He was a hoot when he wanted to be one.”
“I don't know. He seems to be the type that would spit in my face s .” I looked a little iffy as I watched more performance videos. He got wilder and crazier in each one. There was no more peeing on stage but it was enough to drive anybody mad.
“He wouldn't.” Aurora promised. “Contrary to what you're seeing up there, he was nice. A lot nicer than this guy.” She playfully tackled Dylan to the ground, much to his surprise. They began to make out on the rug, Rachel groaned, and I died a little inside. So much for a quiet evening for the two of us. From a raita making moment straight to front row seats to a porno on the rug. Looked like my night was over.
“You guys never quit.” Rachel shook her head.
“I should get going.” I said, slowly getting up. “I think Mary might be on her way now. Plus it's getting late.”
“Yeah, I'm coming to your place tomorrow, right?” She asked.
“Of course. Don't be scared of my mother. There won't be any quizzing on the Mahabharata from her. She might ask a lot of questions but she's not evil. Well, not all the time.” I admitted when Rachel gave me that look. “Look, just come around at the right time. And leave them at home if you can.” I nodded to the rug burners.
“I heard that.” Dylan murmured through a mouthful of Aurora's lips. At least I thought that was what he wanted to say. I shook my head and headed towards the door with Rachel at my heels. Shoving my feet into my shoes, I grabbed my coat and house keys.
“Sorry if they're a little graphic for you. They are just a couple of crazies at times.” Rachel apologized. “If they come see your family, I will make sure they are tame.”
“Don't worry about it.” I said, putting my coat on. “They're kids in love and they are going to do everything legal under the sun.”
“They probably have.” She joked. “Seriously though, you sure you don't mind if I brought them around? I'd make sure he'd get some manners first.”
“That would be good.”
“Etiquette lessons it is. No one will mind the leather jacket, will they?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Half of them don't remember what leather's made of anyway. If you don't bring it up in conversation, I don't think anyone will care.”
“Then I'll keep my mouth shut about it.” She nodded, slowly inching towards me. It was like gravity was pulling her to me. Was this a part of gravity? I was sure this had nothing to do with physics. But she was almost inches from my face. Her lips could have easily touched mine if they wanted to. Was gravity doing this too?
A car horn honked outside and she pulled away. Okay, that had to be Mary. She interrupted just at the right time. We were now staring at each other and she put her hand in front of her. I almost knelt down to kiss it but realized in time that she wanted to shake my hand. Smooth, Anwar. You couldn't even read the girl's signs.
“That must be her.” She said. “Well...good night, I guess.”
“Yeah.” I shook her hand. “Good night.”
I slowly pulled away as she stepped back inside and headed to Mary's car. It was still standing but who knew for how long. I just hoped that it would last longer than this ordeal I had put myself into. Only time would tell what would happen with us.
127
Carter Tachikawa
Chapter 6
Rachel came in the following morning while my parents weren't around and that was great. I had to prep her a little more. I had spent all night awake, thinking about what my next move would be. I showed her how to make raita but there was more to being an Indian person than knowing how to cook and facts about the Mahabharata. Maybe I was looking at all this in the wrong way. Maybe I had to take it a little slower. She knew much less about Hinduism than I had thought. I could show her the Mahabharata tapes and let it all sink in. Seeing it would make more sense than telling it.
“Good morning to you!” She greeted me. “How have you been?”
“Restless.” I confessed. “I've been trying to think of ways to help you understand the culture better. Now, I have my Mahabharata tapes if you want to watch.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me!” She exclaimed. “Just set me in front of the TV and I'll absorb it all like a sponge.”
I did as she asked, setting her up with the firs
t tape and then went into the prayer room and said a few prayers to the gods. We had a lot of photos and posters in this room. It made sense since we had far too many gods to count. But it wasn't just gods in this prayer room. There were photos of deceased relatives and of characters from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. I stared at our posters of Rama and Sita. Loving couple. Sure, Sita was a bit twisted with going into the ground with God but no one said Indian people were sane. When I was younger, my mother would pretend to do that to me whenever I misbehaved. It wasn’t until I was begging and crying that she would stop. Thinking back on it now, it was pretty sadistic. No wonder I had turned out to be so bitter, what with my mother pretending she wanted to go into the ground.
“Effing sadists. All of you.” I grumbled, remembering those moments where I begged her not to go. When I begged I would stop being bad if she stopped praying for God to take her. It was no shocker that I had issues now , especially with women. Hell, if all of them wanted to keep going into the earth, of course I wouldn’t be married any day soon! Hopefully, Rachel was not going to get any bright ideas from it. The last thing I needed was my fake fiancee fiancée pretended pretend ing that she wanted to go live with God in the ground.
Then the worst thought in the world hit me. What if my mother found out what I was up to? Or worse, what if she learned and didn't tell me just to see if I would crack? She was twisted enough to do that. If she had done it to me as a child, she'd definitely try it out on me as an adult. I couldn't bear to deal with that. It would be embarrassing for the both of us.
Rachel was still busy watching the tapes I had of The Mahabharata. Even though it was in subtitles, I had a feeling that she was completely lost with the whole plot. I plopped down next to her, handing her the bowl of popcorn.
“Want some?”
“Thanks. I have no idea what’s happening but it looks interesting. I know you told me about it but I'm still so lost.” She said. “Remind me again. Is this your version of the Bible?”
“Oh no! It’s an epic poem just like The Odyssey. The Bhagavad Gita, which is part of the Mahabharata, is actually our version of The Bible.” I explained. “I know it’s long but they don’t call it one of the longest poems in the world for nothing. Are you able to understand what’s being said?”
“Oh yeah. The plot’s a big complicated but I think I got the gist of it. Let me see how much I remember. So 5 brothers on side and 101 siblings, the gelatinous egg siblings, on the other? Am I right? And there's a kingdom called...Ha...Hasti...Hastinapur? Am I saying it right?”
“Yup. Hastinapur is the kingdom. You’ve got the Pandavas who are five and Kauravas who are 101.”
“That's right. I remember the ball of grossness. And the five brothers are married to one woman?”
“That’s right. When they were younger, they were told to share everything. That carried on into adulthood so Draupadi was found and she is shared among all five of them.”
“Great! I’m glad I picked up that much! Sadly, that’s pretty much all I’ve managed to understand. Are you sure there's no simpler way to break this down?”
I laughed. “Maybe we should have started with The Ramayana instead. It’s long too but not like this. I also think you’d understand that one better. It’s not nearly as complicated.”
“Nah, I think I can handle watching more of this. It’s got a lot of fighting, right?”
“Oh yeah, we’ve got our share of fights in here. And lots of action. Hope you're into that kind of stuff because it won't die down.”
“I love that stuff. Give me some blood and gore, baby!”
We sat watching through many chapters, eating our popcorn and sipping away at our Cokes. I attempted to help her anytime she didn't understand what happened. And there was a great deal that she didn't understand. Mostly she couldn't understand how any of this was possible. I had to remind her that it was just an epic poem, a story. Chances were that this never happened in reality.
“That was great.” She said when the latest chapter was over, looking at the clock on the wall. “Whoa! We skipped lunch!”
I followed her gaze and saw she was right. “Yeah, we did. We were so immersed in all this that we forgot to eat. Unless you count the popcorn as food.”
“It was great and I don't feel bad about missing a meal.” She stared at the TV screen. “I think I’ve had enough for today though. What about you?”
“Yeah, it’s more than enough. Want me to show you some of my old Indian comic books?” I asked. “I promise you they aren’t boring. Plus I’ve got tons of fables from back in the day. Maybe you’ll enjoy reading about jackals.”
“Hell, I enjoy reading about jackasses. Jackals shouldn’t be too bad.”
I laughed and ran up to my room to grab a couple of my Tinkle magazines from India. I figured they were the best things to show her. It would give her a good idea of Indian life , even if it was for children. Not to mention the stories were quick, easy reads for her. They were written in English so she would have no trouble with them.
“Here you go!” I handed her a pile of them.
“Whoa, heavy reading!” She gasped.
“Not really. You should be able to zip through them.”
She did zip through them right in front of me. No sooner did she put down one, she started up on another. I was right about her understanding everything. Of course, she did ask a ton of questions. She wanted to know if all children thought the way the authors did. I had to remind her that many of the stories were written by children.
We were still reading when the smells from the kitchen wafted in. I knew what that meant; my mother was back and she was cooking. I didn't know what we were going to have but it smelled like heaven. Rachel sniffed the air and sighed happily, putting her Tinkle magazine aside. There was no need to read anymore. She got the gist of Indian people from them and from my family.
"I love the smell of your house." She said. "I think I could live here."
"Live here or eat it up?" I asked. "Feel free to lick my walls if you like."
As soon as I said that, I wanted to put a foot in my face. Lick my walls? Oh gross! What kind of sexual innuendo was I pulling on this poor girl? That was something I expected Aurora to say to Dylan, not me to say to her. I expected a few punches right now. I expected to be hung up by my balls and dangling from the ceiling. I expected to be struck down and burned to a crisp on the spot. Instead, she just gave me a confused look. Like she didn't know what to do with me.
"I didn't mean it like that!" I exclaimed. "I didn't mean 'lick my walls' as in something sexual, I just meant that you could..."
"I know what you meant." She said.
"You do?"
"Yeah, lick the walls if you want a taste of the food cooking in the house." She pointed out. "Am I right?"
"...Yeah." I said. Truthfully, I had no idea what I meant by my own saying but that sounded like a good enough reason. If that was the reason she wanted to believe, then let her believe it. "Yeah, I hope you enjoy the food. You haven't had much Indian food, have you?"
"I've had lamb vindaloo which didn't taste so great." She said. "Of course, the place that I went to had cockroaches running around the floor and smelled of Old Spice. Even the lamb tasted more like Old Spice and less like lamb. I'm sure that's never in Indian cooking."
"Not in good Indian cooking." I assured her. "But we don't have cockroaches here. I should hope not anyway. Now come on, let me treat you to some mango lassi and a few pakoras while we're waiting for the main course."
"The main course? Ooh, I cannot wait for that." She rubbed her hands. “So is your family here or are we alone?”
“My mom just got in and I know she brought my cousin Neela. She picked her up from my aunt's house. She's one of the few relatives I have that live here.” I explained. “I'll introduce you to her. Be warned though. She likes stuff I hate.”
“Be nice!” She laughed. “I'm sure she's a good kid.”
“She is. A little on the an
noying side but she's pretty cool for her age.” We walked into the kitchen together. “In fact, there she is.”
Neela was sitting at the table, reading one of those Twilight novels. She was probably listening to music from the soundtrack on her I-pod while chewing down on a granola bar. Typical Neela. She'd be reading something I didn't approve of and eating something that no one approved of. Her black hair was a mess and kept falling into her eyes so she was busy pushing it away. I found this to be an opportune time to mock her.
“Yo! Puri butt!” I greeted her, calling her by the nickname I gave her when we were kids. She didn't hear me say that but she still noticed us and turned off her I-pod. “Save some room for the food tonight. I'm cooking something!”
“And I'm calling 911 in advance.” She said with a sigh.
Rachel looked scared. “You...you do know how to cook, right? I mean, that raita thing didn't take much time but...”
“Yes!” I rolled my eyes. “She's just playing around with you. Damn, Neela, quit trying to scare all our guests off!”
"So who's your friend?" Neela ignored my pleas and nodded to Rachel.
"I was about to introduce you to her. Hey, Rachel. This is my Twilight loving cousin, Neela." I introduced her. "Neela, Rachel. She doesn't like Twilight."
"And I don't either. Fuck off, Anwar." She sneered at me.
"Yeah, right. I know you've got that giant cardboard cutout of Robert Pattinson stashed away in your room somewhere. I bet you like it when he watches you sleep." Oh, this was going to be good. I loved to goad my cousin especially when it came to things like Twilight. I didn't know if she liked it or not. I just wanted to mock her.
"Ah, leave her alone." Rachel said. "If she wants to like vampires that sparkle in the sunlight and don't kill people, let her."
"Yeah, but I don't."
"She totally does." I mouthed to Rachel.
A Promise to Keep Page 6