VIBGYOR

by Keerthana Jayaraj

  “What in the world is that woman thinking, Shakti?” I watched her tired face. Salty tears were blending with nature’s tears. Her trembling hand trembled harder with each rumble of thunder. Shaky legs climbed the front steps of the house and marched through the door.

  “Sh..Sh..Shiva…”

  She muttered before falling onto the couch.

  “Cuckoo’s nest.”

  Goldy turned away in disgust, snorting pointedly at the couple’s bedroom door. I watched her disappear into Shiva’s bedroom before I turned my attention to the old woman. Her hands were hot…too hot and her half closed eyes were very red.

  “Hello…” I muttered rather idiotically, before feeling her forehead. It was hot as a furnace. Oh dear…The poor thing was running as a fever. What in the world was she thinking, walking in the rain?

  KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK I turned abruptly only to see Goldy kicking at the bedroom door. Well…She had better watch out or she would be the next one getting a headache. But I really don’t blame her. It was impossible to live in this house without getting ‘involved’.

  “De…evi…Stop that…”

  Damn alcoholic speech! The so called ‘hangover’ mode. Obviously he needed tending. Even more obviously he wasn’t the person to tend to his sick wife.

  “What…”

  Shiva emerged from her room rubbing her eyes. Her unfocused eyes wandered all over before they fell on the unconscious form of her mother.

  “Mom!” It was amazing the way the drowsiness disappeared. The eyes returned to sharp focus, the tired burst into action. The half-awake woman became the concerned daughter rushing towards her mother.

  Shiva took her mother’s hands like I did, her eyes widening at the heat. She massaged her mother’s forehead gently, feeling the heat. It alarmed her as much as it alarmed me. I could read it in her eyes.

  A ‘d’ somehow managed to escape Shiva’s lips but she effectively bit back the rest. An angry glare was thrown at the closed bedroom door before her hands lifted her mother. Tenderly, as a mother carries her infant, she carried the old woman to her room. Shiva threw off the wet clothes and swiftly dressed her mother in dry ones. A heavy blanket was brought down from the clothes cabinet and wrapped around the lady.

  “Mom?”

  Shiva rubbed the woman’s cheeks. “Mom…”

  No answer just some incoherent words and shivering. Shiva tried two more times, her voice more and more alarmed. But still the woman did not come around. Goldy stared at me shocked.

  “She’s…”

  Shiva raced out of the room just as I shook my head. I heard the tapping of the telephone keys and the scared explanations.

  “Please…No Dad is not in a condition to drive. I hope you will…” Apparently, the person at the other end of th line was sympathetic. Shiva calmed down somewhat and ended the conversation with a grateful thank you. A gentle thud told me she had sank down on the couch.

  “What has this woman done? Where in the world did she…” My brain strangely tuned out to Goldy’s question. I sank down to the floor, beside the ‘sick bed’, my hands holding the trembling hand if the old woman. I could feel the temperature increasing…the pulse slowing…The quivering lips spouted out silly temperature increasing…the pulse slowing…The quivering lips spouted out sillyVIBGYOR nonsense just as the half closed eyes fully closed.

  “Shakti…”

  I looked up to see that Goldy had sank down beside me, looking as concerned as I was. She too placed her hand on the old woman. “Get well…”

  She muttered with a sigh.

  It was a few minutes later that a car came to a stop in front of the house. The front door was opened and Shiva’s incoherent talk followed the guest into the room. He was an elderly man, neat and strangely handsome in his white coat. Kindness was written all over his face and his deep brown eyes positively leaked compassion. The ideal doctor…

  Brisk and businesslike, the man got down to the business of examining his patient real quick. The metallic thing with an odd name was placed on the woman’s chest and he listened keenly before taking her pulse putting a thermometer in her mouth. I watched the thin line of silver rise and rise.

  “That isn’t good, is it?”

  Goldy nudged me as the line touched hundred and moved a bit higher. The doctor’s face would have given her the answer. The serene face was screwed with worry. “I am giving her a shot. If the fever doesn’t go down, we will have to transfer her to the hospital.”

  “Why did she go out in the rain? Where did she go…” Shiva wailed, tears brimming her eyes. The doctor looked uncomfortable for the briefest of moments but he recovered himself and got down to business. The ‘shot’ he spoke of was administered. One thing I’ll say, from the sharp needle to the foul looking medicine in a tiny bottle, I am now convinced why people hate doctors.

  “Let her sleep.”

  The doctor advised Shiva after washing her hands. “If the temperature doesn’t go down by evening, immediately bring her to the hospital.” The calm air that the doctor brought with him evaporated when he left. Worry spread like a pollutant. Not that worry was a new thing in this house, in any house for that matter. Yet today it existed in an almost saturated form. I tried hard not to feel it. It was poison to my system and to my sleeping headache(which was slowly trying to wake up). The clock ticked continuously. Time spilled continuously. The old woman seemed to sweat more and more with it. Staring at her from my position, I felt as if it seemed to sweat more and more with it. Staring at her from my position, I felt as if it

  VIBGYOR was time itself that was draining away from her. Time left on this earth. Time left to savour life(although there isn’t that much to savour). Humans do not realize it, the value of the trivial second hand of the clock. The value of the now. That was why they so carelessly waste the most precious thing in their life.

  “Let’s just walk around for a bit.” Goldy was standing up, stretching her hands and legs. While I was engaged in my own thoughts, Goldy had been feeling the woman’s temperature. Now, convinced that the poor old thing was slowly recovering, Goldy had returned to her bright and chirpy self. Honestly that was a relief. With Goldy babbling on beside me, I didn’t actually feel that bleak and grim.

  Our ‘walk’ wasn’t exactly inspiring or cheerful. Shiva was working in the kitchen. I could smell tea brewing. The bedroom door remained closed. Out of a whim I decided to check him out. Imagine my surprise when the door opened when we were right in front of it and the man himself stepped out, all ready to go out.

  “Unbelievable!” Goldy blurted out as I stared at him incredulously. So, he had been in his right mind for a while. He had probably heard the doctor come and go. Yet…Why am I so surprised? Some people simply don’t care.

  As if to add to my already overflowing surprise meter, the man proceeded to sit down at the dining table as if waiting for a meal, watching his daughter through narrowed eyes. They narrowed even further when Shiva passed the table with a cup of tea and two loaves of bread and went straight into her room.

  “Shiva! I am late for work.” Ok…at the firm, calm voice, my surprise meter suddenly burst. I even started to think he was still suffering from the effects of his drink and wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind. How else…Goldy went a bit beyond wondering though. She went right up to his ear and shouted, her voice growing louder with each name she gave him.

  “AND THAT’S NOT ANY MORE THAN YOU DESERVE YOU…” She clapped her hands together and made a face at him. The whole thing was so futile, so useless, so adorably childlike that I couldn’t help laughing. “He can’t hear you…”

  “Good to get it out of my system, anyway.”

  She said, looking a bit embarrassed.

  To our amazement(I probably should be using the word disgust but I was amazed all the same just because I got a realistic picture of how grandiose human ego could be), instead of just getting up and leaving, he continued to sit there, occasionally glancing at the clock which was
quickly moving past lunch time. He drummed his fingers impatiently for another ten minutes and then, called out to his daughter.

  “Shiva! What in the hell are you doing? It’s getting late and I must get to the office before…” Shiva came out of the room. Instinctively, I knew a bigger storm was about to start. Shiva’s expression wasn’t too amiable. I wouldn’t be amiable too if someone expected to be waited on hand and foot no matter what happened in the family.

  “Mom’s ill.” She said, calmly. But I wasn’t deceived. I could sense the storm lurking behind the matter-of-fact tone. Waiting like a tiger hidden in the bushes for the deer to appear. Storm waiting for the slightest provocation to break out.

  “So…I have been too worried to start cooking immediately after he left. I did make tea for her and some bread to go with it but other than that, nothing has been prepared in the kitchen today. I am going to make a light lunch. Bit it’s not going to be ready immediately like you want.”

  I don’t know what made that man back out and leave at his daughter’s words. Perhaps it would have been the amount of scorn in them. Perhaps it may have been the tone remarkably like that of a teacher explaining to a dim-witted student. Anyway, he left and Shiva, true to her words, turned her attention to cooking.

  “Don’t you think the family-drama has been a bit too much for one day?” Goldy asked, sitting down on a dining chair.

  “Too much.”

  I nodded grimly, just as the sick woman started groaning and Shiva rushed to tend to her. Goldy’s idea for escaping ‘family-drama’ was obviously a form of entertainment that I introduced her into - Nandan-pranking. I was not averse to the idea myself but I had something better in mind. We shouldn’t be partial, should we? Why should we deny Anasuya her fair share? When I suggested it to Goldy, she was more than happy to go with it.

  “I’ll be glad when I can scratch her face.” She giggled.

  “Oh my!” I said, feigning surprise. “How can you be so catty, my dear!”

  We both laughed. Somehow that erased a bit of the gloom. I was sure that giving Anasuya a good kick would perfectly erase the rest.

  Finding Anasuya meant going back to Nandan’s house and waiting. That waiting wouldn’t bother me much. After all, I could treat Nandan to some bonus spooks while we wait for his fiancee to turn up. If she didn’t turn up today…too bad for him.

  But as things turned out, Lady Luck decided to step in and save Nandan from a few scares that day. Anasuya was there at Nandan’s house all right. And right at the front door too. Goldy and I saw her slender form as we passed through the gates all dressed up in a floral sari. She looked radiant and strangely innocent - all sweet and village girlish. I looked for the butler, laughing inwardly thinking of the last time we saw him, but there was no sign of him. Nandan’s father stood at the doorway, giving her a dour look. I wondered if he would call her a gold digger this time around.

  “I wouldn’t let you into my house if it weren’t for my only son.” The man gritted his teeth. “And I wouldn’t even be civil to you if my son didn’t want it.” I thought Anasuya would laugh. Perhaps even taunt him about the hold she had over his son. Obviously, she was too clever and ‘too much of a lady’ in Nandan’s eyes to do that openly.

  “I am no gold digger.”

  That was all she said before stepping inside. She even ignored the sour smile he gave her.

  Nandan was waiting for her in his room, a bouquet of pink roses in hand. The smell was heavenly. It drowned the stink of the blood.

  “You spoke to your Dad about…”

  Anasuya beamed as she entered. She planted a light kiss on his cheek before taking the bouquet. “Of course…”

  He smiled, taking her hand. He bent down to kiss the ring on her finger. “I wouldn’t have anyone call you names.”

  “Even if it was your Dad?”

  She asked, her hazel eyes piercing his.

  “Never…”

  He said, crushing her to him. “I won’t have anyone say horrible things about you.” “I know…”

  Happily Never After…

  The phrase passed through my mind rapidly just as their lips met. The tenderness startled me although I was quick to equate it with Anasuya’s ‘seduction’ powers. And Nandan being an idiot of course. But yet…

  “It’s about time someone broke up this party!”

  I turned around to see Goldy throwing a pen into the air and catching it deftly. “Would you allow me to do the honours?”

  I laughed a little just as Nandan and Anasuya broke apart.

  “Before I forget…” He said, making a big show of gazing at her from head to foot. “You look lovely.” Colour rose rapidly to Anasuya’s cheek. She giggled like a highschool girl. “The sari was your idea.”

  “Of course…Who else would know the best for you, Anu?”

  Goldy chose that moment to scribble noisily on the wall. Both Nandan and Anasuya turned around, their romantic fantasy broken. Terror broke out on Nandan’s face when he saw the pen. His hand caught Anasuya’s.

  “What’s going on?”

  Anasuya asked as he pulled her out of the room and shut the door. “What in the world…” “A mad ghost on the prowl…”

  Goldy shouted as though in answer. “And she’s just about to leave a message.”

  I watched as Goldy wrote quickly, in a loopy pretentious handwriting quite unlike my own. There was a spook factor about it though, enhanced by Goldy’s choice of words. Run…Run…But you can never hide. Guilt will slow you down and one day I will catch up with you. You and her. Never shall you be together. Death will tear you two apart

  “It’s about time we upped the game though.” Goldy said, shaking the pen when she finished. “This is fun but we aren’t really causing lasting damage are we? Shouldn’t we…” she paused, running her finger under the tear you two apart line. “That is what Shiva would want, isn’t it?”

  I stared at the message without answering. Was that what Shiva wanted? I didn’t know…Would she be satisfied with that…I didn’t know.

  “I think we should wait.” A retort must have sprang to Goldy’s lips. I read it in her face. I could also see that she was longing to scold me for my involvement, as she called it and warn me of the dire consequences it had for my mission. But she didn’t speak. Simply turned away and floated towards the exist. She looked grim.

  “I wasn’t suggesting it for my sake.”

  She cried out before leaving the room.

  I waited for Goldy for over an hour, refusing to budge even when I heard Nandan and Anasuya leave the house. In a way, I did understand why she was mad. But still…I couldn’t just let everything go. Somehow…That wasn’t an option. Maybe I wasn’t doing myself any favours but still…

  I walked to the dark black cabinet…The slaughterhouse that still reeked of blood. My fingers ran over the place where blood must have been spilled. For a second I could hear Shiva scream…I could hear the sound of glass shattering and blood…falling on the floor and inside the cabinet…

  Pain hit me on the head just like the framed photograph hit Shivani. But I didn’t move. I held on…staring and staring at Shakti’s grave.

  “Are you out of your mind?”

  I turned around, only to see Goldy standing with her hands on her hips. Her glare was at best icy and at worst… “Are you trying to pass out? Would that accomplish your mission easily?” “Goldy…”

  “You take me around like a kid and allow me to have fun but really…Are you even doing something?”

  “Goldy…” I raised both my hands in surrender. Pain was whirling around inside my head like an out of control tornado but…something told me that this wasn’t the time to let Goldy in on that particular information.

  “Should I take that as a sign that you’ve finally seen sense or…am I about to be treated to 1001 reasons why we should wait.”

  “We should wait a little longer.”

  “And why, pray, should we do that? We know what happened. We
know what Nandan did. Let him and the girl have their share of punishment. Break them up. Let Nandan did. Let him and the girl have their share of punishment. Break them up. Let them suffer and be done with it already!” “Someone needs to look out for Shivani.”

  Goldy scoffed and turned away.

  “So you’ve decided to be a bodyguard. For a human…”

  “No Goldy!” I called out before she could leave again. “Listen…”

  She paused by the door and turned back.

  “If you’re all ready to go on a suicide mission…forgive me if I don’t share your view on the topic.” “Goldy…will you please listen to me? I know this is not the wisest decision. I know we should…but…I don’t want to leave her alone in the house. I simply…I just want her…”

  “She is out of her old state. She is quite normal now.” Now being the key word. I gritted my teeth. Shiva was normal now, that much is the truth. How long will she remain normal in that house? That question worried me. The very thought of Vaishnav Sachidanand made me shudder. Who knows how many else Shiva’s Dad might bring in before he finally forces his daughter to accept one of them?

  “What do you think of her house Goldy?”

  From the look on Goldy’s face I think she did get some of my concerns. But her words didn’t echo her thoughts. “That is none of our concern. We are not supposed to set right her life for her.” “You are free to leave this suicide mission. I’m not holding you prisoner.”

  It wasn’t exactly the most tactful or most polite of replies but I really couldn’t help it. Being all impersonal was easy when you’re not being haunted by…I kind of gave up on that line of thought because I had lost count of the things that were haunting me at that point.

  “Yes…Order me out because I made the mistake of caring about what happens to you.” Goldy stamped her feet. “I see how far you’ve gone.”

  She was gone the next minute, leaving me standing alone staring at her scribbles. A gloom set over me as time passed and she didn’t return. “Maybe she didn’t want to come back…May be she was tired of being…” I sank down on the floor, remembering her enthusiastic performance…the rather cute way she scribbled on the wall. Maybe she had left for good…The idea didn’t comfort me at all. And although I would never admit it to her…I was sure I would miss her.