Hi! A short light hearted chapter, after the initial bitterness. Enjoy!
Swara
Hatred is a burning coal. It has the power to reduce any relation to ashes staying hidden, innocently on a pile of half burnt thoughts. It feeds on the compassion a man has on another, and feeds him in return the facts of the bitterest kind. That kind of hatred is glaring back at me, from the eyes of my father.
I look at him, cringing inwardly at the flames of bitterness he throws at me, over the shoulder of Ma, who is fussing over my sickly look. Her hands brush my stray hairs, rub my shallow cheeks and cup my face, turning my gaze back in to her teary one.
‘It’s over now,’ she says in a motherly tone. ‘Let’s get you home first and then I’d never let you starve again.’
‘She’s not coming with us, Mishti.’ He speaks for the first time, in a tone that I hardly recognized as my fathers. ‘If you want to stay, you tell this girl…to find a place of her own, or you can go with her wherever you both wish to. I however will not tolerate criminals under my roof.’
Ma’s hands shake, as they fall down from their previous position around my face and she turns stunned towards, Baba.
‘Shekar?’
‘You heard me Mishti, come, we’re getting late.’
‘She’s our daughter… Our flesh and blood, just how can you…’
‘My daughter died the day she decided to leave her wedding behind and murder a man Mishti. You and I have only one daughter and that is Ragini, this girl,’ he throws another dark look at me. ‘Is no child of mine!’
‘Shekar, you can’t talk to my daughter this way. I won’t let her go, I…I would..’
‘Ma,’ I cut in, before she would voice something she will regret later. ‘Go on. No, listen, I’d be alright. I can take care of myself. Please… You don’t have to create problems in your own relations for me. Go, go now.’
‘But Shona,’ Ma says now, outraged. ‘Where will you go? This is insane, how can I leave you in the middle of nowhere.’
‘I’ll go to Dida, stay there till everything gets sorted out,’ I invent out of thin air.
‘She’s in Banaras, where will you go till she returns?’
‘It’s a matter of weeks; I’ll stay at a friend’s. I’ll manage Ma, seriously, there’s no problem.’
‘Shona,’
‘I’m saying the truth, cross my heart!’
‘Okay,’ she says finally defeated. ‘Call me as soon as you settle. Okay? I’ll…’ She turns and gives Baba a venomous look, he has already descended a few stairs in hope of putting more distance between him and ‘evil’. ‘I’ll leave then.’
I blink back the tears that burn my eyes and curl my lips with effort.
‘Yes, go.’
‘Be careful beta. Take care.’
I nod, unable to find my voice anymore as she leaves after him. I watch them go, vanish in to the car and drive away, battling my tears knowing my mother’s eyes would still be on me. As they finally leave the edge of my view, I realize my knees could no longer hold my weight. I sink in to the ground, sitting on the stairs and finally let the tears fall. It is easy to escape the law, but not the punishments of our own, which hurt ten folds more to go through.
Someone taps my shoulder. I look around, to find, SK narrowing his eyes. They glitter playfully in the noon sun; as he crouches his lean frame to level with me.
‘What?’ He says, seriously. ‘Trying to get arrested for vagrancy? I almost threw a coin at you, before seeing who it was.’ His lips curl. ‘I would charge heavily, if ever I had to represent you on a different case.’
‘Just go away,’ I say, wiping my eyes.
He cranks my elbow, pulling me to my feet with him. I struggle a bit before he releases his hold.
‘You can’t stay here.’
‘I know.’
‘Go to that friend, of whom you were praising so much to your mom.’
I raise my eyebrows.
‘Were you eavesdropping?’
‘I was actually waiting for her to leave, can’t offer accommodation for both of you. I actually had a mini heart stroke when she said she’d come with you, better you stopped the suggestion! ’
‘You…’ I stare at him, gulping the rest of my sentence. ‘Wait…you want me to stay with you?’
‘Well,’ he says his hands on his pockets and tilting his head. ‘I do need a maid.’
‘Who said I would be your maid?’
‘Sorry, no other vacancies at the moment,’ he grins. ‘You want a house I need a maid, can’t we call it mutual advantage?’
‘I don’t know who taught you of favors SK but you missed a few crucial lessons.’
‘Okay, now that you’re bailed out horizons are brighter suddenly?’ He asks with a twitch to his eyebrow. ‘I didn’t know you knew sarcasm Miss Snow White. So what say? Wanna go home or get arrested once more for lurking around like Casper?’
‘I look like a ghost?’
‘Hey, I said Casper; he gets irritated when called a ghost.’
‘You could donate ego, it’s overlarge.’
‘You could donate altruism it’s overflowing!’ he retorts almost instantly. ‘Come, I have few more minutes before a meeting, I’ll drive you home.’
I wait another moment watching him take a few steps down. He stops and turns to scowl at me.
‘Do you want the client to eat my head Casper? Come already!’
I follow him, although my mind starts following a different thought process. What is SK’s reason to help me continuously? No one would take a favor to a colleague as seriously as he was and now, his reason for offering me a home is because he needs a maid…like seriously? Who would even believe that?’
*
SK
She gives the house a look, a lot like some vacuum cleaner would give a broom and looks at me, with her hands on her hips.
‘You want me to clean this awful place?’
‘Ah, well a man can hope.’ I say cheekily. ‘I want you to cook too and answer the landline, make excuses to unwanted guests, receive the milkman…’
‘Wait, wait, what do you think I am?’
‘Simple, my maid,’ I grin at her outraged look. ‘After all, I’m representing you for free; you can do this much for me… I have no other reason for getting bored in this useless house, than your pending case. So… you owe me a lot lady.’
There, the arrow seems to hit the target. She looks a lot paler and serious than she was first, her face fall a little.
‘Fine, but I won’t do the laundry, no way!’
‘Okay,’ I say, nodding at her. ‘But you’d do everything else.’ She hisses, but does not protest.  ‘Why don’t you start then? While I run back to my meeting?’ She frowns at me and walks in to the house, crinkling her nose. ‘Ah, and Casper, don’t mess my study please? I have already cleaned that; you don’t have to go there.’
She nods not turning to look at me as I shut the door behind her. I can hear her muttering something which I choose to ignore. So far I had been correct in the context of Miss Gadodia. Had I offered to help her out, she might have refused, but now, she would accept to work for me. Strange way her mind seems to work, even stranger if possible was my ability to decipher her. Anyway, I had what I wanted so no complaints there. I want her under my nose, so that I can break through the rest of her walls. The backward count starts now, Casper…
*
‘There’s no point in wasting your footwear Lakshya, stop pacing please,’ Durga Prasad said in a calm tone. Lakshya stopped and looked at his father, a little annoyed.
‘I don’t understand what his problem is?’ He said then. ‘I know he wants to challenge you, but why would he stoop enough to help a criminal?’
‘Hate blinds people,’ Durga Prasad said slowly.
‘What are we going to do now Papa? He proved Ragini’s witness is useless or at least raised some strong suspicions, Swara was granted bail and now…now they’re even re-examining the finger prints.’
‘Nothing to worry,’ He was replied. ‘I have my assistants at work, new evidence will pop up. He has brought time, nothing more. At the end, he has to face me…that’s when he will lose.’
‘But…’
‘Enough,’ Durga Prasad stood up, from his throne like chair. ‘Take the day off Lakshya…you’re too disturbed to work. Meanwhile, if you can, find out why exactly he is helping Swara. She can’t escape, he can’t win. He might be a big name in Mumbai, but this is Kolkata, the city that always defeated him. Nothing will change, no matter how many times one tries, the sun always melts wax.’
*
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