Short Story by Ravikumar Pillai
Sunday mornings are special for Alice. It is a hectic time, and she doesn’t mind. Jacob needs his early morning strong tea on the bed; she wakes him up and hands over the steaming cup like she has been used to for thirty-plus years. She was a trained teacher and worked before marriage but has been quite comfortable being a homemaker.
The Sunday routines were timed to alarm clock precision, she thought. They are off to the church by 8 am and after the mass that gets over usually by half past nine, they eat out at the homely restaurant by the parish hall. A few handshakes and exchange of pleasantries with regular churchmates and then it is time to hurry back home, to wait for the call from across the seas, which they do not want to miss.
Of their two children, Jessy, the daughter is settled in the garden city of Bengaluru where her husband runs a startup. She attends to all the office chores, leaving Binu to focus on what he knows best, getting lost in the intriguing world of cyber security. Jessy calls in almost every day at whatever time that suits her and lets Alice listen to her granddaughter’s babbles.
Alice waits for the once-in-week call from San Francisco when Regi, her son, hurries through the ritual, with a rhythmic eagerness to hang up. She has never expressed it, not even to her husband, but a nagging fear that sooner or later `even the tenuous link with her son would snap does trouble her.
Last week Regi had told her, “Mom, I will give you a surprise. Next month I am coming down for a week. I will also have my girlfriend with me. She is coming down to meet both of you. But for heaven’s sake keep this a surprise, a secret between us, until I break it to Dad when I’m there.”
“Tell me a bit more about her.”
“Surprises are to be broken in person, Mom; have patience” He hung up. He was always like that. Short, precise, direct.
Alice lay restless in the night. The shock and suspense of what Regi told her gnawed at her consciousness. She clung to her husband, who seemed to be in a comfortable sleep and whispered, “Regi called today. As usual, in a hurry. He told me something and then asked me to keep it a secret till he is here next month to break it to you. But, Jacob, I just can't keep it simmering for long. Shall I blurt out and break the promise to my son?”
“You are the best judge, Alice. It is your call”, Jacob has always been diplomatic and formal. He would say that was because he respected my privacy.
“Okay, then here I go. Regi is coming down next month. He says his girlfriend would accompany him. He wants to introduce her to us formally”.
“Let us sleep over the matter. There is always tomorrow”, Jacob said in a measured, indifferent tone. “Was there a trace of irritation at having been shaken out of the sleep that he had slipped comfortably into?”, Alice wondered.
Over the next few days, Alice’s unbound inquisitiveness gathered bits and pieces of the supposedly well-kept secret from Regi’s flippant mind.
His sweetheart was his classmate at the Technology Institute and subsequently his colleague and off-site work partner in the US. He was brutally frank with his mother when the floodgates of feigned secrecy were opened. They had been live-in partners for the past couple of years.
“I hope she is a Malayali. And a Christian!”, Alice blurted out, conscious that there was a touch of raw crudeness in the query. Regi asked rather curtly, “Does that matter, Mom?”
As if to loosen the anticipated emotional surge in his mom’s unprepared mind, he added, “She is a Gujarati, a Jain and vegetarian to the hilt, the type that does not eat even garlic”.
Alice did not want to hear more. She hung up.
As the date of arrival of Regi and her girlfriend neared, Alice felt nervous and confused. In every mess, there was a silver lining, something to feel relieved! It lightened her tension to know that the girl would just be around for a couple of days and then would proceed to Ahmedabad, where her parents lived. So, she had to keep her cool and be at her courteous best just for the days the girl would be there.
She even sounded the parish priest to counsel Regi after the girl left to ensure that the couple would align to the beliefs and values of biblical ways.
On the night before the scheduled arrival, Alice and Jacob savoured classic Burgundy Chardonnay wine (courtesy of the college buddy who visited from Dubai) and teased each other.
“You have been rehearsing tomorrow’s encounter with your daughter-in-law in-waiting as though preparing for a critical diplomatic meeting at the UN!”, said Jacob.
“I wish I could be as insensitive and callous as you”, she gave a backhanded compliment.
Jacob and Alice drove to the airport well ahead of time to receive Regi and the girl, (whatever be her name, Alice thought!). They waited in the arrival hall lobby, with a rare mix of cynicism, disinterest and subtle affinity.
“She looks amazingly pretty”, Alice told herself at the first glance of the girl walking in with a confident and congenial smile on her face, alongside Regi.
Back at home, Alice was struck by the simplicity, genuineness and humble disposition of the girl. “Tulsi”, even her name sounded pristine! Alice reminded herself that she had thought of a true-to-faith name for her, once she would integrate totally with their family and its ways upon marriage.
After dinner, which Alice took extra care to be a purely vegetarian mix, she led the girl up the stairs to the guest room to sleep. Back in their master bedroom, Alice unwound the bundle of delicate words of counsel she had reviewed repeatedly in the past few days. She had a task to do.
She asked her son, lowering her voice, even though she knew that the girl wouldn't overhear.
“Will she convert to our faith? Will her parents agree? These North Indians are known to be too fussy when it comes to their religion and rituals”
Regi was quiet and pensive. He kept his hallmark cool detachment. By now, Jacob also joined them.
Regi spoke slowly, and in a measured tone, “Dad and Mom, we are in love with each other, because we like each other as we are. Faith, name, food habits and clothing preferences don’t matter. We accept the differences as natural and normal. We are determined to give each other the personal space that we both need as individuals.”
The next day morning after breakfast, Regi drove the girl around the countryside. She enjoyed the lush green terrain, and the people going around their chores. She was particularly impressed by the serenity of the small village temple by the wayside and the graceful charm of the age-old church on the hillock. She presented the mementoes she had brought with her to Jacob and Alice. Both saw the vibes between the two children and were happy about that.
On the third day morning, Tulsi was driven to the airport for her onward journey to see her parents. On the way, they ate in a wayside restaurant. Alice watched the girl savouring the traditional Kerala meal, served on a plantain leaf.
While returning home after seeing off the girl, Alice felt melancholic at the thought of the short, sweet visit that passed off in a wink of sorts!
Alice had called over the parish priest for dinner. Jacob and the Father had their scotch, and Alice and Regi chose red wine. As dinner was spread on the table, they went through the customary small talk. Alice wanted the Father to counsel Regi about bringing the girl around to agree to baptism before marriage.
“Let me talk to him alone, in the study”, the priest said.
After some time, even as the anxious Alice and the indifferent Jacob finished off a few more sips of their favourite drinks, the Father and Regi emerged from their closed-door interface.
Jacob commented in his usual sarcastic wit, “Father, is there white or dark smoke at the sacred chimney?” He was alluding to the customary papal elections and the signalling of the consensus.
The priest said, “Regi is clear what he wants. We need to respect his judgement. After all, it is his life. Let us leave things as they are, let the two of them take time and come out with how they want to take their relationship forward. Who are we to impose our will?”
Regi left the next morning for Mumbai, where Tulsi was to arrive after her brief encounter with her parents. They met outside the arrival hall.
“How did it go with your parents?”, Regi asked.
“Regi, they need more time to think over. Just the same way you told me that your parents need to take time too.
“Well, the marriage can wait. Our togetherness cannot”, she said.
They checked into the airport hotel and took the elevator to the twenty-fifth floor, just the two of them, looking through the glass all around at the vast expanse of the city lights as the capsule pulled its way up.
They had to catch their long haul back to LA, the next morning. Their shared dreams and fantasies await their return to liven up, after the interlude.
Ownership is the key to life. One just can't pass the buck.
留言