Five-Thirty AM - XV

It had been a difficult week for Mitul. She’d thrown herself maniacally into her work. She jogged or worked out every morning, and was at her desk by seven. She worked almost non-stop till seven in the evening when her brain seemed as if it were short circuited. Then watched some mind-numbing TV (she made sure to avoid the Hindi channels), while she ate dinner and went to bed by ten, only to wake up blearily at five in the morning and do it all over again. Just as long as she had no time to think of a pair of green eyes, or conjure up a husky voice saying, ‘Go ahead’ in her head.

The good thing was, her mushy romance was complete and sent off to her publisher.

The bad thing was she hadn’t written a word more on Noel’s biography and Joyce was starting to get a little annoyed about it.

Today was Saturday, and Piya-Jiya had insisted she give it a rest. They had practically ordered her to be at their place by mid-morning and stay there for the rest of the weekend. And so here she was, overnight bag in hand, ringing the doorbell to the Puri’s house.

Piya opened the door, squealed, ‘Mitul!’ and drew her in a tight hug, before leading her in.

‘Mitul, dear, how are you?’ her maasi gave her the once over. She looked tired. There were dark circles under her eyes and they looked puffy. ‘Haven’t you been sleeping?’ she asked.

‘No, maasi,’ she replied, while Piya took her bag upstairs. ‘I had a deadline to meet and I was working on completing it.'

‘Mitul,’ this time it was Jiya who walked into the room and hugged her.

She’d brought in glasses of lemonade and they settled down for a good conversation. Mitul opened her large handbag and pulled out two gift wrapped boxes for the girls. Each contained a pair of delicate Native American silver earrings. To her maasi, she handed over a paper bag containing her favorite chipotle sauce and a tub of jalapeno jelly.

Mitul knew Noel’s name would come up at some point, and she’d prepared herself for it. Diversionary tactics were called for to delay the inevitable. So she started off the conversation.

‘Maasi, tell me. Have the wedding dates for Piya and Jiya been set?’

‘Yes, dear. We decided that since both got engaged so close to each other, we’d also have their weddings together as close as possible. But the two of them wanted a double wedding, so that’s what its going to be.’

She hugged her cousins in delight. ‘When?’

‘In about two months,’ said her maasi, beaming. She looked at her two daughters and there was a wistful look on her face as she realized that they would both be moving out of the house so soon together.

‘Are we having the weddings here or back in India?’ asked Mitul.

‘The weddings will be in India, but the registration will be here,’ said her maasi. ‘Next Friday. So you have to be there, too.’

‘Of course I’ll be there. Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Where’s the registration?’

‘City Hall. Nathan Philips Square,’ said Piya.

‘We have a ten a.m. appointment with the registrar,’ Jiya finished the sentence.

‘Great! and the Indian weddings?’

‘Will be in Mumbai. Since most of our relatives, as well as Rajan’s and Anuj’s folks are there, we thought it best to have the weddings in Mumbai itself,’ Mrs. Puri said.

‘Yes!’ Mitul laughed out loud. ‘I’m so glad. We have to start shopping soon, maasi. Or have you girls already started without me?’

‘How could we do that, Mitul?’ Jaya pouted.

‘You know we were waiting for you to come back, before starting the splurge!’ Piya finished Jiya’s thought.

The conversation turned to the weddings themselves, and they excitedly started the planning process until Mrs. Puri halted the flow with a question out of the blue.

‘Mitul, we were wondering. Do you think we should invite Noel?’

Here it was. The conversation that she’d been trying to avoid. She licked her suddenly dry lips and said, ‘maasi, why’re you asking me? I mean, its Piya-Jiya’s wedding, so you can invite whomever you want.’

‘Actually, beta, we really liked him, enjoyed having him stay with us. But he’s an actor, so we were kind of hesitant about it, and thought we should ask you if this was not, you know, imposing on him. Whether he even remembers us or not.’

‘Maasi,’ she was hesitant about how to frame this. ‘He is a busy person, but I guess you could always ask him. And this much I know, he does remember y’all. He’s not that kind of person,’ her voice faded at the end. Why was she even defending him? she thought. ‘I guess you can always ask him,’ she finished lamely.

Piya looked at the clock and said, ‘Mitul, you have his number, don’t you? Let me call him right now, please?’

Realizing that sooner or later it would have to be faced, she handed over Noel’s number to Piya, who dialed it directly from her land line. She frowned as she realized that no one was picking up the call, until it went to voicemail.

‘Hi, Noel. It’s Piya. Don’t know if you remember me, I’m Mitul’s cousin. Anyway, I needed to ask you something, so when you get this message, do give me a call back. Please? This is our home number, 905..’ she rattled off the number and hung up.

‘Looks like he’s not at home,’ she announced.

‘We got that,’ Jiya muttered.

‘So Mitul, tell us. How was El Paso?’ the dreaded question came from none other than Piya.

But she was more than prepared for it by now. Putting on an indifferent face she said, ‘hot.’

‘And the shooting?’ Piya was still agog.

‘Boring. They shoot the same scene like a gazillion times and it gets very boring if you’re just sitting there watching. It’s like watching paint dry. Very slow, very dull.’

Jiya narrowed her eyes. The complete absence of any reference to Noel did not miss her sharp mind. She’d noticed the bags under Mitul’s eyes and the tired look on face. Either her cousin was working too hard, or not getting enough sleep, or worried to death about something, or all of the above. She kept her observation to herself, because if she mentioned it, her mother would be down on her like the Seven Plagues. Better to ask Mitul about it later.

‘How was the road trip?’ asked Piya, having heard about it from Mitul.

Jiya watched closely as her cousin took a long slow drink of lemonade before replying. ‘It was fun. We saw the Carlsbad Caverns and then went up to Ruidoso. It’s Billy the Kid’s town, you know. The guy in the Westerns who was killed in a saloon while he was playing poker?’ she was babbling on. ‘I’ll show you’ll the pics later,’ she promised.

She’s not even mentioning his name! thought Jiya. Not even casually. She’s avoiding it. Something’s happened for sure.

They all nodded enthusiastically before the conversation returned to the weddings.

‘Now go and freshen up, and let’s have lunch. Your uncle wants to barbecue this evening, so thankfully, I don’t have to cook dinner for those two bottomless pits that I call damaads!’ Mrs. Puri told Mitul, much to everyone’s amusement.

Mitul was going through her emails when Jiya popped into her room.

‘Hey, you busy?’ she asked.

‘No, come on in,’ Mitul sat up. ‘Where’s Piya?’

‘She’s taking a nap, so I thought I’d come and chat with you,’ said Jiya.

Mitul smiled. Much as she loved Piya’s chattering, she also loved the quiet stillness that was Jiya.

‘Mitul, I wanted to ask you something,’ Jiya was looking uncomfortable.

‘Sure,’ she said, not really understanding what could make her cousin so hesitant.

‘You haven’t talked about Noel, at all,’ said Jiya. ‘Not a word. I know it’s not like you were best friends or something, but it still feels strange that you went out to El Paso for him. Yet you come back and you don’t mention him at all!’ She went silent for a bit, and then said, ‘Sorry if I seem to be prying, but you ... you don’t look happy, Mitul. Are you okay? If you want to talk I’m here,’ she was looking worried now. Had she overstepped her boundaries? 

Mitul sat staring at this wonderful person in front of her. Someone who’d seen the pain she was in, and was making an effort to find out if she was okay. She hugged Jiya impulsively, swallowing down the tears in her throat, taking solace from her sister’s silence.

‘Thanks, Jiya,’ she said after a little while. ‘I need to work this out for myself. Noel is a great person, and I did get to know him better on this trip. But ... I really, don’t want to talk about it right now.’

‘You’re not prying,’ she added after a pause. ‘It’s just ... I need to work this out for myself.’

Jiya smoothed back her hair and said, ‘okay. If that’s how you want to handle it. Just remember we are here for you. We’ll always be here for you.’

‘I know,’ Mitul’s voice went hoarse with the effort to keep it all bottled inside. They hugged again, before Jiya left Mitul to take a nap.

****

The next morning, Jiya wandered downstairs to find her mother making breakfast. The rest of the house was quiet. Piya, Mitul and Mr. Puri still sleeping off the night before. It had shocked Mrs. Puri to see Mitul downing more than her usual quota of beers, so she was not surprised that Mitul was not down yet. Seeing Jiya, she asked, ‘Is Mitul still sleeping?’

‘Yes, Ma, she is,’ Jiya began helping her mother chop vegetables for the poha-upma that they would be having for breakfast, after pouring herself a cup of coffee.

‘She was drinking a little too much last night,’ said Mrs. Puri in a slightly disapproving tone.

‘She has a lot of pressure on her, ma,’ Jiya defended her sister. ‘Maybe she needs to relax a little bit and if she drinks, its not like she is becoming an alcoholic.’

‘I know,‘ Mrs. Puri sighed. ‘Did she talk about Noel to you?’ Knowing very well that her quieter daughter could get people to open up simply with her silence.

‘She did. Not much. Just enough to say that she wanted time to think things over.’ She sipped her coffee and asked her mother, ‘how did you know?’

Mrs. Puri put down the knife she’d been using for chopping onions and said, ‘I may be older than you’ll but I’m not blind. He seemed to be so tuned into her, always looking for her. Writing the book - or whatever it was that they were doing - Mitul would be absorbed in her work, while he would look at her for long moments. Like she’s something he’s never seen before! I thought he would say something to her before they left Canada, but I guess that didn’t happen.’ She continued chopping and then said, ‘so she didn’t tell you anything about El Paso?’

Jiya shook her head.

‘Go take your shower,’ said Mrs. Puri, ‘before the others wake up. I’ll cook the poha when they are up.’

With that, Jiya went back upstairs while Mrs. Puri picked up the cordless handset, a cup of coffee and walked onto the deck at the back of the house. She settled herself comfortably enjoying the cool morning sun, before dialing a number.

The phone rang for a few seconds before someone picked up the line on the other end and said, ‘Hello?’

‘Kamini?’ said Mrs. Puri.

‘Didi,’ exclaimed Mrs. Imani. ‘How are you? It’s been so long since you called.’

‘I know, I know,’ said Mrs. Puri, ‘and I’m sorry. How’re things with you?’

‘Things are fine. Your brother-in-law is also fine, but he misses Mitul a lot. My devar and his family are arriving tomorrow,’ she sighed.

‘Maina?’ chuckled Mrs. Puri. ‘How is she?’

‘You know, she’s not a bad girl. She’s just spoilt. She just needs to be away from her mother’s influence,’ she lowered her voice. ‘I don’t know why my sister-in-law teaches her the things she does! I’d like to keep her with me, and fix all the rubbish her mother fills her head with,’ she said vehemently.

‘Someday, maybe you’ll get the chance. Besides, she’s still young.’

‘Yeah, they’re looking for a groom for her already,’ she sighed. ‘But they want Prince Charming with no in-laws, rich as Croesus and he should worship their little girl!’

‘Good luck with that!’ they both chuckled.

‘Anyway, tell me how are my girls? And your sons-in-law?’

‘My girls are fine. And my sons-in-law, thank God, love my twins, and they’re really wonderful boys. It’s your little girl I’m worried about,’ she said quietly.

‘Mitul? What happened to her?’ her mother was alarmed.

‘Can you talk?’ asked Mrs. Puri.

‘Yes, her father is out right now. What happened to Mitul?’ she repeated.

Mrs. Puri sighed and chewed her lip wondering how to put this. ‘You know, I think she’s in love,’ she put it badly.

Mrs. Imani put her hand to her heart. ‘Really? Who with? She never said anything! Did she meet anyone there?’

‘You know, Noel James the actor?’

‘Yes?’

‘Him.’

Mrs. Imani laughed, ‘Didi, she’s had a crush on him for ages! She thinks I don’t know but, ..’

‘It’s not a crush, Kamini,’ Mrs. Puri interrupted. ‘Noel was here, in Canada. She’s writing his biography. He even spent time with us when we went up to cottage country. I noticed how attracted to him she was, but I thought, you know, it’s just an infatuation, it will pass. Then, she went to El Paso to continue with her interviews. She got back last week. Since then, she’s been working like a dog. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days. And last night, she was drinking a bit too much! Looks like she’s gotten to know Noel too well!’

Mrs. Imani kept silent, her heart breaking for her little girl, her daddy’s princess. ‘And him?’ she asked the next obvious question.

‘You know, he’s a really nice guy. I mean, under other circumstances, I might even have talked to him to find out how he feels about her. He used to follow her around. If she was working, he’d be looking at her constantly and if she wasn’t around, he’d be looking for her. He seemed to be caring and concerned. But ... I don’t know. I mean he’s a film actor. What’s a woman to them? They have women around them all the time, ready to give them what they want. So ... I didn’t say anything, just kept an eye on them.’

There was silence on both sides, and then Mrs. Puri went on, ‘even the twins became friends with him, especially Piya. So we’ll be inviting him to the wedding. Maybe you’ll get to meet him then and see for yourself.’

‘Mitul hasn’t said anything to that?’

‘All she said was, it’s Piya-Jiya’s wedding and we could invite whom we wanted. Seems like she wanted to see him, but was unwilling to say it out loud.’

‘When does she get back? Has she told you? She hasn’t said anything to us yet.’

Mrs. Puri saw a movement in the room behind her and said, ‘hold on. I think she’s downstairs. Talk to her.’ She covered the phone and called Mitul over. ‘Your mother is on the line, talk to her,’ she handed the phone to Mitul.

‘Hi, Ma!’ she said brightly. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m fine, beta and so is your Baba. He’s out right now. But your maasi tells me, you were drinking too much last night?’

‘Ma,’ she protested. ‘I was unwinding. I’ve been working very hard, lately. So I had a few beers.’

‘Mitul,’ her mother said in a warning tone. ‘You know your father doesn’t like you drinking so much!’

‘Ma,’ she said in soothing tones. ‘I am at maasi’s. You think she’ll allow me to drink too much? Besides it was just family last night, and the two damaads. Anyway, tell me. How’s things?’

‘You tell me, beta. Have you booked your tickets yet?’

‘Ma, next week is the registration, which you probably know about. I’ve to wind up a few things here. I should be back at the end of the month. I’ll call and let you know the exact date.’

‘Great! We can’t wait to see you, beta. We miss you so much.’

Mitul headed back into the room once she’d finished the call, and placed the phone on the cradle. Everyone was downstairs now, and Mrs. Puri was calling them to come to the dining table for breakfast. She was half-way across the room when the phone rang again.

‘Mitul, get the phone, please?’ called Jiya, carrying a tray of dishes to the table.

She turned around and picked up the phone. ‘Hello,’ she said in her low voice.

There was silence at the other end. She stood still, her heart racing. Somehow she knew who it was.

‘Hello?’ she said again, a little lower this time, holding her breath, hearing a soft hiss of a breath released at the other end. Dimly, she heard her aunt asking who it was, but didn’t answer.

‘Hi,’ his voice was just as husky as she remembered. She closed her eyes. ‘Can I talk to Piya?’

‘Sure,’ she said, feeling like he’d slapped her for not even acknowledging her. ‘Just a minute.’

She cradled the phone to her heart and held it for a second, before turning around and walking over to Piya. ‘Piya, it’s Noel,’ she held out the phone.

‘Noel!’ Piya exclaimed, ‘how are you?’

Mitul sat down quietly, trying not to listen in to the conversation as Piya happily chattered with him, telling him about the wedding plans. She looked deep into her coffee cup and willed the ready tears not to fall from her eyes, taking a deep breath and looked up just as Piya hung up.

He hadn’t even asked to speak to her! It hurt. It hurt real bad.

****