Five-Thirty AM - XXXII

Noel parked his car on the small driveway at Mitul’s home. It was Sunday morning - to be exact it was seven in the morning, and he was here to take Mitul on a date! He was nervous. Very, very nervous as he’d also be meeting her parents for the first time. He took off his aviators, raking his fingers through his hair before he rang the bell. His initial idea of roses and candlelight had taken a back seat. So he’d changed plans, asked her to wear casual clothes, emphasized the ankle-support footwear, and said they’d be out the entire day, but they had to make a very early morning start as they had a long drive ahead.

The door was opened by a middle aged man, who welcomed him in. He walked into a comfortable drawing room. Flowers, dark cherry furniture, bright cushions and lots of light from the windows that were open to the morning sunshine, curtains flying lazily in the breeze. He stood there awkwardly waiting for someone to come.

A woman entered from the opposite end. She was in her late forties, he guessed, elegant in a cotton saree, her hair in a neat chignon low on her neck. She had her daughter’s sparkling eyes. Her lips were curved in a smile as she greeted him. ‘You must be Noel,’ she said. ‘Sit down, please. Why are you standing?’

He didn’t know what he was supposed to do - shake hands? Too formal. Hug? Too intimate. Touch their feet? Too familiar. He was dithering there, and settled for raising his hands in a namaste. He sat down on the sofa, looking around.

‘Mitul will be right down,’ she smiled as she settled into a chair. ‘Now, what will you have? coffee? or a cold drink?’

‘Nothing, thanks, I’m fine,’ he said unable to resist smiling back at her.

‘Mitul has told me so much about you, I feel like I know you already,’ trying to make him feel a little more comfortable.

He was spared replying to that as a gentleman walked into the room. ‘Noel?’ he held out his hand.

Noel stood up and shook it, ‘Yes, sir,’ he said.

Her father burst out laughing. ‘You don’t have to call me sir,’ he said, seating himself next to his wife and gesturing for Noel to sit too.

Noel could feel sweat trickling down his back. All his training as an actor and a model wasn’t helping at all. He felt like he was in the principal’s office in school! He just wished Mitul would hurry up and make an appearance.

But it was Myna who came into the room. She stopped when she saw Noel, and said, ‘Hi,’ in a very subdued voice.

‘Hi, Myna,’ he greeted her. ‘How have you been?’

‘Good,’ she replied. ‘And you?’

Well, this was certainly a different Myna, he thought. ‘I’m good.’

‘Myna, can you please go and tell Mitul that Noel is here already?’

‘Sure, Badi-ma,’ Myna went obediently out of the room.

Noel looked after her wondering if Dev had said anything to her, or was she always like this with her Badi-ma? She was certainly behaving very differently with him today, to his immense relief.

Mitul was just finishing putting on her boots, when Myna walked in and sat down on the clothes-strewn bed.

‘Noel’s here,’ she said quietly.

‘Thanks, Myna,’ Mitul turned around and frowned. Myna was sitting there absently folding some clothes. She’d been sort of spaced out since yesterday. ‘Myna, is something wrong?’ she asked sitting next to her sister.

Myna shook her head, stayed silent for a minute and then looked up with hurt eyes.

‘Why didn’t you tell me that you and Noel were ... you know, seeing each other?’ Myna asked in a small voice.

Mitul thought that one over. Someone had told Myna this particular piece of news. ‘Who told you that Noel and I were..?’

Myna shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter who told me. But I wish you had told me, Mitul Di. Then I wouldn’t have made such a fool of myself over him,’ she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears but she kept them lowered.

Mitul’s eyebrows rose up as high as they could go. This was Myna? ‘Myna? What’s going on?’ she asked.

‘Nothing, Mitul Di. I’m so sorry. I feel such an idiot for the way I behaved. I didn’t know, or I never would’ve done what I did,’ she looked up, her beautiful eyes drowning in tears, looking gorgeous even with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Mitul hugged her. She was, after all, still her little sister. ‘Hush! It’s okay,’ she said, her generous heart ready to forgive and forget.

Myna sniffled for a while on Mitul’s shoulder, before sitting up straight and saying, ‘he’s waiting for you downstairs. Badi Ma and Bade Baba are probably taking his exam right now,’ she said with a watery smile.

‘Then let’s go rescue him, shall we?’ Mitul wiped her tears with a smile. She gave her another hug, waited till Myna had composed herself, before they walked out of the room together.

*****

Noel waited until they were in the car, snapping on their seat belts, when he spoke.

‘What took you so long?’ he asked glancing back at her parents who stood at the door, waiting to wave them off, but safely out of earshot.

‘I’ll tell you later,’ she said.

He lifted his arm in farewell to her parents. Noel and Mitul were off on their first official date.

*****

Noel drove along the highway, loving the feel of the wind on his face through the open windows. the light fragrance of her perfume wrapping around him. He glanced at her, dressed like him in jeans, boots, and a shirt with rolled-up sleeves, showing off the manly leather watch she wore on her left wrist. Her hair was tied in a pony tail, and like him she had aviators on.

Mitul had been surprised when Noel had asked her to be ready by seven in the morning. He’d refused to tell her what the plan was, asking her to wear something casual, pack a swimsuit and a change of clothes. Her gym bag and his were in the trunk as they drove along the Bombay Pune Highway.

‘So what are we doing, Noel?’ she asked him, the early start making her really curious.

‘Taking care of your education,’ he replied with a smirked, and a quirk of his eyebrow.

‘Huh?’ she poked his arm. ‘Tell me already,’ she pleaded.

‘You’ll see when we get there,’ he said, secretly hoping she would like the surprise he had planned.

She leaned over and ran her fingers lightly over the bare forearm on the gear shift. ‘Tell me, please,’ she lowered her voice, leaning towards him, and bending forward, playing with the top button on his shirt.

He grabbed her hand. ‘Stop it, Mitul,’ he warned. ‘It’s not working,’ he grinned.

She sat back, pouting.

His hand moved from the gearshift to her leg, his thumb caressing it briefly, before returning to the gearshift. He tried not to smile as he heard her gasp. Oh! He was going to have so much fun with her today. He couldn’t wait for the day to begin.

They’d been driving for over an hour, before he turned off the highway, heading towards the hills. She looked around, having never been here before and trying to see where they were.

The signboards gave her the first hint of what they would be doing.

‘Paragliding?! Noel, we’re going paragliding?’ she asked, almost dancing in her seat with excitement.

‘Yep,’ he said. He parked the car, and they walked towards the low office buildings.

They were going tandem paragliding! Mitul couldn’t believe it. They shared a love for adventure sports, but she’d never thought their first date would be something like this! She’d expected roses, candlelight, dinner, but this! This was so much better. This was so them.

Formalities and breakfast out of the way, they joined the rest of the group - about ten of them, for the instruction session. They listened carefully to the instructors, as they explained about the gear and protective clothing they had to don. They would be doing tandem paragliding, one instructor to a person.

They practiced take-offs and landings and soon it became apparent that Noel knew what he was doing.

‘Have you done this before?’ she muttered to him.

He nodded. She gave him a reproachful look.

They finally took off, a running jump off the edge of a cliff.

Mitul clung to the back of her instructor, safely harnessed to him while Noel was doing it solo. She felt a falling sensation in her stomach before the wings steadied, and pulled them up. She was floating high above the green hills and valleys, looking down from two-thousand feet, at the highway down below. Above her only the blue sky, nothing between her and the earth, cradled in the currents of wind lifting them up and bringing them lower.

She looked to her left. Noel floating about half a mile away. As if he knew she was looking at him, he turned his head and looked at her. She grinned at him and could see the grin that broke out over his face. It was heavenly up here, and she could soar above the hills forever.

Twenty minutes later, the instructor signaled Noel to follow him down. Then floated down, adjusting the wings, increasing resistance, till they finally hit the ground running.

The instructor unharnessed her and she turned around just in time to see Noel land safely on the ground. They ran over to him, and the instructor helped him out of the harness.

‘Oh my God! Noel, that was fantastic,’ she yelled, jumping on him. He lifted her clean off the ground, her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck, throwing back her head, both of them laughing out loud. ‘Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!’ she yelled, as he whirled around, his arms around her.

‘You liked it?’ he asked her, both of them gasping for breath now.

‘YES!! I LOVED IT!’ she yelled, before bending down and kissing him.

‘That’s not good enough,’ he murmured for her ears only, when she drew away, reluctantly letting her slide down his body. Arms around each other, they followed the instructor back to the base.

‘So why did you choose paragliding?’ she asked, once they were in the car, and headed out of the camp. It was almost coming up to noon, and they were heading South once more.

‘I told you,’ he said smugly. ‘You’re adventure sports education was incomplete, so I thought we could do something about it.’ He laughed at her pouting expression. ‘I was just hoping you would like it,’ he was serious as he said that. He held out a hand, she put her left hand in it, turning in her seat to face him. He kissed her palm, eyes still on the road, and tucked her hand onto his chest, right above his beating heart.

After about a minute she asked him. ‘Now what?’ she asked, noticing they were going further away from Mumbai.

‘Lunch,’ he said. ‘All that running around has me starving!’ They turned into a driveway, with only discreet signs indicating that it was a resort. It was a long curving drive shaded by tall stands of coconut trees, until they halted at the portico of the two-storied building, red-tiled, and sprawling. Pathways led away from the main building to what she could make out were roof tops of cottages.

‘Wait here,’ he told her as he got out of the car. He was back a few minutes later, followed by a bellhop. They put their bags on a golf cart and the bellhop drove them away to their cottage. The entrance was through the back into a living room. It was large and tastefully decorated with comfortable wicker chairs and couches, the opposite wall made completely of glass to shelter them from the elements. A bedroom opened off the living room on one side, while a dinette flanked it on the other. A small kitchenette was to the back and the smell of food wafted into the air.

‘It’s beautiful!’ she exclaimed. ‘But what?’ She was suddenly wondering why he’d brought her here, her palms turning clammy at the thought of spending the night here, with him.

He turned around to see the trepidation on her face and smiled. Holding her cheeks between his large hands, he said, ‘Trust me?’.

She looked into his eyes, seeing the slight tinge of worry in them. Noel had promised her parents to drop her home tonight, she knew he would keep that promise. She smiled back at him, ‘implicitly,’ she said.

He kissed her forehead, and was about to put his arms around her when the doorbell rang. ‘That must be lunch,’ he told her, moving to the door to open it.

A lady dressed in an apron stood at the door. She had a covered basket in one hand, and Noel moved to take it from her, placing it in the kitchen.

‘Lunch will be ready in twenty minutes, Mr. Figueiredo,’ she said pleasantly.

‘Thanks,’ Noel nodded.

‘What was that?’ she asked.

‘She’s our personal chef. She’ll have lunch ready for us,’ he told her.

‘Come on, let’s go and sit outside,’ he said. With two cans of coke in hand, he led the way out onto the deck outside.

Mitul gasped in astonishment. The cottage sat at the edge of a hill. The glass railing was actually a glass wall allowing an almost uninterrupted view of the vista below. The hill dropped from the bottom of the deck, towards a deep valley below. At the bottom was a huge lake, it’s still waters reflecting the rich blue of the sky, the white scudding clouds reflected in its mirror like surface. The hills in the distance, were a smoky blue and purple, edging the lake with their darker shades, the sandstone broken in tiers by the intense greenery of the foliage.

A hammock was tied to one end of the deck, shaded by the thick canopy of leaves above them. They settled in it, she resting half on him, his arm around her, holding her securely, one foot on the ground, swinging them lazily. They lay back looking at the open blue and green ceiling above them.

‘So what did you and my parents talk about?’ she asked.

He chuckled. ‘I was nervous. But your parents were very nice. You know, I wondered what they would think about me, me being a Roman-Catholic and all, but it doesn’t seem to bother them.’

She shook her head. ‘No. My parents have always wanted me to be happy. Religion doesn’t bother them, all they want is my happiness.’

He shook his head as he thought of something. ‘I called your father ‘sir’,’ he said.

‘Sir? You called baba SIR?!’ she spluttered with laughter. ‘What did he say?’

*****

‘You don’t have to call me sir,’ Mitul’s father said, again, smiling.

‘Well, Mr. Imani, thanks for letting me take Mitul out so early,’ Noel was clearly embarrassed.

‘Mr. Imani is so formal, Noel. I presume we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other, now, won’t we?’ Mr. Imani smiled gently at him, ignoring his wife’s glare.

‘Ah.. Uncle.. I . uh,’ Noel was completely floored at this point.

‘It’s okay, Noel, call us whatever you like,’ Kamini smiled sweetly at him.

‘Isn’t that what you call Puri?’ Mr. Imani said. He sighed. ‘I guess that will have to do,’ he paused. ‘For now.’

His wife muttered dire threats to him sotto voce. He was unperturbed, smiling at poor flushing Noel.
*****

Mitul was laughing at him, ‘that is so like Baba,’ she said. ‘He’s got a wicked sense of humor.’

Noel decide it was payback time for her. He narrowed his eyes.

‘I told them I wanted to take you to Goa with me, over a weekend. My mother wanted to meet you.’

She gasped, laughter forgotten, and tried to sit up in a panic, but he pulled her back, ‘don’t move. We’ll fall!’ he said, calmly.

‘What? No wait.’ She wanted to go over what he’d said, again. ‘You told them you wanted to take me with you to Goa and they agreed?’

He nodded, looking down at her, placing a soft kiss on her nose and said, ‘yes. They did.’ Then he grinned. ‘My mother will be calling them to invite you over, anyway.’

She raised her eyebrows. It was just beginning to hit her. This wasn’t just about Noel and herself. This was about the two families as well. They would be affected by this relationship, and it was still so new to her, and going way too fast for her liking. She wasn’t even at the point of thinking about a future. She was content to just be in the moment, and enjoy the first carefree time she’d had with him - with their feelings out in the open!

He read the thoughtfulness in her eyes, and said, ‘Mitul, I know it’s too fast for us. We’re just starting out together. Like you, I’m ... I want us to have some ‘US’ time, just enjoy this time together, before .... ‘ he trailed away.

She looked at him, amazed that he’d been thinking along the same lines as she had.

Before she could say anything more, the chef came out on the deck. ‘Lunch is ready to be served. If you would like to have a seat at the dining table,’ she said.

The dining table had been laid with a beautiful red and gold silk jacquard table cloth. White china and linen were neatly laid out. A small shallow bowl with one large red and white floating orchid in it, was placed in the center. A bottle of sparkling apple cider sat in an ice bucket. Noel held a chair out for Mitul before seating himself.

The chef placed the food on the table and left them to eat and talk in peace. Mitul reached out for a bowl and he picked it up. ‘No, let me serve you, today,’ he said gently.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise.

‘What?’ he asked, ‘It’s all about you today. So you, will not lift a finger.’ He opened the bottle of cider and poured into the two flutes that stood next to their plates.

She blushed as she looked down at her plate. They ate slowly, feeding each other a bite now and then, chatting desultorily. At some point, Noel asked her, ‘is Myna always so quiet at home?’

She frowned, puzzled. ‘What d’you mean?’

‘She seemed sort of,’ he searched for the right word, ‘subdued, today.’

‘You know, she’s been that way since the past two days,’ she didn’t want to tell him about the conversation she’d had. That would be breaking Myna’s confidence.

‘Did Dev call her?’ was Noel’s surprising question instead.

‘Dev? Why would he call her? I thought they didn’t like each other!’ she said.

Noel chuckled and said, ‘so you didn’t see the sparks flying between them?’ Mitul shook her head. She’d been so caught up, first in her misery and then in her joy, that she’d completely missed all the by-play between Dev and Myna.

‘What sparks?’ she asked.

He grinned. ‘Dev has a thing for Myna.’ Her mouth dropped open for the second time in a row.

‘What?!’

He nodded, took a sip of his drink and said, ‘evidently, he’d bumped into her a few times. Didn’t know who she was, and had even named her Ms. Chanel No.5.’ Mitul laughed out loud at this.

‘Wait.’ he continued. ‘It gets better. He was quite taken with her, so when Myna gave me her number that night, I gave it to Dev.’

Mitul sobered. ‘He must have called. I didn’t tell her about us. But she seemed to know about us. So that’s how she knew ...’ She thought for a minute. ‘What did he tell her?’ she demanded to know. ‘He must have said something really hurtful to her. ‘Cause she’s been crying.’

Noel gave a rueful look. ‘I didn’t ask him. But knowing Dev, I’d say it would have been pretty brutal. He has a temper, and when it takes over, Dev can kill with mere words.’

‘He needs to apologize to her,’ she said, a little angrily.

‘Babe,’ he caught her hand, running his thumb along her palm. ‘Calm down. They need to work it out themselves. If they need our help, we’ll give it to them. But I’m not interfering.’ He shook his head to emphasize his point.

He sat back, and said, ‘today is about us, Mitul. I don’t want Dev or Myna or anyone else intruding on it. So if you’ve finished, let’s go.’

She went to freshen up and he took the opportunity to make a call. Five minutes later, they were following a small trail that went past the cabin. They passed few people coming back along it, but mostly it was quiet, broken only by the chirping of birds in the trees and the buzzing of insects. The trail turned a corner and they were walking beside a swiftly flowing stream, scattered with rounded rocks, the sunlight dappling its surface, barely reaching the floor, with the thick foliage above. The high altitude sent a cool breeze through the curtains of the shrubs around them.

They were alone in the world there, at least thats what it felt like. They clambered up on some rocks, feet in the water, as they sat close together, arms around each other, kissing and murmuring sweet nothings in the way that lovers do.

They took their time coming back to the cabin. Mitul was surprised to see a man and a woman standing on the steps, apparently waiting to greet them. She looked up at Noel as he smiled at them, and said, ‘hope we didn’t keep you waiting. This is Mitul,’ he introduced her. ‘Go with her,’ he said to Mitul.

She looked at him, puzzled. ‘Go,’ he urged.

The lady led Mitul into the bathroom and handed her a robe. ‘Please take off everything, and put this on,’ she requested. Mitul took the robe dumbly. ‘Mr. Figueiredo booked a couples massage for you’ll, ma’am, so you need to change out of your clothes,’ she explained.

Couples massage! Mitul was stumped. Noel had made this day so special for her. Every little thing he’d done, had been for her. He’d known the kind of day she would like to spend, and he’d provided his little touches to it. She wanted to kiss him right then and there, just to thank him. And the day wasn’t over yet. She smiled as she changed, wondering what other surprises he had in store for her.

When she came out wrapped in the fluffy robe, the lady led her out to the deck, where two massage tables had been set up. She helped cover Mitul with a towel before she lay down on the table, on her stomach.

Noel didn’t take too long to join her.

They lay there on the tables, holding hands, sometimes, looking at each other, enjoying the relaxing kneading on their bodies. She feasted her eyes on Noel’s back, unaware that the side of her breast was visible to him. He could see the glowing skin of her back, as the masseuse dug her knuckles and fingers into it. He wanted to do that to her, dig his fingers and palms into her back, slide his oil slicked fingers along that smooth skin, relaxing her until she moaned. He watched the masseuse work, storing it up for future reference. He’d need it, he decided with a devilish grin. Masseuses not required. He would have been very surprised had he known that Mitul was harboring very similar thoughts herself.

‘Someday ...’ he murmured to her, holding her hand. ‘Someday ...’ she whispered back, looking at him with arousal clearly visible in her eyes. His green eyes darkened as he kissed her knuckle.

The masseurs were clearly not bothered by this, having seen couples do much more than just hold hands!!

The massage took an hour. They were blissfully relaxed at the end of it. Once the masseurs had left, they put on swimsuits and headed to the pool. It was empty at that time of the day. They dove into it, frolicking like little children. Mitul had chosen to wear the same swimsuit that she had on the first day, the little silver ring, glinting in the afternoon sun, beckoning him to it.

*****