Inconvenient Relations (27 page)

Why did God make babies?

***

One in the morning.

Anu fell asleep a little past midnight. Shaan hadn’t realized the little creatures took so much time; all he had known was that they ate, pooped, and slept. But this incident had opened his eyes. Now he wanted at least two of them.

He wandered into the master bedroom unable to sleep, uncommonly excited and agitated.

He tiptoed to Ruhi’s side of the bed from where he could admire the profile of her form as she lay on her back and listen to her soft regular respirations. Sitting on the edge, he marveled at the way the light from the street filtered through the blinds and illuminated the lower regions of her face and neck, hitting the bear pendant at an angle that made it twinkle akin the brightest star in the night sky.

She moved to roll over to her right but wasn’t able to and groaned softly in complaint. He peered over and saw the baby wide awake sucking on his wife’s thumb.

“Now I know the reason why your daddy takes a nap on his desk every day.” He gently chided while the little girl noisily chugged down the milk, her bright eyes focused on his, pudgy little hands maintaining a secure grip on the bottle, enjoying this private moment with an interesting and nurturing stranger.

“I bet he loves you all the more for it.”

She waved the empty bottle in the air. He caught it before it made its way to the floor.

***

She was running after Kashish, chasing her through the meadow iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow, hiding behind long green blades of grass, playing peekaboo, blowing gently over a tiny scraped knee…then running again.

Mamma! Dadda!

Here you go, sweet pea!

He tossed the big orange ball. It hit Ruhi squarely on the face.

“Ouch!” She woke up to find a tiny hand smashing down on her nose.

“Kashish! What…you too!” Anu tilted her head.

“Good morning, say princess Anu and her loyal servant. Kashish? Now who can that be…” Shaan scratched his head. “Pretty name though.”

Ruhi attempted to conceal her scarlet face in Anu’s soft chest. “Where is her onesie?”

“She trashed it, and I couldn’t find a replacement in the diaper bag. She doesn’t seem to mind hanging out in her birthday suit.”

“Juish!” Baby fingers pointed to a tray on the bedside table. “No, darling, that’s your auntie’s breakfast in bed.”

Ruhi raised her eyebrows pleasantly surprised as Shaan reeled off the menu. “Chocolate chip pancakes drizzled with maple syrup, good old OJ, and ginger tea made to order.”

Her eyes took in everything including the single-stemmed red rose and turned to him spellbound.

“And here’s a special card that Anu forced me to make,” he said, whipping out an envelope from behind his back. It bore a jeweled red heart with the word love on the cover.

I was like a wandering cloud

You came and gave me direction

Oh what will I do without

You…my sweet obsession?

Ruhi sniffled aloud.

“Anu dictated it. She’s highly advanced for her age.” Shaan said with a grin.

“Thank you, darling!” She hugged the baby snugly to her chest.

“Nothing for the royal scribe?” he uttered in mock complaint.

She scooted over on her knees and bent to smooch his cheek.

He bundled her up in his arms.

Frenzy

S
haan returned home eager to see Ruhi. The workday had gone well. He was enthused that things may transpire even better at home. She was finally relenting; he could feel it in his bones. The suspense was too much to handle.

“Ruhi?” he called out as he deposited his keys on the counter.

“You’ll be happy to know Debo is doing fine and so is Anu though she misses us badly. We must have her over again sometime. Perhaps take her for a stroll in the park? I think she likes me.” He chuckled, recalling their little tête-à-tête two nights ago.

“And they went crazy over your
Rajma chawal
…so much that Sooj saved some for lunch today. I let him know for a fact that nobody can beat my Ruhi, be it at cooking or anything else, right? Not even Debo
bhabhi!
Poor guy, he couldn’t say anything…one being his adopted sis and the other his wife!
Bolti band ho gayi bechare ki!
” (He couldn’t speak, the poor man.) “Look…now you can’t complain anymore that I don’t speak Hindi.”

He wandered into the bedroom looking for her.

“Where are you? Are the exercises tiring? I can help like I did yesterday.” His voice assumed a mischievous tone.

“Ruhi?” Anxiety crept in when he didn’t find her anywhere.

Oh c’mon! What kind of a fool is she to go to work in this state?

Yet something told him that wasn’t the situation. He went back into the living area…searching around for some sign, some clue.

***

Earlier that day…

Ruhi unpacked the rest of her suitcase. For the past two months, it had been lying there ready, waiting just in case she wanted to ship herself out. But now there was no more indecision. Her mind was made up; she had chosen to stay for good with her husband, her soul mate, her only love.

She pulled out the maroon silk sari, the one she had so spitefully crammed into the deepest darkest corner of her bag…almost more than a month ago. Yet it seemed so much longer than that. She had rejected her marriage but, at the same time, had determined not to shed tears, rather lead life on her own terms and make her namesake husband pay for the pain he had caused her.

Now things were so different, the wrinkles had been ironed out. She smoothed a palm over the crushed silk…relishing the feel of the luxurious fabric against her skin.

I will wear it again tonight
, she thought, her lashes fluttering down to graze her cheeks, insides all a tremble in anticipation, hands hastening to cover up a heated complexion. Then she giggled. “Damn you! You knockout kisser!”

She slowly raised her left arm and found she could almost do so without much discomfort. Smiling shyly, she remembered how he had sneaked up behind and supported her elbow as she tried to walk her hand up the wall. His fingers gently chafing the delicate skin of her inner arm evoked a thrill that spread like wildfire all over her body, conveying a message in no uncertain terms: he wanted her body and soul. The feeling was mutual.

She knew now that he cared for her deeply, catered to her every need, and worked hard to allay all her anxieties.

***

Yesterday as promised they had dropped by Sunshine’s on the way to the hospital to pick up Debo. Her face looked drawn and tired— “a touch of the flu” —but lit up as soon as she saw them at the door. She enveloped both in a warm hug. “Oh my beautiful children, a sight for sore eyes!”

Then she noticed Anu screaming and clapping her tiny hands with delight at JJ’s antics; after which, under Shaan’s watchful eye, she waddled around her mega doll’s house apartment.

“Oh no! A baby! The last I remember you weren’t expecting! Did you order her on the World Wide Web?”

Shaan and Ruhi burst out laughing with Anu joining in thrilled at all the entertainment.

Sunshine shooed them out soon after. “You can’t risk that baby around a sick old woman. What if she catches the pneumonia!”

Ruhi glanced back at the closed door and then at Shaan, her face tense with worry; Sunshine had left out the main part of the story.

***

“I hope she is fine.”

Ruhi murmured a silent prayer as she walked into her husband’s room, picking sheets of technical paper from the floor where they lay strewn helter-skelter and stacked them on his table. He had been working very hard, while attending to her in between, at an almost franctic pace. She adored him all the more for it. His fervor for work almost equaled his passion for her.

She smiled. “Almost…he loves me more.”

Throwing open the door to the small verandah where, leaning with her hands on the railing, she inhaled deep the fresh morning fragrance while letting the warm sun bathe her face.

“The brightest star in the sky…the one which makes life possible on this planet, including yours and mine.”

The night before they had returned home after accompanying Debo, Sooj, and Anu to theirs, assuring themselves of their comfort.

Shaan had tucked into the
Rajma chawal
with unusual zest, causing her to puff up with happiness and pride. He had then blown her a kiss that had sent her rushing into the kitchen all flustered in turn making him roar with delight.

“Now for your lessons. It’s a clear night.”

“Hmm?” She turned to him, her breath catching in her throat.

To which he replied with a laugh, “For stargazing, silly! Though the other prospect sounds a whole lot better!”

He drew her gently to his precious telescope and helped her distinguish the various constellations by their unique positions in the sky. “I wonder why folks romanticize these things. They are after all huge big exploding balls of gas!” he remarked with a snicker.

“Shoot!
Where did Arcturus go? Damn it! But here’s the next one called Bootes. Funny name, isn’t it?”

She agreed, smiling as he transferred the telescope to her hand then from behind, resting his chin on her better shoulder, he brushed her neck with his lips, making her quiver with pleasure. She couldn’t see a thing.

“You are my sun, my earth, my stars, and all other celestial objects in one…if I have you, why do I need anything else?”

***

“God I love you!” Ruhi cried out, feeling a tremendous release. Her eyes misted over at the intense emotion. Collapsing on the bed, she hugged his pillow tight to her chest.

“Come home soon, Shaan. I can’t wait to tell you how I feel!” The phone rang, disturbing the peace and jolting her out of her daydream.

Absently, she responded, “Hello?”

“Please don’t hang up, hear me out!”

A shudder ran up her spine, the voice was unmistakable…waspish and high-pitched. The audacity of the woman!

“Why are you calling me now?” she yelled. “Haven’t you done enough damage already? Doesn’t it suffice? But let me tell you one thing though, you can’t break us or our marriage. We are much stronger now, and we love each other dearly. I know you can’t handle that so go somewhere else and lick your wounds!”

She ended the conversation with a satisfactory click.

But she was stirred up, like a hornet’s nest, staring at the phone and expecting it to ring again. And it did—loud, whining, insistent.

She looked away doggedly. “No, I won’t speak to that bitch!” But the clamor was making her ears ache. She turned the ringer off.

Yet it didn’t stop; the phones in the hallway, kitchen, and her own bedroom joined together to create a deafening din.

“What can I tell you to make you leave us alone? Don’t you understand good plain English!”

“I’m sorry, but you are such an innocent…so sweet and naïve. That was the first thought which came to my mind when I saw you. It reminded me of myself, how I was a few years ago…made me envious,” the hated voice at the other end replied.

“So you have realized it at last! And yes, you need to be envious because I have something you don’t!” Ruhi’s cheeks creased with a smug smile.

“Yes, you do, and I don’t want you to lose it. That’s why I called to warn you before you make your decision.”

“What warning? And I have made my decision already. I’m not leaving my husband! Just get off my back!” Ruhi shouted, moving to slam the phone down again.

“No! Please listen to me. It’s for your own good! I want you to be well aware of the facts unlike me. I am a woman, too, and I don’t want you to lose everything you have,” Des said with an apparent note of desperation in her voice.

Ruhi laughed. “Now you are playing the nice guy, aren’t you? I’m not that gullible. I can see through your wicked games! Just be aware that nothing, absolutely nothing, you say can weaken my resolve.”

“Then I guess you can listen to what I have to tell you,” Des suggested. “Have you read the letter Shaan received before this project got under way?”

“Letter? No. Anyhow, what has that got to do with us?”

Des sighed in sympathy. “Everything…it has everything to do with you. He kept it from you because he didn’t want you to know.”

“Rubbish! He didn’t because it wasn’t important,” Ruhi shot back.
And at the time we weren’t on talking terms.

Her nemesis laughed. “It is…very important! Me too. I didn’t think about it much until just yesterday when I realized what it meant. I had been wondering why Rich wasn’t working on our divorce seriously because he would love to get rid of me. He hates me so much. But no, he hasn’t even consulted his attorney.”

“Then I’ll advice him to do so right now,” Ruhi said, holding the receiver away when another louder cackle pierced her eardrum.

“Oh…you are so unbelievably fresh. He won’t listen to you because he is like Shaan, and for them, work comes before anything else.”

“Yet, that’s what makes him so endearing to me.”

“It does, yes, but you see they won’t stop at anything for its sake. Manipulation, deception, everything is game for them.”

“I don’t believe you,” Ruhi said. “Shaan can never do that. He loves me for real!”

“I hope you are right, but it’s true. I was surprised by Shaan’s behavior after the project was announced. It has changed drastically. He is unusually short and stern with me. He’s never been that way before! Now I know the reason for it all… It’s the new project. In fact, Shaan has been itching to get to it even more than Rich. He told me so before he left for India.”

“He…told you?”

“Yes, he told me how much he wanted to be the lead. He is so ambitious. Now that he has it, he won’t let it go at any cost.”

“What cost? Me…you?” Ruhi asked; her mind was in a frenzy.

“Yes, you and me! We women think with our hearts unlike men. They won’t hesitate to sacrifice anybody to achieve their motive be it their wives or their lovers.”

“Shaan is not your lover! He is my husband. Get the facts straight, you bitch!”

“Shocking language from a sweet, little girl like you, my darling…but never mind. Shaan had to teach you something, right? He is just having a good time with you, taking you for a ride. Anyway, if you don’t believe me, read the letter,” Des said.

“No! You are just grasping at straws. It won’t work, nothing will! His love is unconditional!” Ruhi tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat.

Des smiled, ending the call. Her job was done; the seed had been sown.

You are living a fairy tale, sweetheart, but the clock is soon going to strike midnight and your prince charming will leave you high and dry. Just six months and the honeymoon will end. Read the letter and everything will be clear.

Ruhi cast the phone away, and it clattered to the floor. Her whole body shook with indignation. “How dare she? I won’t read any letter! I don’t need to know anything! I trust him implicitly!”

Do you? Then what is the harm in knowing for sure and putting that troubled mind to rest?

Ruhi took a deep breath and went to the filing cabinet where he stored all his important documents. She hesitated, not wanting to pry.

It was there, right up front, the large manila envelope she had seen him pull the letter out of marked Confidential in bold.

Warily, she removed the two sheets of official-looking paper. They looked quite harmless.

Congratulations, Mr. Shaan Ahuja! You are among the lucky few who have been chosen to be part of an exclusive team of engineers who will be working on a groundbreaking project, which will move not only our country but the entire world leaps and bounds ahead into the future.

A slow smile crept on her face, no wonder he was overjoyed. Who wouldn’t be?

She quickly skimmed over the rest, her eyes restless, wanting to reach the end quickly and prove that bitch wrong.

Due to the extreme sensitive nature of this project, we would like to inform you that you will be subjected in the next few weeks and then periodically over the next six months to rigorous background surveys and psychological screening.

Her hands began to shake, but she continued on.

During this period, any kind of stress, personal or otherwise—such as divorce, separation, severe family crisis, major illnesses, or any type of violation of the law—which may adversely affect your mental abilities will lead to an automatic termination from the project.