‘It’s strange. No?’ Kavya wondered peering through her brown sunglasses. The three of them were sitting in the back porch on the sunchairs facing the sea. They had to. They wanted to sleep through the morning and keep the sea away for some more time, but Jenny opened the door to the back porch. Right at six. Roaring waves and her constant knocks forced them to step out. ‘Nothing has changed here. At all. The sky, the water or the sand.’ Kavya continued.
‘They don’t.’ Penny caught on the thread with a smirk. ‘They just let all pass. In wait of something beyond us.’ Kavya recalled the same sky doting on them when they used to drag Vijay Uncle here to choose the best sand castle out of the three. ‘They do not react, neither judge. They accept us as we are.’ Alaya exclaimed with a deep gush in while holding on to her pendant. ‘Why would they change when you have not? Look at you Madams. Who can say you are mothers?’ Jenny gaped at their tummies as the girls sat in their bikinis slathering on their sunscreens.
‘My my.’ She was almost about to touch Alaya’s while handing over the coconut water to her when Alaya shouted back. ‘Shoo…stay away!’ She threw off Jenny’s hand and with it rolled the coconut down the pavement and got planted in the sand. ‘Come on, Alaya.’ Kavya shouted. ‘Sorry, Jenny.’ She turned to Jenny. ‘Our Alaya has a strict no touch policy. God forbids if she ever needs to go to a hospital.’
‘Poor Lord Singhania!’ Penny chuckled meanwhile. ‘You can touch mine though.’ She offered gayly. ‘No no madam. I was just wondering why don’t you have stretch marks like all of us, the other mothers?’ ‘She is right,’ Kavya mumbled to herself. ‘At least I was diligently particular about applying the oil my gynaec had recommended’. May be their generation ensures to pay a bit more attention to themselves.
‘Sorry, just to avoid the confusion, I am not one.’ Penny interrupted. ‘And never going to be .’
‘You never know P.’ Kavya took a sip of coconut water. ‘May be after this trip.’ ‘Why, what special is going to happen here?’ Penny plonked forward daring Kavya. Kavya was taken aback. She looked at Jenny. ‘You.. , she fumbled, rather all of us will get the time to unwind, time to think, forget and accept, be our real selves. May be from here on our lives will change, things will heal, maybe we will become normal.’ ‘Nothing ever happens in this city, K.’ Penny threw herself back on the sunchair. ‘I am a witness. People come here – take a break, off load their garbage and run back to their treadmills, leaving it to heal itself on its own. The fun part is that they come back again and have the audacity to say – oh nothing has changed here.’ She spoke mimicking Kavya. She was right. May be Kavya won’t get what she was here for but at least some semblance of normal lives would be possible. Both of them may not accept but Kavya knew how much each one of them yearned to just roam on the roads at night without that crushing weight on their souls. ‘By normal I mean the three of us back together.’ Kavya tried to come back catching the confused stares from Jenny. ‘I mean this is way better than my group back home where no one thinks or discusses beyond weight loss and transfers and postings.’
‘Right, in my case its botox and boyfriends.’ Alaya chimed in gurgling the coconut water. ‘And what about yours, P?’ Penny did not raise her eyelids. Kavya gazed at her in wait. ‘People have the guts to ask, when all they did was to leave me here back. Alone. You left me, remember?’ She got up fuming and threw her hands in the air. ‘Everyone left me’. She took off her sarong and walked towards the water. Jenny stared at her back. No suntan either.
‘Noooo! Go away. I did not do anything!’ A muffled voice screamed from under the water about ten minutes later. It was Penny. She had swum to the other side abandoning the little floating game which the girls always played in water here. She was not in the mood. Kavya and Alaya however continued. On hearing the screams Kavya raised her head out. She sighted a pair of hands frantically hitting the water . The next moment the voice was gone. And then the hands. Kavya looked at Alaya. Alaya froze.
‘No time for that A. We have to get her.’ They took in a plunge towards the lost hands and the scream.
‘Jenny, get a towel quickly.’ They made Penny lie down on the couch in the porch. She was gasping and spurting out water at the same time. Alaya got down to rub her hands and feet. She had not been able to take her eyes off Penny’s. They had a visible terror in them. ‘Oh my God! Let me call the doctor, madam.’ Jenny howled and turned to make the call when Penny shouted faintly. ‘No, no. Please. I am fine. Absolutely fine. See.’ Her flat tummy was fluttering like a bird, in and out. Jenny noticed. Penny straightened her back on the couch. ‘Maybe I swam after long…. or slept off while floating. I am such a fool.’ Penny repeated with a profuse rant of breaths. ‘Thanks Jenny but could you give us a moment please!’ Heaving she bent her head to one side to add to the request, very unlike her. She faked a smile. Again, unlike her.
‘Of course!’ A slighted Jenny lowered her eyes and withdrew from the porch. Meanwhile the girls continued rubbing Penny’s hands and feet when suddenly Penny raised her hand to signal them to stop.
‘I saw him.’ A cloud of pall had taken over Penny. ‘Who?’ Kavya looked at Alaya. She was trembling but the next moment she shook her head and stepped up.
‘P, you are just too stressed coming here after so long. Take some rest and you will get used to it. Let me get you some coffee’. Penny stopped her and made her sit down. ‘It was him. I can never forget that face.’ Alaya cowered back. The towel in her hand fell on the floor. But in Kavya’s mind something else was racing. She knew well this was not the time. But this could also be. She attempted the inevitable. ‘But why did he show himself up only to you?’ Penny shivered on the cue despite the towels. She covered her mouth with her hands. ‘None of us saw anything.’ Kavya insisted. ‘Did you, A?’
Penny drowned her face in her knees. She was howling, in silence. Kavya wanted to hug her, comfort her, but she was in wait. ‘Jenny, call the doctor.’ Alaya shouted to the door. ‘K this is not right. Things don’t get solved like this. She needs a proper therapy. You don’t try to be one Ms. Detective putting her life at risk’. She pulled Penny up. Maybe she was right. She kept her eyes away from Kavya. ‘We all are leaving right now. That’s it.’ Alaya declared. A cloud of silence and a breath of cautious relief ensued but not in Kavya. She prayed for something to say, her mind scurried for something to thwart this call.
Gods listened but how.
‘Haha!’ Jenny entered. Actually rushed in. ‘Arre Madams don’t worry at all. That was my son, John.’
‘Jenny, we had told you to go out and you were eavesdropping on us.’ Kavya shouted back. Whatever the mess was, it belonged only to them. ‘Sorry Madam.’ She bit her lip. ‘I was just worried.’ ‘She looked like she saw a ghost.’ She pointed at Penny. ‘Eh.. ladka don’t ever get in to the water again till the madams are here.’ She stepped back and pulled him in followed by his ear. ‘This is him!!!’ Penny whimpered as if the shout could not find a way out of her. Alaya stood staring without a word. Kavya tried taking control of the situation even though she did not believe her words. ‘What she means is that he looks exactly like someone we knew here long time back.’ The same softest and warmest possible skin. The kind of pink that could put any girl to shame. ‘All boys from my village look the same madam. I will get you some coffee and cake.’ She replied with a stern. ‘It’s his birthday madam. That is why he is here. Since I could not go home and this damn fellow could not resist getting in to the water. You naughty fellow.’ She patted him. Kavya knew that smile. She could not be wrong. Penny could not be wrong. ‘Leave it. P is not in a good shape right now. We will do the cake a bit later.’ Kavya announced. The boy grumped in disappointment and began picking the towels from the floor. ‘He will help me around here if you permit.’ Jenny did not bother to check for their reaction and kicked a towel at him. He smiled and rolled all in to a ball. Penny shut her eyes and threw her head at the back of the couch. The other two got next to her holding her hands. Alaya was trembling still. May be this is how it was meant to be.
Or maybe not!
‘Don’t worry Madam. He will not trouble you. He is for real. See!’ She pulled his ear again, this time too hard. He winced in pain.