It has been two days, even for a second, Penny has not left Jenny. The pills which had replaced the girls years ago in her life sit appalled on the table. Someone else has taken their place. Even when Jenny is cooking, Penny stays in the kitchen on the pretext of helping her. Poor John is toiling under the heat looking at this new found friendship. The plastered smile of a helper on his face has been replaced by a sulk which he fails to repress. A sulk every child fumes when her mother pays unwarranted attention to someone else.
Amongst the girls, a cold war like the one which often used to take place when they were kids, has ensued. Cold stares, awkward silences, silent conversations and long faces. But those days it was usually Alaya who would be the snoot and try making the other two feel bad by joining some other gang. With Penny, today’s Penny, it was else. She appeared floating by hanging on to a thread, following it everywhere blindly as if a faint snap could throw her off the edge.
Also, even Alaya was never able to stay away for more than a few hours and it had been more than two days.
‘P, we did not mean it that way?’ Kavya held her hand while they sat across to have grilled sandwiches laid out only with Penny’s favourite filling. It was not the time to rake that.
‘I am not saying you forced him to take his own life but someone did?’ Kavya continued.
‘As far as I remember I had shot off from there and for the whole week none of us met. I was all the time sulking in my room, even Baba was too busy to listen me out. You can check the CCTV camera, even the police did? Then how can you blame me?’ The crumbs stuck around her mouth spoke in tandem.
‘What was Baba so busy with when his own daughter was shut behind the doors?’ Kavya wondered aloud fishing out the mushrooms from the mayonnaise. She hated them.
‘Leave it na.’ Alaya stared back.
‘No. We can’t. You better leave your ostrich attitude. If you had not forced me to stay mum that day, may be things would have turned out differently. Only if you had not stopped me from reaching him. Remember what you said- ‘Leave it, Vijay Uncle would handle.’ Kavya pushed, almost threw the plate ahead. ‘See what mess we have landed in now.’
Penny was stuffing her mouth with bread staring outside. She turned towards Kavya after a while. ‘K? By the way who has given you the right to put all of us in your court. Let us talk about you’. She folded her hands to begin. ‘Wasn’t it you who went and complained about him to the Principal on Valentines which ended up creating this ruckus. Why is not there a possibility that you yourself had leaked that video?’
Kavya knew this would come at some stage. Her reply was well rehearsed in her mind for years. ’Yes, I remember and clearly. I was vying for the Head Girl post and in no case could afford this drama. And a complain gave me the right image in front of everyone, amongst the girls especially for fighting for them if need be. I acted selfishly, I accept, but do remember, by no means I was the one to call him, shoot him and then leak the video. Police had checked me, questioned me as well.’ Kavya clarified licking the crumbs off her lips.
‘But you had the video. No?’ Penny shot back.
‘Yes, I had. I had lied to the police. Vijay Uncle and Alaya had asked me to. But how did it appear in the after party I don’t know and had no role in. I only know that the guy in the corner looking shyly at me, unaffected by my snubbing, suddenly dropped his glass of Coke and ran away. Just ran away. I never saw him again.’
‘Though it sounds very strange that Vijay Uncle, the most influential man in the city could not find out the real culprit’. ‘Or may be….’ Kavya looked around.
‘Of course, he was trying to save someone, save one of us.’ Kavya fixed her gaze at Penny.
‘Poor Baba!’ Penny shook her head. ‘He thought he saved us all but actually all of us including him lost everything that day. We made him commit the worst and he died in guilt. Shouldn’t the one responsible come out for his sake.’ Penny looked at the both of them. ‘I have decided to find out and go to Jamie’s family for forgiveness.’ The name which was taken here for the first time shuddered the girls.
‘So that is what your new friend Jenny has been poisoning you with?’ Alaya snapped. ‘Why don’t you ask her to first go and seek forgiveness from her in – laws?’
‘She will. Once we are done. By the way, stay ready for a party in the evening. Its Jenny’s birthday!’
‘Abhi toh her son celebrated his. Son and Ma, the same week. Ahh just like the alphabet J, all in the family. Weirdos, huh!’ Alaya gave out a mean laugh.
‘Stop it A!’ Kavya intervened.
‘Why not? That old hag is stealing my friend, our friend!’
Penny did not come back till five. She had gone to the local market to buy things for the evening party. The girls sat silent staring at the door and the clock alternately. The frequency of this alternate exercise kept on rising with the fall of the sun. It was past six now. Penny rushed in waving at them, the kinds one does to their neighbors while entering the lift. ‘See you at seven in the living room.’
*
All of them were there. K, A, P, J and the mahogany with its wicked smile – ‘you silly girls, what did you think?’
‘Oh, how could we have a party without a table to keep the cake and stuff on.’ Penny threw her hands in the air to ward off the girls’ stares.
‘J insisted. I could not say no to her today. And how does it even matter now. We all need to move on. Right?’ Penny began unboxing the cake.
‘Has she gone mad?’ Alaya slid next to Kavya and whispered. ‘I am telling you this J is a witch and she has taken full control over P now. This is how these locals grab properties from those who come rarely.’
‘Don’t worry A. She is on my side. In fact, she is the one in whom I have finally found my solace’. Penny held Jenny’s hand fondly. Alaya wrinkled her forehead at Kavya and shook her head.
Penny smirked and let out a hearty happy birthday song. She pulled Jenny in the middle right in front of the cake and switched off the lights. The girls were standing on the opposite side of the table. Never had a cake been cut with the three of them not doing it together. And here, J who had been scrubbing the floors few hours back was the guest of honor. But even today only her face was visible, rather noticeable in light of the little candle as like all other days she was dressed in all black.
Penny caught Kavya’s expressions and defended. ‘But it’s a new one. I got it for her from Mrs. D’costa. Special order.’ Jenny caressed her hands on the frills across her collar bone. However much the designer may have tried to make it fun but the high collar could not shoo away the graveyard gloom blaring inside her.
Just then John came in carrying a bottle of champagne and whistling a familiar tune. The girls’ eyes which had lit up with the sight of champagne, squeezed in. They shot looks at Penny with their eyebrows in question. She just giggled and hugged him around joining in the whistle. The girls had heard it here right on this table with a similar looking guy.
‘P?’ Kavya shouted ‘What is going on, can someone explain? Are you on weed?
‘Stop overreacting guys. It is a popular song here, every year a version arrives.’ Penny dismissed their apprehensions with the wave of her right hand.
‘Yes ma’am.’ John chimed in. ‘In fact, I am singing the latest remixed version. Can I get my guitar here?’ He looked at Penny for approval.
‘Why not J?’ Pitched in Jenny patting him on his shoulder with a big smile.
The girls felt like criminals in a dock on the other side of the table. Tables had not turned exactly but rotated and switched the sides. Alaya grabbed Kavya’s hand. ‘Somebody is playing your game on you, K.’ She whispered.
‘You don’t seem worried at all’. Kavya grunted.
‘Why should I?’
‘Of course, the kind of fence sitter you are, have always been, why should you Alaya?’
*
The cake was cut with the finesse of a professional baker. Champagne was opened and sprayed. The guitar was played. All merries were made but the girls continued to stay on their allotted side. None asked or objected or offered. After a while, a set of eyes flanked by black frills gestured the hands on the guitar to leave.
The four women in the room plonked on the cushions next to the wall on their respective sides. One side almost jumping in excitement, the other sliding in reluctance, the impressions of their behinds on the cushions could tell the difference.
It was almost an hour of silence. Not exactly silence. The four women conversing but, in their minds- questions, slights, endearing, venom, all in – scurrying there. In the room, the air across, even in the eyes which had turned laid back under the effect of the contents of the glasses held in their hesitant hands. None offered, none denied yet the bottle was gradually treading towards its last breath. The four women had further slid down the walls, this time the cushions could not tell the difference.
Kavya realised Jenny had been staring at her since a while. The eyes across by now were not in any state to let any in.
‘K?’ She did not attach the word Madam. ‘You must be really beautiful then..’
‘When?’