“Okay, then,” Uncle said, sighing. “I’ll take a trip to Madras and meet the man face to face.”
Auntie looked grim. “Maybe he’ll reimburse the ticket if you agree to the match.”
“Maybe,” Uncle said. “But I have to meet him first. It’s what my brother would have done.”
“Baba, can I join you on the trip?” Raj asked.
“No, Beta, we certainly don’t have money for two tickets,” Auntie said.
“I’ve got some money of my own saved up—gifts from your parents, Ma,” he said. “I’d like to use it for this.”
“What? Why?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never seen Madras, and I’ve been studying so hard, it might be nice to take a trip with Baba.”
Uncle looked pleased. “I’d enjoy your company, in fact,” he said. “And your marks have been top-notch. Okay, it’s settled, then. I’ll book two tickets to Madras tomorrow and we’ll go over the weekend.”
Asha leaned closer to her cousin and whispered, “I’ll pay you back.”
“No, you won’t,” Raj answered in a low voice. “I’m dying to see the man with my own eyes. I’m happy to pay such a low price for a treat like that.”
While Uncle and Raj were gone that weekend, Asha risked a trip up to the roof, but there was no sign of Jay. Instead Suma and Sita finally discovered her.
“Tunidi!” they cried as they rushed through the door. “We found you!”
“Where’s your diary?” asked Suma.
“We want to read it!” said Sita.
Asha tried hard not to let the dismay show on her face. “I just came up for some air, girls. Now, come down with me. The walls are low up here, and it’s time to do schoolwork.” Thank goodness Jay wasn’t there, she thought. I’d have a lot of explaining to do about the fairy tale I’ve been living.
After three long days, Raj and his father returned from their trip just in time for dinner.
“How was he?” Grandmother asked eagerly after they’d washed their hands and feet and settled down to eat. “Is he a good match?”
“He seemed like it to me,” Uncle said. “Tall, fair, well educated, well-spoken. Not exactly handsome, perhaps, but then neither was I.”
Auntie smiled. “I thought you were handsome,” she said.
“You were very handsome,” Grandmother said. “Both my boys were.” She wiped a tear from her cheek with the end of her saree.
Asha took stock of her cousin’s expression. Why was Raj frowning?
“But about this boy in Madras,” Ma said. “Will he make a good husband for Shona?”
“The charts match them up nicely,” Uncle said. “The university people spoke highly of him, and the neighbors told me he was quiet and kept to himself. That’s good, right?”
“That’s excellent,” Auntie said. “A man who’s a busybody is just as bad as a woman who gossips. If not worse. What about the house?”
“It wasn’t as big as I’d hoped, a bit smaller than ours, but it was clean.”
“What did you think, Raj?” Asha asked.
“I already told Baba what I think,” Raj said. “Will you tell them, Baba, or shall I?”
“Oh, that small thing. That’s nothing for your aunt and cousins to worry about. The boy thinks he knows more than the stars.”
“We should know everything,” Ma said, turning to Grandmother. “Every doubt, every question.”
Grandmother nodded. “Tell us, Bontu.”
Uncle scanned the eagerly listening faces, his own two daughters included. “Oh, we’ll tell you later. It’s nothing, anyway. Right now, I’m starving. The hotel we stayed in served dirt instead of food. I’ve missed this good cooking.” He gestured at one of Ma’s signature dishes, chickpeas and potatoes, which he obviously loved, since he always took four helpings.
The girls didn’t get to talk to Raj alone until after the twins were asleep and they visited his room. “So what’s wrong with him?” Asha demanded.
“He won’t do,” Raj said immediately. “His six-year-old nephew didn’t say a word to him for three days, and the kid seemed scared.”
“Maybe the boy’s just shy,” Reet said.
“He’s not, though. He talked to everybody else. Chattered away, in fact. I took him out to the garden to play catch, and he babbled on nonstop.”
“Did you get anything out of him?” Asha asked.
“I tried the second afternoon, but the kid looked absolutely terrified when I brought the subject up. ‘Tell me why you’re scared of your uncle,’ I said in as kind a voice as I could, and I offered him sweets and everything, but he dashed into the house. Never spoke to me again. I told Baba, but he thinks the kid could be retarded or something. But he wasn’t; he was a nice, smart boy—until I started questioning him about his uncle.”
“So why was he so scared, then?” Asha asked.
“That’s what I’m wondering,” Raj said.
“Thanks, Raj, for telling us, but a six-year-old’s opinion isn’t going to shut the door to this marriage,” Reet said.
“Couldn’t we find out more?” Asha asked.
“Why should we?” Raj demanded. “I don’t trust the man one bit. Turn him down, I told Baba.”
“But . . . but there’s nobody else,” Reet said, her voice getting smaller with each word until they could barely hear the last one.
“Just wait, then. Someone is sure to come along.” Raj took each of their hands in his, something he’d never done before. “In the meantime, I’ll try to talk to Baba again.”
But Raj’s doubts obviously weren’t strong enough, because the next day Uncle announced that he’d accepted the proposal. The match was made. Reet was to marry Dr. Poritosh Ghosh of Madras just after the year marker of Baba’s death.
TWENTY-EIGHT
ASHA WROTE IN HER DIARY THAT NIGHT, LOCKING HERSELF IN the bathroom. She was afraid to venture onto the roof, even though Jay was nowhere in sight. She missed him fiercely.
I promised Baba I’d take care of Reet. I promised. Maybe this man in Madras would turn out to be a good husband, but maybe not. How could I live with myself if he was horrible to my sister and I could have stopped it? I’ve got to be sure she marries someone who will treat her as she deserves.
But, S.K., what can I do? I only know one other person who might marry her, and he’s . . . someone I love. Someone I want. And he loves me. I know he does. ME, S.K. Not like the rest of them, dazzled by the usual stuff. How could I ever give that up? I can’t.
But I promised Baba I’d take care of Reet. I promised.
She wrote the same circle of thought again and again in the next few days, not sleeping, barely eating, avoiding conversation with everybody as much as she could. Reet was locked in her own trance, obviously trying to accept the inevitable. At night, though, the sisters still curled together, seeking wordless comfort from each other’s presence.
The real Ma was making tentative reappearances here and there, standing up for Reet when it came to things like setting a date or negotiating the dowry that the family in Madras wanted. Otherwise, she still seemed in the grip of the Jailor.
“Do you think she’ll return for the wedding?” Reet asked. “I want her to be happy, Osh.”
“I don’t think she’ll be happy until she knows you’re safe,” Asha said. “And neither will I.”
But how could they be sure? Once a girl was married, there was no way for her to escape. Heading repeatedly into the bathroom with her diary, Asha realized that Ma was asking the same anxious questions.
Soon, Asha knew she was running out of time. The date of the wedding was about to be set by the astrologer, relatives informed, invitations ordered. One afternoon, she slowly climbed up to the roof. Jay had to be there, he had to. She brought her diary with her just in case, and when his window stayed closed she collapsed in her old corner and started to write yet again.
I’ve made my decision, S.K. I have to ask him. I don’t really have a choice. Will he agree? Do I
want him to? Oh, S.K., I don’t know what to do. I can’t let Reet marry this Ghosh fellow, I just can’t. I promised Baba I’d take care of Reet. But what if he doesn’t want to do it? He has to! I won’t give him a choice. And what about Reet? What will she think? Help me, S.K., help me.
For once, her diary seemed to answer, and the shutters across the way flew open. “Good news, Osh!” Jay called. “I finished it. It’s not as good as the other one was, but I sent it to the same gallery.”
“Did they sell the first one?”
“They’ve gotten a lot of offers, but nothing that seemed right to me.”
“No good offers?”
“Let’s say your face is worth more than the value of a new Mercedes-Benz.”
“What’s that?”
“A fancy car they sell in Europe. We’ll get one when I take you there and I’ll teach you to drive it. Did you know I can drive?”
She forced herself to smile. “I believe it. You can do anything, Jay.”
“Oh no, Osh. You’re never that direct with your compliments. I usually have to tease them out of you. What’s the matter?”
Asha took a deep breath. With his curly hair and kind smile, and the way he’d shaved before coming to see her so that the skin on his cheeks and chin was clean and smooth, he was perfect. But not hers. Never hers.
“Jay, remember when you said you’d do anything for me?”
“Of course I do. And I meant it. You need money? Want me to pummel someone? Just name it, Osh.”
Her heart gave one last familiar thump-thump. Asha wondered if it would ever beat again after she said the next three words, words she could never take back: “Marry my sister.”
Jay was quiet. “What?” he asked.
“You have to marry Reet, Jay. Please. I have to be sure she’s taken care of, that nobody will hurt her. I promised my father.” Slowly, painfully, she explained Reet’s proposal and the unknowns that were waiting for her in Madras.
“But how do you know she won’t be happy with him?” Jay asked.
“I don’t know that she would be. Or that he’ll be good to her. And I need to be certain that she’ll be treated kindly, Jay.”
He was quiet again, and then she saw anger on his face for the first time. “You’re asking me to propose to your sister.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, Jay, I am.”
“No, Asha,” he said quietly. “I can’t do it. That’s the one thing I can’t do for you.”
“You said anything.”
“I didn’t mean that. Why can’t I come for you instead?” he said. “Then we could take care of Reet and your mother together.”
Asha shook her head. “A younger sister marrying first? That never happens, Jay, you know that. At least not in our circles. People will think something’s wrong with Reet.”
Nobody spoke for a long minute or two.
“Take some time to think about it,” she said finally. And then she made the decision as easy for him as she could. “But . . . I don’t want to see you again. Not up here. Not like this. The next time we’ll meet, Jay, is when and if you’re in the house with a marriage proposal for my sister.” With an immense effort, she forced herself to turn and leave.
“Asha, wait! Please, wait!” His voice was frantic and loud; he obviously didn’t care who heard him. “Asha!”
She ran for the stairs, opened the door, escaped, and shut the door tightly behind her. Then she leaned against it and cried as she hadn’t in weeks. After the storm of tears subsided, she washed her face, dried it, and headed straight for Raj’s room.
“I need a big padlock,” she told him.
“Why?”
“I want to lock the roof. The little girls went up there and it’s not safe for them. The walls are too low.”
“There’s one in the storage room. I’ll get it.” When he handed it to her, he smiled knowingly. “You’ll keep the key, right?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, leading the way upstairs. She looped the big padlock through the latch on the door to the roof and locked it. Then she checked it to make sure it was secure.
“Oh, come on, Osh, I’m not an idiot. I’ve kept Suma and Sita from running up to interrupt your conversations at least five or six times.”
“Well, you don’t know everything,” she said, leading him downstairs again to the small balcony attached to his room.
“Osh, don’t!” he shouted, but it was too late.
She’d hurled the key as far as she could. Her throwing arm was still good; the key landed far on the other side of the trees, somewhere short of the pond.
“Why did you do that?” Raj asked. “Now we’ll have to cut the lock the next time someone wants to go up there.”
“Exactly,” she said, and went to find her sister.
TWENTY-NINE
ASHA DIDN’T TELL REET WHAT SHE’D DONE AND LATER WONDERED if it might have changed the way things turned out. But she kept the secret from her sister, and their lives would never be the same.
Sometimes, while she taught the cousins, or listened to her sister sing, or helped her mother clear the dinner table, she wondered what Jay would decide. She wondered how it would be to love and hate someone at the same time, as he probably loved and hated her. But I do know how that is, she thought. I feel that for myself.
On the day when Uncle came home early to tea with a big smile on his face, Asha knew what he was about to say.
“We have another proposal for our girl,” he announced jubilantly.
“What?”
“Who?”
“When?”
Grandmother, Auntie, and Ma stood stock-still in different corners of the room, waiting for the rest of his news.
“From the young man who lives next door.”
Again, they all spoke at once.
“The Crazy One?” That was Grandmother.
“That rich family?” Auntie.
“I knew something better would come!” Ma exulted.
Raj was staring at Asha, his mouth open.
“The stars show an even better match for her with this fellow than the other one,” Uncle said.
“For which girl?” Reet’s question got their attention.
“For you, of course, darling,” Ma said. “What did you think? You’re the older girl of the family. You have to be married first.”
Reet shook her head. “Oh. But I can’t marry him.”
“Why not?” At least three voices asked the question.
“Is it because he’s odd?” Grandmother asked. “I’m a bit worried about that myself.”
“No, it’s because he doesn’t love me.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, my dear,” Auntie said. “He’ll come to love you. All husbands do.”
“How could he love you before he marries you?” Grandmother was completely astonished by the question. “He doesn’t even know you yet.”
“And as for him being strange, why, it’s simply not true,” Uncle said. “Turns out he’s a brilliant painter. Shows his work in a famous gallery in Delhi. He’s getting magnificent prices for his paintings, and apparently the one he’s just finished is superb. Plus he’s been offered a prestigious fellowship in New York, at a university, that could lead to a satisfying teaching career as a fine arts professor if he takes it.”
“And why wouldn’t he take it?” Ma asked. “To think of my Reet getting another chance to go to New York! Why, it’s as if . . . as if my beloved is making this all happen.”
And for the second time in their lives, the girls watched their mother begin to cry. As Reet and Asha both rushed to her side, their eyes met. “Let it be,” Asha whispered. “Please, Reet.”
“For now,” Reet answered, as she gathered Ma in her arms just as she had on the train.
Ma cried, and cried, and cried, and after a while, Grandmother joined in, and even Uncle wiped away a tear or two. Soon Suma and Sita started sobbing also, even though they had no idea what was going on, and final
ly Raj led his sisters upstairs.
“So . . .” When Ma’s sobs had subsided into hiccups, Uncle cleared his throat again. “Should I accept this proposal, Sumitra? What do the rest of you think?”
Auntie nodded with a trace of envy in her face. “I thought that boy didn’t like girls. But he’s the only son, and if the stars point to a better match than with the one in Madras, who am I to say we shouldn’t turn down the first proposal and accept this one?”
“She’ll have good in-laws,” Grandmother said. “I’ve always thought they were fine people.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Ma said, delight all over her face. “Why, she’ll be right next door!”
“Not if she goes to America,” said Auntie.
“But she’ll come home to have her babies, and to visit. Oh, it’s perfect. Thank you, dear ones, thank you!” Ma began to laugh and cry at the same time, and Reet and Asha held her even more tightly.
“This one’s much better than that Ghosh fellow; I wasn’t too sure about him, to tell the truth,” Uncle said.
Asha released her mother and stood up to face her Uncle. “Then why did we accept the proposal?”
“It was a mistake,” Uncle admitted. “I can see it now. Bintu would be delighted with this match. He always loved art; I remember him standing for hours in front of a painting or two at the National Gallery in Delhi when we visited as boys. So it’s a go, then?”
“Wonderful!” crowed Grandmother. “I must thank the gods.” She left immediately for the prayer room.
“I can’t wait to tell my friends,” said Auntie. “They’ll be so jealous. When can we have the formal meeting? I always love seeing a couple’s eyes meet for the first time.”
Reet let go of their mother, too. “May I be excused, Uncle?”
“Certainly, Shona. I know you want to think about this in private. I’m so happy for you. I told you I’d take care of you, didn’t I?”
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