The Year of the Runaways

by Sunjeev Sahota

  He looked in the toilets, then did another circuit of the room, locating Harbhajan behind one of the leatherette settees, curled up like a baby. He tried waking him, but there was no point, so he hefted him up by the armpits and secured an arm around his waist. The idiot’s topknot swung loosely around his head, coming undone.

  ‘Where-is-your-pugri?’

  Harbhajan closed his eyes, dreamily, and slopped his face onto Avtar’s shoulder. He found the keys to the motorbike in Harbhajan’s pocket and shoved them into his own jeans. Then he carried him out, down the stairs and through the lanes until, two hours later, they arrived at the bike. He arranged Harbhajan on the seat, then niftily, without letting go of his friend, sat down himself.

  ‘Just keep hold of me acha, yaar? Don’t let go.’

  He got the engine going at the third kick and turned a few dials until an amber cone struck up before him. He said a quick prayer and haltingly, wobblingly, moved forward.

  The journey back took three times as long as the journey there. Twice Avtar turned off the GT Road and made a detour through the villages because a passing autowallah warned there were police checks up ahead. So it was close to 3 a.m. when he entered Harbhajan’s neighbourhood and braked outside a fish-and-liquor dhaba. He asked the owner to bring out a coffee and forced Harbhajan to drink it. It made no difference. Outside the black gates of Nirmalji’s house, Avtar killed the engine. He wiped both their faces with the hem of his shirt – he hadn’t realized how much he was sweating – and coaxed his friend from the saddle. Avtar had to hold him upright.

  ‘Arré, giani, come on.’ He slapped him. ‘We’re home. Look.’

  Harbhajan opened one yellow eye, shunted Avtar away and veered back down the road, careering across the asphalt. Avtar caught up, his hands on Harbhajan’s shoulders to try and still him. ‘Home.’

  His yellow eyes weren’t blinking and with his beard and long girlish ringlets he looked like a madman haranguing the night. ‘I hate it. I hate him. I hate him.’ He sprinted to the gates, crashing into them, then looked up into the sky, his mouth pulled into an ugly stretch, and screamed, ‘I hate you! I hate you!’ He kicked the gates – ‘I hate you! I hate you!’ – and the iron shook and clanged. The more Avtar tried to restrain him, the louder Harbhajan screamed. ‘I hate you! I hate you!’ Lights came on in the neighbouring houses and the large balcony window in Harbhajan’s own house lit up too. Nirmalji appeared, tightening his dressing gown resentfully as he came down the path. Harbhajan’s arm extended through the bars, pointing, identifying. ‘You! I hate you! I hate you!’

  ‘Where is your turban?’ Nirmalji said.

  ‘I hate you!’

  Nirmalji found his key and forced the lock open. ‘That bhanchod chowkidar,’ he muttered. ‘Avtar, would you take him to his room, please?’

  ‘Is everything OK, Nirmal Sahib?’ a voice asked from behind. A neighbour. ‘Is that young Hari?’

  ‘It’s fine, thank you. High spirits only.’

  Harbhajan quietened as soon as they were away from his father. Now he complained of feeling sleepy.

  Harbhajan’s mother was standing inside the front door. She was a short, dutiful-looking woman, her eyes puffy, as if she’d been crying. Avtar had never met her before. He touched her feet, then with his fist at Harbhajan’s back drove him into the house. ‘Aunty, can you tell me where . . . ?’

  ‘It’s the third door on the second floor, beita.’

  Avtar steered Harbhajan towards the marble staircase. He kept his eyes down. He felt embarrassed by how much they had. The huge dining table, the leather sitting suites. Two just-glimpsed servants exchanging looks. Harbhajan kept on wanting to turn back, saying he’d left something at the tiger’s house. ‘We’ll pick it up tomorrow,’ Avtar said and that seemed to placate him.

  The bed was square and plain and stranded in the centre of the room. The left-side wall was taken up with a fish tank, the fish dingily aglow in the low blue murk. Avtar sat Harbhajan on the end of the bed and removed his shoes and socks for him, and then Harbhajan flipped over and scrambled under the covers. Soon he was snoring gently. Avtar stood up, hands on hips, relieved. The window behind the bed had a deep ledge and balanced on it was an unframed black-and-white headshot of a younger, preoccupied-looking Harbhajan, cheek scrunched up against his fist. Next to it, a fizzled-out joss stick, some rupees, dried-up marigolds to one side. Maybe his mother was conducting prayers for him.

  Back downstairs Nirmalji and his wife were standing by the dining table, talking quietly. She was shaking her head.

  Avtar said that he would bring the motorbike in now, if that was all right.

  ‘Were you with him all night?’ Nirmalji asked.

  ‘Yes, sahib.’

  ‘Did you take drugs also?’

  His wife let out an anguished groan. Avtar didn’t know what to say and in the end mumbled, ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘How much is he stealing from the company?’

  ‘I don’t know, sahib.’

  ‘So you do know he is stealing?’

  ‘I don’t know, sahib.’ His voice getting quieter now.

  He could feel the threat, because he knew the rich were the kind of people who find fault with the pet and not the leash.

  ‘I’ve never cheated you, sahib. I do my job well.’ Maybe Nirmalji was annoyed that the neighbours had all seen. ‘I would have taken him to a hotel but you know how people talk. I thought you would want him home.’

  ‘You did the right thing. Under the circumstances.’ Then: ‘Go. Leave the bike where it is.’ He turned to his wife. ‘Wake Satram.’

  ‘I can walk, sahib.’

  ‘You’ll go in the car. Your parents must be worried. Have you called . . . ?’ But he stopped, perhaps thinking they were too poor even to own a phone and he’d only be embarrassing the boy. In fact, Avtar had called earlier in the evening and spoken to his mother and said that they’d had a puncture, it was late, and he’d be staying at Harbhajan’s house tonight.

  Avtar walked out the front door and into the garden and through the gates. He felt guilty and he wasn’t sure what he’d done to feel guilty about. He kicked a stone hard and it went prancing off down the road. The car pulled up and the window wound down and a man with a droopy moustache and tired eyes told him to get in and shut up. Driving young bhanchod layabouts around in the middle of the night. As if he didn’t have better things to do.

  *

  At work, he assumed driving duties with old Sreenath as his conductor. The wrinkled Brahmin seemed to know everyone and he’d sit there on his fold-down seat and welcome passengers in, exclaiming how nice it was to see Keshav again, and Rana Bhai, and – be still my heart – Namrata Devi, too? How is the hip these days, sister?

  Avtar brought his knees up to the steering wheel, fingering absent-minded circles into the flaky window dirt. He wished he’d gone into Nirmalji’s office when he’d had the chance yesterday and demanded to know if his job was in danger. All this not knowing was making him feel ill. He closed his eyes and heard Lakhpreet’s voice from the night before, saying she was sorry for being mad that he couldn’t come again this month, and that she loved him and would see him soon. Opening his eyes, Avtar felt suddenly certain everything would be all right.

  As he was pulling into the depot that evening, he saw Harbhajan’s motorbike, and then Harbhajan himself in the office, feet up and paging through a newspaper in a bored way. Avtar locked the wheels left and parked at the end of the line, making himself invisible. He couldn’t afford to be friends with him any longer.

  Sreenath flicked his toothpick to the floor. ‘You are doing right. When father and son are firing bullets at each other, don’t get caught in the crossfire.’

  ‘I’ve not done anything wrong.’

  ‘He’s stealing from the workers’ funds. Someone will have to pay.’

  Avtar looked helplessly at the old man. ‘But I’ve not done anything wrong.’

  ‘Some drivers are saying they’ll
strike if the duffer doesn’t do something. No one would have dared strike when I was young. Strange how times change.’

  ‘It’s not fair. He’s just looking for someone else to blame.’

  Sreenath twisted his hand, as if to say, Who knew? ‘But it’s your own fault. Plain mouths and rich food. Indigestion is inevitable, no?’

  Harbhajan finally caught up with him as Avtar was exiting the rent-collector’s house one morning. ‘O-ho!’ he shouted, pulling Avtar into a half-hug. His eyes looked heavy and he wore a black patka instead of his usual turban. Avtar guessed he’d not slept all night. Perhaps not been home, either.

  ‘See how good my memory is? See how I remember which day you come here?’

  Avtar shrugged him off. ‘I need to get to work.’

  ‘Tsk! Wait a minute, yaara. Where have you been hiding?’

  ‘No one’s hiding. You know where I live.’

  Harbhajan ignored this. Maybe he felt too ashamed to meet Avtar’s parents. ‘How’s old Sreenath?’ He made his mouth gummy, mimicking: ‘When the rainbow comes, the storm isn’t far behind.’

  Avtar frowned. ‘I’ll be late.’

  ‘I’ll drop you off.’

  Avtar carried on walking. Harbhajan blocked him off.

  ‘I’ll drop you off in my car.’ And he turned Avtar around and pointed to the gleaming red Honda City parked twenty yards up the road. Already, a couple of schoolboys had stopped to admire it. Avtar stormed off. Again, Harbhajan caught up.

  ‘What’s the matter, yaar? Did you see it? Let’s go.’

  He pushed Harbhajan in the chest. ‘You stealing, sister-fucking bastard. I need my job. Do you understand? We can’t live without my job.’

  Harbhajan looked hurt. ‘Why the filmi drama, friend? It’s just fun. We’re just having some fun.’

  ‘Don’t. Not with my life.’

  Slowly the silence deflated and Harbhajan said, ‘Let’s go tonight. Wherever you want. Let’s go see your girl. I’ll drive you.’ Before he’d even finished Avtar was walking away, shaking his head.

  Four days later he asked Nirmalji when he might be able to take a day off and one week after that he was with Harbhajan on their way to Chandigarh in the red Honda City. He’d not wanted to go like this. When he’d got off the phone to Lakhpreet the previous week he’d looked in his wallet and calculated that after giving his parents enough to cover the rent and monthly gas bill he had just enough for the return bus fare and a day in Chandigarh: he’d have to walk instead of using the scooter for a few days, that was all. But then in the morning his mother said she was going to the temple. She wanted to make a donation in Navjoht’s name and Avtar, as the boy’s elder brother, had to contribute.

  ‘But the exams are finished. You can’t change the results now.’

  ‘Don’t make questions, beita. He’s worked so hard.’

  He handed over half of what he had and left for work. Twice over the next few days he’d nearly called Lakhpreet and said he couldn’t come. In the end, he dialled Harbhajan. Don’t tell anyone, he’d said on the phone, and this he now repeated as the smug-looking ‘Welcome to Chandigarh’ sign loomed fast towards them.

  ‘Arré, relax. We’re having a fun day out, that’s all.’

  Harbhajan beamed, his smile elastic under the wraparound shades, and they sped into the precisely gardened city, where the cars looked official, government-sanctioned, and the men and women on scooters wore small Sixties helmets.

  They parked in the shallow forecourt of Mega Mall and Avtar stepped out into the soft sunshine. It was a white marblesque building with intimidating black doors, a row of potted yellow trees flanking both sides of the entrance.

  ‘Is she here?’ Harbhajan asked.

  ‘We’re early.’

  ‘In that case,’ Harbhajan said, opening the boot. He returned with a palmful of red worm-like things. ‘Take some, na.’

  The balloons came up crinkled and heart-shaped. Some had a picture of teddy bears. Avtar looked dubiously at Harbhajan, who passed him some string.

  ‘To tie them to the car. I’ll have my fun at Geri Route.’

  Avtar didn’t ask. It was enough that he wasn’t going to be around when Lakhpreet arrived.

  Through the automatic doors, he took the central escalator which fed him into a burger place. She wasn’t there. He ordered a Thums Up and took a seat by the window so she might see him easily. There were only four or five others at this hour: a couple in office clothes holding hands over a briefcase, and a few other men dotted politely about, a bottle and straw at their lips. The ventilation whirred and stopped, whirred and stopped.

  He saw her materializing layer by layer up the escalator. Her hair, her eyes, her mouth and neck, chest, hands, her legs. She looked anxious, winding the end of her green chunni in and out of her hands. Then she saw him, and smiled. She stroked his shoulder as she passed and took the seat opposite. He sat down too – when had he stood? – and turned his dark-brown hand palm up on the table. She placed her fairer hand in his.

  They spoke of nothing for a while, or at least nothing that Avtar could later remember. He’d felt a little light-headed at seeing her again. They ordered two more drinks and Avtar asked for a burger each as well. She said to forget the burger – it was too expensive here – but that only made him more determined to have one. The food arrived.

  ‘Where’s your friend?’ she asked.

  ‘He’s gone to Geri Route. With balloons.’

  She gave a gorgeous little laugh. ‘If he’s gone to find girls, it’s too early. The balloons will go to waste.’

  ‘Oh, he’ll find some way to have fun.’

  She swivelled her Thums Up, the glass bottle dancing unpredictably on the table. ‘This is a very boring city, janum. Old people and government types only. There is no fun. I miss doing things. Going to the cinema, boating on the river.’ She smiled at him. ‘And other things with you.’

  He asked how her father was. She said nothing. Her mood changed. He wished he’d not mentioned it.

  ‘He’s given up. I don’t know how long we can keep him.’

  He said that God would find a way through and she frowned and said she hoped He’d find it soon.

  ‘It’s the crying. He cries so much. At night especially. And I know he can’t help it but I just want to scream at him.’

  ‘Your mamma? How is she?’

  She shook her head. ‘And Randeep’s at college so it’s just me and Mummy trying to stop him from doing anything crazy all night.’

  As their tray was collected, she asked him when they could get married. Avtar coughed and waited for the waiter to leave. ‘Where would we live? On my mamma-papa’s balcony?’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind. It’d be fun. It’d be an adventure.’

  ‘It wouldn’t. And I want to be able to afford a small hut for us both at least.’

  ‘By the lake, maybe.’

  ‘With mountains in the background.’

  ‘Ducks outside?’

  ‘And a little pink pig.’

  ‘Oh! To keep as a pet?’

  ‘To eat.’

  ‘No!’ And she laughed hard, ponytail swishing side to side. ‘You know, my friends think it’s so romantic what we’re doing. They’re so jealous.’

  ‘You’ve told your friends we’re getting married?’

  ‘Shouldn’t I have done?’

  He wasn’t sure. ‘I suppose we never agreed not to tell anyone.’

  ‘Oh, but I want to tell the world!’ She brought her thumbs together and rested her lovely dimpled chin on them. ‘How long, janum?’

  ‘I don’t know, honestly. It’s so tough right now. Papa’s not doing well.’

  She looked alarmed, in a slightly theatrical way. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I mean, the shop. Business is slow. Has been for a long time. Everywhere is slow right now.’

  She sighed, nodded. ‘So many boys are going abroad these days.’

  ‘You want me to go abroad?’
>
  She made a cute puck of her mouth. ‘I don’t know. How long for?’

  ‘A year, maybe. I have thought about it. A lot.’

  ‘And maybe then, if you earned enough, we could have a bigger wedding. With all our family and friends. And a bigger house to live in.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘As long as you come back. Some boys never do.’

  He said of course he’d come back. He needed to.

  ‘And me? Don’t I need you?’ She leaned in, head to one side, eyes intent. He could see down her kameez, to her breasts. ‘Don’t you need me?’

  They left the mall and Avtar used the last of his money to rent a cheap hotel room. An hour later she freed herself from his limbs and said she had better go. He pulled her back down, needing her mouth again, and it was a full hour more before she could finally reach for her clothes.

  Harbhajan wasn’t answering his phone. Forty minutes passed, fifty, one hour and then two. He should have known Harbhajan would do this. The mall chowkidar came by, swinging his lathi. He asked Avtar what he was up to.

  ‘Waiting for my friend, sahib.’

  ‘You can wait by the road. Business people come here. Foreign types.’

  At the roadside, Avtar snapped off his denim jacket and sat on it with his arms square around his knees. Still no sign. The sun pressed down on his eyelids and soon he fell asleep. When he looked up again, blinking, the red Honda was there. Harbhajan was some feet away taking a piss into one of the potted trees. Avtar stood up.