by Carol Holden
Dr Menon and Taz meet them, as they have called Mrs. Menon and made arrangements for the boys to be taken home at lunchtime, so that they will be able to settle in and have the comfort of a proper home, after their weeks of trekking and hardship.
The Menons live on the outskirts of Katmandu in a large house in its own grounds. There are trees and shrubs surrounding the large pleasant garden, the front door opens and a middle-aged lady appears on the doorstep. Taz, who has driven them to the house, introduces her as her mother.
She helps Ben up the front step to the house and the she turns her attention to Simon. Her astonishment shows on her lovely face as she asks his name.
“My name is Simon Thomas.” Simon replies with a look of bewilderment at the expression on Mrs. Menon’s face. Is something the matter?”
“No of course not, you just remind me of someone.”
Taz explains to her mother the predicament of Ben’s broken bones, and the boys not being able to find accommodation because of the Festival. She gives her mother a knowing look and a signal to keep quiet. She doesn’t want the boys to feel uncomfortable and she is hoping that Sahida may be able to throw light on the situation, when she arrives shortly.
Tea is brought and the boys are made to feel welcome, as they all sit in the garden and chat about the trekking and the festival.
The slight breeze disturbs the flowers and the trees, giving off a lovely perfume, and the boys relax and enjoy the peace of the garden. Mrs. Menon leaves them to arrange their bedrooms whilst Taz goes into the house to begin the preparation of a meal for when the doctor gets home. Her sister is on her way from the school where she teaches, to be with her family for the festival
Ben is feeling tired and his medication for the pain is wearing off. Simon goes into the house, hoping to find Taz, to get help for Ben’s pain. He can’t just find her but as he goes through the hall he sees a portrait of someone who looks likes himself. He is shocked when he looks at it, but shrugs the feeling off as he calls to Taz. She comes downstairs quickly and sees to Ben, who is flagging with the pain.
A car pulls up and young woman bounces up the steps, without seeing the boys in the garden, as she is so anxious to see her mother and sister.
“Mum, Taz.” She calls as she hurries into the hall.
“Oh there you are, lovely to have you home for a few days.” Calls out Mrs. Menon as she rushes downstairs to meet her daughter. Taz appears and they share a hug, the three of them.
“Where’s dad?” Sahida asks.
“He should be on his way now.” Taz tells her sister.
“Come out and meet our guests.” Taz says. “They have been trekking for the last two and half months, but Ben has had an accident up on the mountain and I brought them down to the hospital, here in Katmandu. They are from Britain and they are two lovely lads. They have tickets to return home on the 20th but they cannot find a hostel that is not booked up for the Festival.” Sahida and her sister, along with their mother, go into the garden.
Chapter 29
Dr Menon is worrying about the situation at home and he hopes that his family will not be too upset when they meet Simon. He hopes that when they question Simon, there will be an explanation for the looks he has. His heart sings with hope that he is the grandson he has longed for, and that a part of his lost son will be amongst them. He thinks that there may be a possibility that the English girl Taj loved may have gone home pregnant. It is a possibility that he hopes is true. He has never really got over the loss of his son, neither have the other members of the family, but he is afraid to get his hopes up too high because, he tells himself, it could be a coincidence and he may be disappointed.
He arrives home to find there is a party going on in the garden. Ben has revived after some pain killers, and is gently smiling at all there present and telling his side of the story.
Simon is teasing a little about the time they saw the lodge in the distance and Ben was so excited he fell off the mountain.
The doctor has a precious look on his face as he looks at the two boys. Ben has mended so quickly, his attitude to his injuries so positive and when he looks at Simon his heart lifts.
“Sahida, you‘ve got here in good time. Did you have a good journey?” Dr Menon asks his eldest daughter as he gives her a hug. It’s lovely to see you darling.”
Sahida tells them of her journey from the mountain school where she is now the headmistress. The roads had been busy because of the Festival and she was late setting out as she had been arranging, along with her staff, the Festival in the villages from where her pupils came.
“The journey was better than I imagined, there was a steady flow of traffic, and I didn’t stop on the road as I had had a good breakfast before I set off.” She replies.
Taz turns to introduce the boys to her sister and Sahida’s eyebrows rise as she gets a better look at Simon.
“Oh my God.” She cries as she takes Simon’s hand. ”You look just like my brother.”
“How can I? I am so confused, I have seen a portrait in the hall that could be me when I’m dressed up, and the looks I have been getting from all the family makes me wonder what’s happening to me.”
Dr Menon steps in to say “Come on let’s put our cards on the table and say what we are thinking. Sahida what do you think of Simon?”
“I think that he can be Taj’s son with Sarah, who left very soon after Taj’s death. I know that Sarah loved my brother very much and that she was devastated after the plane crash. What’s your mother’s name Simon?”
Simon is so confused he doesn’t reply for a moment and then says. “My mother’s name is Sarah and my father’s name is David. I have a sister called Anne and my cousin Mark is here in Nepal doing some civil engineering work.
“Oh my god.” Sahida cries. “I know Mark, he came to see Sarah when she worked with me, and we had a party for him and his friends. All the villagers were invited to come to the party, and Sarah and I prepared the food. Taj came to meet him.
Mark is trying to come to meet us in Katmandu on the 19th to see us off on the 20th.” Simon tells them.
Ben puts his hand on Simon’s shoulder and hugs him to him. He knows his friend is confused, but feels it is a wonderful thing for him to have found this other family.
“Are you O.K.?” He asks Simon shaking his hand and saying. “Congratulations on finding these lovely caring people.”
Dr Menon takes Simon to the bottom of the garden and gently tells him of his son and now it seems, Simon’s father.
“Taj was a doctor in the hospital where Taz and I work. He was only thirty-two when he was killed in an airplane crash in Pokhara. He was a good man and a good son, but I did not know how close he was to your mother. She came to stay with us when we lived in Pokhara where I was G.P., a lovely girl who was a close friend of Sahida’s. I think Sahida will be able to tell you more about the time they taught together, in the village school. Taj had a lovely nature and all the family have missed him dreadfully since the accident. I’m so happy to have found you and the family will adore you because Taj was adored by all of us.”
Simon looks at his grandfather and smiles his lovely smile but feels strange and confused. He wants to be on his own to digest what he has been told. He remembers David and the love he has for his dad. He asks himself all sorts of questions. Why has no one at home told him? Who is he now he has found another family, half way across the world? Is it because of his genes that he wants to be a doctor? Why did his mother not tell him about his father? Is this why he has always felt a bit of an outsider at school? He is longing to see Mark who seems to have known about all this from when he was eighteen and trekking in Nepal. He keeps these questions to himself and tries to be pleasant and friendly but he can’t wait to be by himself and ponder on what he has been told by this new family of strangers.
Sahida comes towards them and she puts her arm around Simon’s shoulder and Dr Menon leaves them to talk.
“I was a great friend of your
mother.” She tells Simon. “She left so quickly after Taj had died. She came to the River for his funeral but became so ill she had to be taken away from the river, where Taj’s ashes were being scattered. Your grandparents came to take her back to England, shortly after that, and I have not heard from her or about her since. Taj and Sarah were so in love and I’m sure they would have been together today, if he had lived and we would have had you in our lives from your birth. Sarah loved her life at the school and in Pokhara and she came at my invitation to meet my family. That is when she met Taj at our house by the lake and they hit it off immediately. Taj adored her and she felt the same. It was such a tragedy for all of us when Taj died and I’m afraid we were all bound up in our own grief to see how bad she felt. I’m sure she did not know she was pregnant when she left or she would have told me. Tell me about her and your life in England.”
“Why did she not tell me?” Simon cries. “I love my mother and my dad and all my family at home, but someone should have told me.”
“Why hasn’t Mark said anything, especially when he knew my friends and I were coming here to the mountains, and he was here to meet us when we arrived?”
“It isn’t his place to tell your mother’s secret and he was a very young man when he was here with us, just about the same age as you are now.” Sahida says with a sad look on her face. To think that Taj’s son has lived for eighteen years without them having any idea of his birth. A feeling of bitterness comes over Sahida to think that Sarah has kept her family in the dark for eighteen years and not to have shared the child that belonged to Taj, as well as, Sarah herself. She shrugs this feeling away as Simon must be feeling a lot more confused than she is.
“Come on love.” She tells Simon with a loving look on her face. “We’ll find the others and they can all tell you what they remember of your mother and Taj.
I’m so glad that you have a father figure in your life to which you can give love and respect and what has happened here will not make any difference to your relationship with him. How he has nurtured you and how he has made your family whole can only be because he is a good man.”
Simon nods as they wander back up the garden, to find the rest of the family.
Meanwhile Mrs. Menon sits quietly in the kitchen with her thoughts far away into the past. She knew Taj was very taken with the English girl, Sarah, but she was sure that when Sarah went home that Taj would settle down and marry a local girl and have a life in Katmandu within the extended family. When the airplane crashed and she lost her son all she could feel at the time was a grief so strong no one should have to suffer it. She remembers the grief Sarah showed was as strong as her own, but she ignored it, and let the girl be taken by Sarah’s parents, home to England. She should have known that Taj’s love for Sarah was very strong and have done more for the girl. “What had Sarah to do?” She asks herself when she found herself to be pregnant with the man she so obviously adored. She had done the only thing she would do, and had the baby. I must talk to Simon to tell him, how we are partly to blame for his not having been part of our family, from the start.
Taz has shown the boys their rooms. She has taken Ben to one on the ground floor that has an ensuite bathroom so that he can be independent. He knows that Simon will help him in the bath when he is ready but for now he just needs to lie on the bed and rest. Taz renews his pain- killers and Ben soon sleeps peacefully.
Simon is now on his own and he curls up on his bed and feels like weeping. Tears start to run down his face as he thinks about all that has happened to him since the accident to Ben on the mountain.
“He thinks of the kindness of the Menons, Taz who brought them to the hospital.
She must have been a teenager when his mother was here but she can see the resemblance of her brother in him and he must admit that the portrait in the hall looks a lot like him. Dr Menon is so thrilled to have Simon staying, and he makes no reservations, of him being his grandson. He treats him with a kindness that is like that of Joe and Charlie, his grandfathers at home.
Sahida shows him a glimpse of his mother that he has never thought about and he wonders if the love for his Hindu father takes something from David, who he is sure she loves. The life of the parents, with Anne and me, has always felt right and has been, and is still, a very close unit. He sometimes has a memory of first meeting with David, when he was a very small boy, claiming him for his dad but he has put the thought away from him because David has always been there for him.
Mrs. Menon, who has been very busy finding them rooms, making up beds and giving them tea, has not yet drawn close to Simon, but from the glances she has been giving him, he knows that he is her grandson and she accepts him as such.
I need to see Mark he thinks in his troubled mind. Mark will help me to accept what is happening to me, but Mark is not here yet. I’ll go to Ben when he awakens and talk my feelings over with him. I’m glad it’s Ben with me here because he is the most sensitive of my friends.
Simon pulls himself together, gets up off the bed and goes into the bathroom to have a shower. When he is dressed he goes to see how Ben is doing. Ben is awake and feeling refreshed after his fitful sleep.
“Can I help you to have a shower if you are feeling up to it?” Simon asks.
“Sure, but are you feeling O.K?” Ben replies. “Why don’t we have a talk, I know how you must be feeling confused and happy eh?”
Simon goes and hugs Ben and sits on the bed.
“I don’t understand how this has come about. Why hasn’t my mother told me who my father was, and that I have this other Hindu family living here in Katmandu?”
“She must have had her reasons and you are the most caring family I have ever met. I wish many times that I was the one living in your shoes, Simon; you have no idea what it is like living in mine. My father has a drink problem, I think he is an alcoholic, but it doesn’t make it right how he treats my mother when he is drunk.
I have never been able to have friends in my house because of this and I am always welcome in yours. Your dad is such a wonderful friend. He has encouraged me to work at school, and I would not have got so far, and be able to go to university, if he had not allowed me to work on my studies at your house.
I know you think that we were just doing homework at your house because you have a better computer and it is quieter than at mine, but the fact is, it is bedlam at our house sometimes. My mother gets angry at my dad and then he begins to throw things and she has to lock herself in the bathroom.”
Simon is shocked at what Ben is saying. In all the time they have been friends Ben has never opened his heart to him, and he is a bit ashamed of not being there for Ben.
Ben gives Simon one of his rare smiles and says. “Come on then let’s get that shower and then we can join the others, I’m starving.”
Chapter 30
The boys walk into the dining room where the rest of the family is waiting for them
“Are you ready for a meal now?”
“Come on up to the table, I’m sure you are very hungry, after your adventure and then the shock of finding another family, in this far off place.” Dr Menon says in a joking sort of way.
Simon helps Ben to sit in a chair and moves his crutches out of his way
“We are very grateful for your taking care of us, and I am confused but happy to have found a missing part of my life.” Simon replies.
They all sit down and far from feeling strange there is a comfortable feeling spreading around the people at the table. Ben feels it too and he is thankful that he is not such a burden to just Simon and he knows he is very welcome here as well as Simon.
They all enjoy the delicious food made by Mrs. Menon and her daughters and the conversation is easy, as they talk about the festival, the meeting of their two other friends, as well as, Mark in the days to come.
After the meal the boys are really tired and go happily to bed sure to have a good night’s sleep. To be in a proper bed with clean cool sheets is a luxury they had n
ot expected and they are soon asleep.
Meanwhile, downstairs the Menons are talking about this revelation that they have another member of the family.
“I saw the likeness immediately I set my eyes on Simon.” Dr Menon says.
“I felt something on the journey from the mountain hospital but I was very young when Taj was eighteen.” Taz tells the family.
“Oh the moment I saw Simon I felt something very strange, a connection to the boy.” Sahida shares her feeling with the others.
“What do we do now?” Mrs. Menon asks “We can’t lose him now we have found him. He is part of Taj, and I feel like I have got part of my lovely son back.”
“Lets enjoy his company and Ben’s whilst we have them here and when Mark comes to Katmandu, we will invite him to come and meet the family.” Sahida says.
“I will go with Simon to meet Mark as it will be difficult for Ben to travel too far on his crutches. We can come back here and I’m sure Mark will be able to confirm what we are thinking.” “It was a lovely time when Mark came to our mountain with his friends and what I remember of him, he was a pleasant easy going boy who seemed to get on well with Taj, what little time they had together.”
“I’m sure he will be able to enlighten us about Simon’s family at home. If I remember rightly his mother is Sarah’s sister.” Sahida goes on.
They too are tired, it’s been a wonderful day for all of them but they are ready for bed, full of euphoria and relaxed ready for sleep.
