"I'd
lie, but this wasn't how I planned to return", whispered Shai as he leapt
across the suitcase to hold Oshin. Wiping Oshin's tears off with the back of
one hand, Shai clutched on to Oshin's hand with his other and walked him to the
divan. Sitting him down, he slowly let go of the hand he'd held and stepped
towards the kitchenette. Pouring out two glasses of water he asked, "What
brought you home this early?" Oshin still had no words, all stunned
muscles and disconnected thought. Staring down at the Athangudi floor, he
counted down from ten and stopped at two. Turning his glance towards the
ceiling it struck him again. Weren't they supposed to change the fan overhead
before the wires caved in and one of them fell victim? Shaking the thought of
severed body parts off, he looked blankly at Shai who was dipping chamomile
flowers into now warmed glasses of water. He always did these things that made
Oshin feel helplessly dependent, limp and loved.
Shai lifted
the tray and his eyes as he walked back towards the divan. "So, what
brought you back?", ironical as this sounded coming from Shai. "The
geyser was left powered, and I was out at Nagarjun's for lunch", said
Oshin flatly as he itched his palm and lifted a glass. The creaking of the
overhead fan only got louder with each passing minute. Shai began rattling off
about how yet another auto guy refused to enter the lane outside as he claimed
to 'know what happens inside the area'; the flip side of living in a
sophisticated apartment amidst the silent roar of a red light district. Oshin
felt like something inside him would explode any moment now and he wouldn't be
able to hold it back. "I think I'm sick", he said as he got up to
walk towards the loo. Shai jumped up to open the door and held Oshin's back up
so that he could puke into the toilet bowl. "How many times have I told
you to stop eating at that ramshackle of a place! This is possibly your fifth
bout of food poisoning Oshin. Don't you think that it's about time you
stopped?" Words didn't matter, if only he could actually muster up enough
to actually let something out but it seemed impossible. He turned, ferret eyed
and looked at Shai with a mix of fear and anger. "What brought YOU
back?"
Shai let go
of him and stepped out of the loo. While it was easy for the rest of the world
to rely on him for all his wisdom and swift resolve, it came with a price tag
of consequences. His hands clasped in a moment of guilt as he tried masking his
sweating palms. With Oshin he'd always have to tread with a tad bit more care,
for his emotions were more infantile than he led them to seem; it's what made
him so appealing to Shai when they first met. Turning over he said, “I brought
you some of our popping ice tea. Can I make you some while I tell you where I
went?” (Oranges and lemons sold for a rupee, all the blue collars cashed in
lucky)
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