Sing it (II)

Before you begin reading this post,read these because its a continuation of the same story.
In THIS order.
>.>

http://chindichaddi.blogspot.com/2009/07/she-smiles.html


http://chindichaddi.blogspot.com/2009/07/she-smilespart-2.html


http://chindichaddi.blogspot.com/2010/01/sing-it.html

If you have,proceed.
: )


***


"Where are you man?Samara's been waiting for over an hour."


"I'm on my way.You know the traffic on Hancock Street na?That too on a Saturday."

After a long pause,Barretto spoke again.

"You haven't left your apartment,have you?"

"No ",she mumbled weakly.

"And you don't want to meet her because?"

"Because,things change."

"Right.The way I see it,you don't want to meet her because you're scared she is going to bring up the past and then see through you,everything you have been hiding from her."

"Hiding? Hiding what?"

"Thefactthatyouarestillinlovewithagoddamndeadman."

"And.."

"And how do I know? Are you really that stupid? Even Jerry knows you beediface."

"He.."

"Now just get there before she gets mad at me."
Beepbeepbeep.
Gone.

She ran out as fast as she could.Spotted a taxi.
"Faedo's?"

"Get in."

****

A memory:

Samara was sitting beside her nibbling on the potato wedges,legs dangling inside the gymkhana pool.
They didn't speak.
They were dreaming.

Out of the blue,Samara asked,"This won't change things between us will it?"

"Nah."

She smiled,despite herself.
Things already had.


***

Samara's face hit her as soon as she entered Faedo's.

She didn't have time to register the changes,Samara was already looking her way.
Jay was written all over.
That wasn't a good thing,was it?
Was Barretto right?
Was she really that stupid to have fallen for a dead man?
And Jerry?
Where did he figure in her life?
Especially now.
Why hadn't she deleted his photo from her palm pilot yet?
Why had she not seen this coming before when all her life she thought of only one man?


As she walked towards Samara,she smiled.
And Samara laughed.
The way she leaned against the table.
Her elbows on the table.
Head tilted slightly.Out of habit.
Her big eyes flitting from one object to another.
Little Jerry,as Jordy Uncle would call her.

Same old Samara,same old.


As she collapsed into the chair,Samara called the waitress to take her order.

Taco's,she thought.Taco's.Say Taco's and I'll know.

"Erm,taco's?"

They both laughed.



Taco's.The one thing none of the Saxena's could resist.
Especially Jordy Uncle.
She remembered and lit up.

After an hour of talking and laughing about their new lives,she knew it was time.
The heavy talk.

"So..Barretto told me about Jerry."

"Yeah,Jerry."
She shifted slightly.

"Soo...."

"Yeaah...so.."

"Do youu..."

Silence gave away her answer.
Samara knew.
She didn't have to utter a word.

"So you're going to tell him everything and sit at home,alone in the shadow of a guy who died a few years back? You know,life hardly works out the way you want it to."

Just nod.


"You know Dad always thought he'd never love any woman again after Mum died.And then he met Bee and yeah, things do get awkward sometimes but he has someone to grow old with.He took it up.And he's happy."


"So you mean..uh.."

"Jerry knows.You don't even have to explain it to him.Take it up."


4 hours later,she paid the bill and stepped out of Faedo's.
She had decided.
She would stay.She would let him stay.
Not everyone ends up with a fairytale.
For her,the story of her life would suffice.
All she ever needed was someone to grow old with,and she'd found her answer.


She would live.

"By the way,I got something for you ",Samara said,lighting up another ciggarete,"Look ahead."

She saw a portly man get out of a swanky black convertible.
Her face lit up.


A memory:

They had been sitting across the table for the past two hours.
She saw her mom sitting next to Jay,trying to comfort him.
Noone spoke a word.
The Saxena's were tired.Saddened.
She sat there numbed.
Sheila Aunty had been told by her oncologist that she they'd found tumours in her liver.Pancreas.
She was terminally ill.
Three years maximum,they'd said.

Jordy Uncle got up from the table and walked towards the large french windows,leaning against the sill as though trying to support himself with his hands.

He reminded her of Captain Kirk from Startrek in that pose.
The way he stood in front of all the screens and everything was going haywire.

Maybe the pose was just symbolic,for he spun around and quoted him.
His favourite Star Trek dialougue of all time.

"I don't believe in a no-win scenario."

He was her hero.

Sheila Aunty died two years later,more than what most patients suffering from pancreatic cancer survive.
Jay moved to Australia just a year and a half later.
She stood crying in Jordy Uncle's arms as he walked past the check-in counter and waved his last goodbye.

"You know kid,I'm kind of glad Sheila didn't live to see him walk past that door.It would have killed her.But that darned cancer beat her to it,eh?"

That was the last time she heard him speak.
Later that day Jordy Uncle moved to Shimla to his old farmhouse.
It was near Samara's boarding school.
He was lonely and Samara was his only family left.

That broke her heart.

***

As this portly man bumbled across the road,Samara shouted out to him,

"Welcome to LA Dad."

Jordy Uncle :)

His face was flushed and he hugged both Samara and her tightly.
There was a warmth in that moment that couldn't be explained.

She looked up and saw his eyes twinkling,face red with happiness.



Some things never change,do they?