Serpent in the Garden

Chapter 3

While Parveen was pulling out the veil from her bag she did not notice that her brooch had fallen to the floor of the bus. Sam stepped on the brooch immediately to keep it in place before she took notice. He quickly bent down in the pretext of tucking his shoelaces inside his shoes and deftly hid the brooch in his left hand. He stood back up and slipped the brooch into his pocket. Parveen was focused on folding the veil and draping it.

He watched her as her hands gracefully worked the fabric. His eyes strayed to the nape of her neck where wispy strands of hair that escaped her plait fluttered in the wind. One particular strand of baby hair was coiled in on itself. He had the urge to pull it out. Parveen covered her head with her veil and cut off Sam's view.

She smoothed out and hid stray hair and kept a fold in place while she searched for the brooch with her other hand to secure it. She could not find it. The bus was slowing to a halt, she quit her search and let the drape stay loose around her head.

They got down and she passed by Sam swiftly, her veil fluttering and slipping from her head to reveal her hair again. He walked leisurely behind her, his left hand closed around the brooch in his pants pocket, clicking it open and closing.

This reminded him of the time when they used to go to the same tuition center. He languidly trudged through the road and turned into the gated housing society. She was about fifty feet ahead of him when she crossed the avenue and opened the gate to enter her house. The metal hinges groaned as she opened and stepped inside. A click rang through the quiet neighborhood when she put the lock back in place. She ran inside the house and the avenue was quiet again except for the faint crunch of dry leaves beneath his shoes.

It has been two months since school started, yet he never got an opportunity to speak to her. She is always in a hurry to get back home in the evening. Why does she keep trying to avoid him?

When he found that Parveen switched to his school and was traveling with him on the same bus, his interest was piqued. He would be seeing her often now. Ever since he stopped his tuition a year ago, he seldom saw her.

The avenue was lined with old Acacia trees that spread a magnificent canopy above his head. When a gentle evening wind murmured among the trees, the leaves fell around him like confetti. He relished the walk back home every day, it was a few minutes of calm before his mind was inundated with schoolwork and entrance prep. After a few minutes, the houses became more spaced out as he reached the more affluent part of the neighbourhood.  He reached his house shortly.

His grandmother, Saramma was visiting this week. She was in the habit of cooking him after-school snacks. Today she had made pazham pani. He ate the sweet snack and went upstairs to change into sportswear. Afterward, he jogged to the football ground and passed by Parveen's house once again.

He knew that she would be watering the plants now. In anticipation, all nerves focused on the front yard of her old-fashioned modernist home from the 90s. Time seemed to slow down. He first noted the water droplets sprouting from a hose before she became visible. Their garden was choked with plants, every crevice seemed to be overflowing with leaves and flowering tendrils. Parveen was standing in the middle of this haphazard garden, holding the water hose, like the goddess of life itself.

She was wearing a kurta and pajamas with a translucent white cotton shawl covering her head. Her wavy hair softly swayed in the evening breeze at her waist as she sprayed the dancing yellow orchids with water. Her eyes were focused and she was humming a tune. As he passed her by she looked at him for a second before quickly averting her eyes.

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Parveen took her sweet time watering the plants. Inside the house, Grandma Fatima, her mother, and aunt were having another one of their fraught discussions about dividing family property.

"Please Mother, tell Wahhab ikka to accept the partition, how else will I get my Suhayla married off? After marrying off Shahana, you know how much debt we racked up!"

Latifa, her father's sister, was marrying off her youngest daughter, but she was pressed for money. She was persuading the family to finally move forward with the partition. The landed property in her family was jointly managed by her oldest brother, Parveen's father.

"I deserve that land after all!" Latifa exclaimed. " Why can't we just do the partition now, and get it over with? It's been so long since Father died"

"Latifa, don't be worried, we all want to see Suhayla married off respectably, we will do our best to get everything in order," said Halima as she kneaded wheat flour to make chapatis for supper.

Parveen got the gist of what was happening from the snippets of conversation she overheard. If she was indoors, it would make them uncomfortable as these are 'adult' talks. So she had to hover around in their line of vision but not too close. She finally turned the tap off and went inside when the conversation reached its conclusion. Her grandma straightened up her cotton voile sari and gathered some wedding invitation cards from the pile Aunt Latifa had brought with her.

"Parveen, let's go, we have to invite the neighbours to the wedding. Come with me, Latifa"

Grandma covered her head with the pallu of her sari standing in front of the mirror. She smelt like roses from the copious talcum powder she had dabbled all over her body.

Aunt Latifa wasn't ready yet. She exclaimed incredulously, "But are we close with Wahhab ikka's neighbours, Mother? Wouldn't it be overkill to invite them to the wedding? I barely know any of them"

Grandma Fatima pouted at her daughter's comments. Parveen's grandma stayed at her house for many years. But she moved to her daughter's home when her health problems worsened and she was embarrassed to make her daughter-in-law take care of her.

Back when she was staying at Parveen's home, she used to go for evening walks in the neighbourhood where she made a lot of friends. Parveen knew that she missed them dearly. This wedding invitation is an excuse to meet them again. Friendship in Grandma Fatima's age was a delicate thing. There was no knowing who would have death knocking at their doors. Since Grandma Fatima's circle seemed to be shrinking every year as her dear ones passed, she was adamant about grabbing every opportunity to meet whoever was still alive.

Seeing how her mother's mood was taking a dip, Latifa tried to pacify her.

"Don't be so downcast, we will invite your friends! Wait here while I go upstairs and finish my prayers"

Aunt Latifa climbed up the stairs to the upstairs living room, where they usually did their prayers. Parveen changed to more presentable clothes, a long khaki-colored flared skirt, full-sleeved dark blue blouse with a rust brown shawl covering her hair, and joined her grandma at the porch. They had to wait for a while since Aunt Latifa had to take a call right after her prayers.

"If you don't want to come, I am going with Parveen!" Cried her grandma with exasperation, a sour expression on her face as the sky was turning orange at the horizon. Aunt Latifa donned a black abaya and joined them right as her grandma finished putting on her slippers. Grandma held Parveen's arm as they slowly made their way to the houses she wished to visit. They quickly finished visiting two households and proceeded to walk to Sam's house which was farther away.

"Is Sam's Velyammachi here, Grandma?" Parveen asked.

"Yeah, I had informed her of my visit by phone and she promised that she would be home," Grandma Fatima said resolutely. She walked as fast as she could gripping Parveen's elbow tightly.

The sky was darker now. The final rays of the sun emblazoned the belly of some clouds in a fiery red. The heat of the August evening dissipated as a cool breeze swept up the dried leaves on the footpath.

The wide eaves of Sam's house shortly appeared before them. Parveen loved Sam's house. It was designed by one of the top architects in Kochi. Most of her rich relatives just had a big mansion with many rooms but Sam's parents had excellent taste. They crossed a neatly maintained tropical garden in the expansive front yard. The house designed in a contemporary style was designed with attention to detail. The smooth walls were interspersed with natural textures of wood, stone, and exposed brick. It had been a long while since she got the opportunity to see his house again.