Firstborn

Chapter 22 - Turned Backs

Two weeks after the accident, her arm had healed easily, confounding the hospital medics. She wasn't surprised at all. While they exclaimed over and discussed her x-ray excitedly with each other, an image of a falling bullet flashed before her eyes. She had to sit down on a nearby chair as her gut turned inside out as it responded to the overpowering vehemence she remembered she felt towards Avi. Without words, she couldn't make sense of it but the images implied a snow leopard had cured him.

Before she went to Windsor school she didn't think she had seen Avi on the evening she was found sleeping on the roof. Now sitting on the stairs, she knew, she had. Sighing loudly, Una slowly retraced her steps to the car port to retrieve her abandoned suitcase which was still in the same position she left it in.

Carrying her attaché into the living room, Una stopped momentarily in front of the glass cabinet. It had a new addition - her mother's wind up Timex watch. Una had worn the watch constantly since her mum's death until she left for the new school. The clock hands were stuck on 7:30. It was found in the neighbouring field not far from Tommy's body. Originally Dev accused her of having something to do with his death! At the time she was appalled but now she wasn't sure.

Her English life was frozen behind the glass. With just a hairpin, she could ring her local school friend and ask for an iPhone charger and retrieve her previous life stored on the phone. She could wind the watch and remember her mum and read the letter and bring her dad back but she no longer wanted to. They had all abandoned her. Perhaps she was harsh on her English friends but in truth she had a new life and, besides the sanctuary provided by Windsor School, nothing mattered.

Una's new friends did not include Avi or Meeru. Meeru put paid to that.

Inconsolable after Tommy's death, Una had run to their house. She'd called out for Avi many times and when no one answered she brazenly walked to the back of the property. In the backyard she found an outbuilding with its doors wide open. Una ventured in. Floral and fresh fragrance permeated the air. A heavy duty iron and a special ironing table stood in the centre. Nylon clothes lines criss-crossed the room with white sheets and kurtas drying on them. Una was somewhat disorientated. She couldn't say why but she expected an animal to be living there. On that day she believed she had not been on Major's property, but, of course, she was mistaken.

"He's not here," Meeru said, appearing in the doorway, startling Una.

If Meeru had not spoken, Una would not have recognised her. The Meeru walking towards her was dull eyed and sallow and closely resembled a walking corpse.

"Is there anything you need?" Meeru asked wearily as she placed the back of her hand against her forehead.

She didn't give Una a chance to speak.

"No? Then if you don't mind, I've got a lot to do, as you can see."

"You've got a lot to do - in here?" Una was surprised. "What about your servants and the sisters in law who used to do this work for you?"

Meeru just shrugged and said irritatedly, "Una I haven't got time for chit chat..."

"Meeru, I just wanted to know if you or Avi knew about Tommy's cruel killing last week and whether you saw something. I just can't understand why somebody would kill Tommy so brutally and why he was on the other side of the wall." Una hurried through her sentence before a deluge of tears fell down her face.

Meeru unpegged a handkerchief from the washing line and indifferently passed it to Una.

"No." Meeru said with little or no emotion.

Una wasn't fooled. Unable to speak she watched Meeru fidget with her salwar kameez's duppata.

Meeru continued. "I don't know anything about Tommy but what in heavens makes you think Avi and I would care about the death of a dog?"

Una remained quiet and carried on studying Meeru. Besides Meeru's constant fidgeting and trembling there was something else about her that was quite out of character with the girl she met on the roof when she first came. Una stared hard and then wondered why she didn't notice it straight away. Meeru's clothes were all wrong. Her western clothes were replaced by a mismatched Indian outfit that an older woman with no sense of fashion would choose to wear.

"I have lots to do and quite frankly I would appreciate it if you left instead of gawking at me, Una."

Una stumbled out of the building.

"By the way Una, I wouldn't bother coming around anymore."

Una kept walking.

"Avi got his calling papers from the army and he has begun his training. He would have come around to tell you but he stupidly got hurt by a dummy bullet when he was horsing around with his uncles."

Una stopped and turned around to face Meeru.

"Oh, so that's what I saw from Grandad's roof - an initiation game of sorts."

Meeru was no longer listening to Una. Instead she was distracted by something near Una's feet.

Una followed her gaze. At her feet lay a nearly empty pail of white paint and a box containing oddments such as a white enamel plate and mug with navy trims and dirty nylon material. Material she had seen in her dreams worn by a vagrant while she was looking for her Dad.

Following the meetingwith Meeru, Una returned to her grandfather's house, and to their astonishmentshe agreed to become a border at Windsor School the next day.

A/N No one likes to be left behind and that too suddenly. Take care of all your friends - not just the popular ones.