Kei sanaa - my precious
Nine
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In two weeks' time, Nicholas received Raven's letter and ever since, her picture remained in his uniform's chest pocket or either in his wallet-when he didn't need to wear his uniform-along with his mother's picture.
Whenever he could steal time off from his work, he'd pull out the pictures and give them a second or two to refresh their memories in his mind. Raven hadn't changed much in the picture. She still had her fringe, and her almond eyes shone as she softly smiled into the camera. She was wearing a white collared, polka-dotted shirt which she neatly tucked inside a traditional wrap-around, which they called Karkhop in their Uipo dialect. Standing outside the big, white church lawn with a Bible in her hand, she looked as pretty as the daylight. And seeing her wear a karkhop absentmindedly put a smile on his face.
'A lady now, huh? Already wearing a karkhop,' he thought.
Back then, she was just a Sunday school kid who wore frocks and jeans to Church. Karkhop was usually worn by grown-up ladies who were most probably a part of the Church Choir. Each time he looked at her pictures, he grew more eager to see her. There was something about her that kept his curiosity locked on her. He considered her a kid for long, but now he realized that maybe she wasn't at all a kid anymore.
The next time Nicholas received another bunch of letters, there was another one from Raven too, and that was the only one written in her handwriting. She told him she'd been studying in Herbert for higher secondary education. She would have to stay in the girl's hostel for the next two years that follow so, she probably wouldn't be able to write to him anymore.
By then, Raven had already moved to Herbert hostel and started going to school. Out there, there were a number of don'ts and so less of dos, and everyone staying there preferred to call it a study prison.
No one was allowed to use phone. Once a week, the authority permitted them to call their parents, save for emergencies. Twice a month, parents could visit their kids on the second and last Sunday of the month, and one got so less opportunity to go home. The first two months had been a struggle for Raven, as it were for most of the freshers who had never before stayed away from home. Raven often cried when she talked to her parents.
But somehow, when she left the hostel after two years, she came out a stronger and happier person. She had learned a lot, especially from the rushing schedule-time constantly chasing them-she'd learned to make the most of each second, cherish each moment she got to spend with her friends.
In the end, she was more than glad that she got to stay where they initially called 'The Prison'. And when she left the hostel, she left with hopes of returning to visit it again someday, aware of all the lessons that place had unknowingly taught her along the way. But life had to go on. There was more to learn.
Right after she gave her higher secondary exams, she left for Shillong to pursue her bachelor's degree. Her father had wanted to send her to Delhi and stay with Elliot but, the crime rate in the city made her mother object to the idea. Besides, Elliot was now busy working as a music teacher and music influencer on Youtube, earning way more than a decent government job.
He had found his way. Or he had his way found for him. Nicholas had paid a visit when he returned to Delhi after his first deployment in Kashmir, just like he promised. Nicholas had seen posters about a national singing competition. He came, initially, to talk Elliot into participating. When Elliot, who knew about it himself, in all glory of his obstinacy and despondency, refused to give it a shot, Nicholas assorted to drinking with him through the night. And drink they did, of course. They drank like pigs.
When morning came, daylight sweeping across the sloppy faces of two young men snoozing dead drunk on the living room floor, Nicholas already had a video of a highly drunk Elliot belting out a song in his phone. You could have Elliot suspended ten thousand feet in the air on a rope, drunk, and he would still win your heart with his singing. He was born with it.
Nicholas submitted the video clip to the competition. Elliot could punch a hole through Nicholas' head or kiss his big ass, when he received a phone call one vapid evening asking him to sing for them live once before they take him to Mumbai.
Elliot's fussing and cussing only made Nicholas laugh like a mad man. It was next to impossible to predict how far this would go but his trust in Elliot was unshakable and he was excited for him. Elliot could cuss all he wanted, but Nicholas knew Elliot wouldn't stop singing. That was all that mattered.
The rest was history as Elliot stole people's heart day after day, men and women, young and old, becoming a national darling. Now, with his success and work, it would be impossible for him to babysit Raven and Tracy wasn't going to risk her youngest daughter's safety until she thought she was old enough to take care of herself. Until then, Shillong was a far safer place.
Every time Raven called home, she asked about Elliot and Nicholas. Every time Nicholas called home or wrote a letter back home, he asked of Raven and Elliot. Every time he got a second to steal, he'd pull out the pictures in his chest pocket. Three years in active service had gone by since he first got recruited in the special forces. He was now a young man of twenty-six, an army Captain, and Raven, a college girl of nineteen.
Six years had passed since Nicholas first left home.
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In her hostel room in Shillong, after dinner, while humming the softening tune of Edith Piaf's 'La Vie En Rose' under her breath as she tidied up her study table and arranged her books, Raven's phone buzzed and sang the ringtone she'd set for her mom.
"Mummy," she answered.
"Had dinner, kei sanaa?"
"Yeah."
"Are you coming home this summer?"
"Yeah. I think so. After exam."
"When does it end?"
"Fourth of May."
"You have holidays after exam?"
"Yeah."
"And how long does it last?"
"Not sure. Over two weeks. . . probably about a month." Raven mulled, dropping a bunch of pens in a coffee mug on the table.
"Great. Nicholas is coming home too, you know."
"Nick?" Raven echoed into the phone, wide-eyed, a spark of curiosity and delight japping in the quiet recesses of her heart.
"Yes. Nick. He's coming home around the eighth so you'll be home earlier."
For real?!
"Does he have a wife already?" Raven suddenly asked her mom.
The random oddity of the question threw her mother off quite a great deal 'cause the sentence that followed came in the form of a snappy exclamation, "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, YOU SILLY?! HE'S STILL A BACHELOR!!"
Raven winced at the noise and replied slowly, "I mean, he could've found a girl there. We never know, right?"
"Noooo. He's still a bachelor," Tracy sighed at Raven's nature of asking silly, impetuous questions time and again, "We'll have to set him up with a beautiful girl here. I'm sure every girl in the village, including their mothers, will be head over heels for him now." Tracy laughed.
"Oh, great. Great. Great." Raven nodded, trying to absorb the idea that Nicholas was finally coming back home after six years, without a wife.
Then she sent a knuckle to her head at her silliness.
Of course, he's still a bachelor. Nick isn't the type who'd get married just like that.
Raven had a huge grin plastered on her face after she ended the call with her mom. She couldn't imagine what he would look like now. She couldn't even think of a word to say to him when she meet him. Her stomach flipped inside to give her butterflies as she imagined herself standing in front of him, speechless.
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On the fifth of May, Raven left Shillong. When she reached home, she met Darcha Grace and helped her clean the house for Nicholas' return. Any soul on earth would notice Grace's joy threatening to explode from a hundred mile that her only son was finally coming back home after six years.
In high spirit, she'd keep singing all the gospel songs and native love songs she knew as she cleaned every inch of the house including every single glass and spoon and fork, dusted the pictures of Nicholas in neat olive green uniform which were resting on a decorative shelf in the living room. . . Grace had turned the house upside down and inside out.
She'd stare at his pictures for long moments with a warm smile on her face, thrilled that tomorrow Nicholas would truly be home and he would no longer be just pictures on the shelf. Raven had even tried persuading her to take some rest while she did the chores, but there was no stopping for Grace.
The fact that she would be reunited with her son again had supplemented about nine additional lives in her soul. Let alone Grace, but the house, as a whole, had seemed hollow and lifeless without him for years. Now that he was coming back, she bet even his table, dresser, bed were all eager for him.
Grace had been keeping a paid helper at home ever since her niece Tungdarshang too left the village to attend a new school, but even the helper didn't stay all the time. Even now, she'd gone home for a few days.
"I wish I had a daughter like you, Raven," Grace sighed from her chair as she watched Raven do the dishes after dinner. "It's true that a house isn't complete without a girl child."
Raven smiled and answered in jest, "True that. And especially someone like me."
Grace chuckled in response. "That's exactly what I mean. Someone like you. But it's a good thing that you're like a daughter to me. You always help me whenever you can and always look after me when I'm unwell. You are a blessing to me."
"It's my pleasure, Darcha. You're like a mother to me too." Raven looked back and gave her a kind smile.
Raven sat with Grace in the living room late after dinner, leafing through the only photo album they had, laughing over Nicholas' funny childhood pictures.
"We only have this baby picture of him," Grace said, stroking the infant's photo carefully. "I wish we took more pictures. But back in those days, all we ever thought about is putting food on our plates. Taking pictures never even crossed our mind. But he did save up money and took some pictures with his friends when he's older. They would contribute money and buy a negative roll. They used to have that back in the days."
"Yeah. I remember it a bit."
"He also took this picture of mine."
Grace turned the leave over and showed Raven a picture of Nicholas in his boyhood. Wearing a faded red t-shirt, a pair of dusty half-pants whose pockets were heavy with marbles, horse star sandals, and holding his catapult in position, he smiled for the camera.
"This one. His Pushang Koshel took for him in their front yard when he came looking for wild birds. He was seven years old."
Raven looked closer and pointed, "He has a missing front tooth!"
Grace looked closer and laughed, further telling Raven about a time when Elliot accidentally broke one of Nicholas' front tooth with a shot of his catapult.
Grace showed her photo after photo, telling a story of their own. Raven stayed with her for long, laughing, sometimes even crying over the stories of their humble beginning.
When Raven lay down on her bed that night, she opened the red letter she found in Nicholas' drawer while cleaning his room, lying next to his legendary catapult. It had shocked her to find it still there after all these years. She was thirteen when she gave it to him. She could hardly believe her eyes that he hadn't thrown it away. She'd tried her best to forget about it, and the fact that it was still sitting there didn't help. Nicholas was sure to be reminded of it when he sees it again. Raven wished he'd thrown it away. But since he hadn't, she took it away with her to save herself another embarrassment.
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The next day, Maxwell drove Grace to the airport around 12:30 at noon. Nicholas would reach at 2 pm. Raven spent the day at her aunt Jennifer's orphanage as a volunteer.
While walking back home from the orphanage in the sunset, when flocks of white ibis sailed overhead in the pinkish sky to their nesting on the hills nearby, Raven passed by Nicholas' house on the way. At the sight of their green tin gate, an aching curiosity bugged her mind as she wondered about Nicholas. She moved closer to the gate, raised herself on her tiptoes and let her eyes wander over their front yard and to their verandah, striving to steal a glimpse of him. The front door was closed. She reckoned he hadn't reached yet.
To make things easier for her, she could have easily walked in and asked about him like old friends, but Raven hardly found the strength in her to meet him. What would she even say to him?
As she stood there, eyes locked on the front porch, the doorknob turned and someone from the inside suddenly yanked the door open. Startled at it, Raven took to her heels without waiting another moment, heading for her house.
At the same time as Nicholas stepped out of the door with his mother, his eyes caught the sight of a girl with long, raven black hair running pass his house, her hair swaying and flying behind a small petite frame. Nicholas missed the chance to see her face, but for all he knew, that was the most striking sight he'd ever seen.
In a hurry to get a better view of the girl before she disappears out of sight, Nicholas scurried down the steps and watched after her over the hedge that fenced their house. And there she was, rich black locks of hair, running away from him, he reckoned, as if being chased by a bull.
When he was certain he had never seen this girl before, he asked his mother while his gaze followed her, "Nu, who's that?"
"Who?" Grace too came down the stairs and peered down the road.
"There. That girl running down the street."
"That?! That's Raven, Nicholas!" Her mother exclaimed, amazed at how he had failed to recognize her.
Nicholas felt his breath stop at his throat. "That's Raves?"
"Yes! You sure can't recognize her anymore."
God.
Looking back down the road, he stared behind her in complete astonishment. The Raven he knew was a little girl with fringes but, what he saw now was a grown young lady who had managed to grab his attention at the slightest first sight.
"Raves!" He called behind her.
Raven's heart seemed to almost explode out of her chest as she kept running down the street without looking back.
"Raves!!" She heard his distant voice call for her again.
She ran faster. The sound of Nicholas' voice made her feel jittery in her stomach and she raced ahead. Nicholas watched her until every speck of her frame disappeared out of his view.
"Why's she running away?" Grace garbled.
"I think she's shy or something," Nicholas chuckled.
Grace laughed. "Silly Raven."
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