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ch 4 Miraitowa (continued)
continued..
morning news bulletin broke their attention. both of them gazed at the tv screen on the wall. an injured culprit was arrested and one girl along with another were found dead. prasad stared at the photo of the injured boy on the screen. he was one of amir’s friend. they looked at each other. the news anchor further added name of amir as culprit as testified by the injured boy. prasad worryingly and hurriedly dialled amir’s number on his phone.
“he is not answering.” prasad said with heavy voice as if he agreed the anchor. his son had molested his daughter.
“he must have his phone on silent mode. someone is clearly trying to frame him.” rosie replied an unasked question. but prasad knew better. a boy who had tried to kill his own father was capable of anything. he carried away in the thoughts, collapsing into darkness. suddenly his phone rang. unknow number! prasad answered the call.
“you must be wondering how could amir do such a heinous act. maybe there is still part of you which doesn’t believe amir could do such a thing. you must be wondering who is the actual culprit. so, i am gonna give you a hint. vishal, amir’s friend, who was found injured was injected with ricin, same ricin that came from rosie’s laboratory at her home. i am not gonna say that amir is innocent. in fact, he is the farthest person from being innocent. just dig in and you will know how deep this goes. i am providing proofs to police soon. good luck.” a girl spoke in the phone.
“moonlight?” gasped prasad. the girl had hung up the phone. he just had a hunch that she was moonlight. she knew a lot of things about him and his family though he wasn’t sure. prasad looked intensely at rosie with suspicion growing inside him.
“aren’t you little worried that you have left aarifa with amir?” prasad asked reading every possible expression on rosie’s face. he had seen the lab and rosie once told him about ricin and how she was working on a medicine to cure cancer. once drunk he even told her about mary’s past.
“i don’t think amir could do that. he is a good kid. i have watched him grow.” replied rosie. prasad’s doubts found stronger roots. but why would rosie want him dead? was he just overthinking and the girl on was lying? prasad’s mind was bursting from vexation and distress. these three days had hurt him more than he was hurt losing his parents. back then he had mary beside him but now he felt all alone.
“the girl on the phone said that tessa injured vikram with ricin. she said that she got it from laboratory at your home. few days ago, amir tried to kill me with ricin. ricin is a rare poison. it not a coincidence that they both got ricin. i am very thankful to you for giving me my daughter back and she needs my full attention. i can’t spare my time worrying about this shit. so, rosie, for tessa’s sake, tell me the truth. what is going on? just few weeks after i tell you about mary’s past, suddenly i get a letter by someone named ‘moonlight’ threatening to expose her past.” prasad sobbed, with literally tears in his eyes.
“are you just gonna believe a stranger? and who would know about ricin better than me? it’s not toy that i would leave it out for anyone to get it and play with it. my lab is always locked with security pin. there is no way for children to get access. as for amir, i already told you. if he tried to kill you, his own father, something is going in his head. he is not a criminal. something is bothering him about you. talk to him and know why he did this.”
“you still don’t think he did this?”
“tessa is his sister. you know how much he love. you just care of tessa. when she come out of coma, every secret will unfold.”
prasad sighed and looked at his daughter; only she could reveal truth. if she injected vikram with ricin, only she could tell where did she get it. only she could tell if his son was innocent.
***
tessa came out of the coma today. it had been months since the incident. prasad was no longer mad at her for her sexuality. though, his son’s disappearance clearly stated that he was a culprit but he would trust no one other than tessa herself, not the police, not even himself. though he still hoped tessa to say her brother was innocent. might he run away because of news and he was afraid of going to jail?
rosie helped and comforted him in these past few months. but just about two months ago, she also disappeared. he couldn’t be more thankful to her for helping him fight legally to get justice for tessa and her friend eva. now, that he had to fight this battle alone, he had found the lost companion in mary. she had stopped talking to her sister back in herat ever since he told her about moonlight and letter. he never heard back from moonlight back. with tessa’s recovery, his life was whole again. though, he missed his son sometimes.
prasad walked out of his bedroom, all dressed up for welcome party for tessa. it was small gathering. just mary, aarifa, martian, danial and shayam with their daughter elizabeth, eva’s parents and himself, everyone tessa specifically asked for, though she didn’t say anything about her brother.
silently he joined everyone in drawing room. tessa was busy chatting with aarifa and elizabeth on the sofa. he sat with mary and martian. strangely, this time when he looked at danial and shayam, he wasn’t hateful.
“god bless these girls.” said mary looking at them with motherly affection that had sprouted out loud since tessa came home from hospital. once again, she was the women prasad loved and the one who cared for him in his eyes. those days were behind when thought of mary as a terrorist.
“hey danial, come here.” shouted martian, squeezing a gulab jamun in his mouth. danial walked to them with shayam to the dining table.
“mary, eva’s parents have cornered themselves. could you talk to them?” said prasad and mary walked way, danial and shayam sat in vacant seats. for a few seconds, they watched the girls giggling and talking.
“i am an old man. when i was young, love was defined between a boy and a girl. it took me time to adapt in this new concept; i am still trying. i have hurt my daughter enough for this. i don’t wanna do that to her again. i want to be there for her, like before. shayam, how did you convince your parents? they are older than me. it must have been hard for you. even i was so at stubborn that i didn’t even listen what tessa had to say.” prasad said calmly. he once in while looked at tessa; the house looked happy in a very long time.
“in the beginning it was tough, yeah. not just for him. to be honest, when i myself first time found out that i was interested in boys, i was scared. i don’t know how my parents cope up with it but i can tell you something that might help you understand.” shayam spoke up. prasad could feel the tension on his face. he was genuinely worried.
“prasad, you know even our daughter is gay. when she first time told us, we were hyped. we didn’t want her to face the humiliation we faced. that’s when i understood how hard it must have been for our parents to accept us as gay.” danial added to shayam.
“even you were worried about your daughter?” martian asked.
“yeah, i couldn’t sleep for days. not much of people do understand what we feel when we are outcasted because of our sexuality. in the beginning, we would think that those people were bad who had problem with our sexuality but when elizabeth told us about her, that’s when we realised that it is equally hard for our parents to accept us as gays as it was for us.” told danial.
“nowadays, we think dowry and sati are bad rituals but in past even women people thought of rituals differently. even you would agree with that? from your young age, you must remember how it was considered bad for a boy and a girl to talk and fall in love but now, you wouldn’t consider it bad for a boy to have a girlfriend. over time we evolved and we learnt better. it wasn’t like in a blink of second people accepted inter-religion, inter-caste or love marriages. it happened over time. same goes for homosexuality. it is hard for you to cope up with because you never grew thinking of as normal and it’s okay. but now that you wanna understand, you should know that its not easy for tessa either. she does worry about her sexuality like you do about her. be there for her and with time, you would grow to think of her sexuality as normal.” shayam followed danial.
it was like they knew each other’s soul. they completed each other. last time prasad checked definition of love from his experience, that was it. for the first time, prasad actually realised that danial and shayam were in love. that was how he felt about mary. he looked at tessa again. he saw his daughter, the same daughter he quit drinking, the same daughter who would hug him when he came back home from, the same daughter who was his happiness.
***
© the forbidden child
morning news bulletin broke their attention. both of them gazed at the tv screen on the wall. an injured culprit was arrested and one girl along with another were found dead. prasad stared at the photo of the injured boy on the screen. he was one of amir’s friend. they looked at each other. the news anchor further added name of amir as culprit as testified by the injured boy. prasad worryingly and hurriedly dialled amir’s number on his phone.
“he is not answering.” prasad said with heavy voice as if he agreed the anchor. his son had molested his daughter.
“he must have his phone on silent mode. someone is clearly trying to frame him.” rosie replied an unasked question. but prasad knew better. a boy who had tried to kill his own father was capable of anything. he carried away in the thoughts, collapsing into darkness. suddenly his phone rang. unknow number! prasad answered the call.
“you must be wondering how could amir do such a heinous act. maybe there is still part of you which doesn’t believe amir could do such a thing. you must be wondering who is the actual culprit. so, i am gonna give you a hint. vishal, amir’s friend, who was found injured was injected with ricin, same ricin that came from rosie’s laboratory at her home. i am not gonna say that amir is innocent. in fact, he is the farthest person from being innocent. just dig in and you will know how deep this goes. i am providing proofs to police soon. good luck.” a girl spoke in the phone.
“moonlight?” gasped prasad. the girl had hung up the phone. he just had a hunch that she was moonlight. she knew a lot of things about him and his family though he wasn’t sure. prasad looked intensely at rosie with suspicion growing inside him.
“aren’t you little worried that you have left aarifa with amir?” prasad asked reading every possible expression on rosie’s face. he had seen the lab and rosie once told him about ricin and how she was working on a medicine to cure cancer. once drunk he even told her about mary’s past.
“i don’t think amir could do that. he is a good kid. i have watched him grow.” replied rosie. prasad’s doubts found stronger roots. but why would rosie want him dead? was he just overthinking and the girl on was lying? prasad’s mind was bursting from vexation and distress. these three days had hurt him more than he was hurt losing his parents. back then he had mary beside him but now he felt all alone.
“the girl on the phone said that tessa injured vikram with ricin. she said that she got it from laboratory at your home. few days ago, amir tried to kill me with ricin. ricin is a rare poison. it not a coincidence that they both got ricin. i am very thankful to you for giving me my daughter back and she needs my full attention. i can’t spare my time worrying about this shit. so, rosie, for tessa’s sake, tell me the truth. what is going on? just few weeks after i tell you about mary’s past, suddenly i get a letter by someone named ‘moonlight’ threatening to expose her past.” prasad sobbed, with literally tears in his eyes.
“are you just gonna believe a stranger? and who would know about ricin better than me? it’s not toy that i would leave it out for anyone to get it and play with it. my lab is always locked with security pin. there is no way for children to get access. as for amir, i already told you. if he tried to kill you, his own father, something is going in his head. he is not a criminal. something is bothering him about you. talk to him and know why he did this.”
“you still don’t think he did this?”
“tessa is his sister. you know how much he love. you just care of tessa. when she come out of coma, every secret will unfold.”
prasad sighed and looked at his daughter; only she could reveal truth. if she injected vikram with ricin, only she could tell where did she get it. only she could tell if his son was innocent.
***
tessa came out of the coma today. it had been months since the incident. prasad was no longer mad at her for her sexuality. though, his son’s disappearance clearly stated that he was a culprit but he would trust no one other than tessa herself, not the police, not even himself. though he still hoped tessa to say her brother was innocent. might he run away because of news and he was afraid of going to jail?
rosie helped and comforted him in these past few months. but just about two months ago, she also disappeared. he couldn’t be more thankful to her for helping him fight legally to get justice for tessa and her friend eva. now, that he had to fight this battle alone, he had found the lost companion in mary. she had stopped talking to her sister back in herat ever since he told her about moonlight and letter. he never heard back from moonlight back. with tessa’s recovery, his life was whole again. though, he missed his son sometimes.
prasad walked out of his bedroom, all dressed up for welcome party for tessa. it was small gathering. just mary, aarifa, martian, danial and shayam with their daughter elizabeth, eva’s parents and himself, everyone tessa specifically asked for, though she didn’t say anything about her brother.
silently he joined everyone in drawing room. tessa was busy chatting with aarifa and elizabeth on the sofa. he sat with mary and martian. strangely, this time when he looked at danial and shayam, he wasn’t hateful.
“god bless these girls.” said mary looking at them with motherly affection that had sprouted out loud since tessa came home from hospital. once again, she was the women prasad loved and the one who cared for him in his eyes. those days were behind when thought of mary as a terrorist.
“hey danial, come here.” shouted martian, squeezing a gulab jamun in his mouth. danial walked to them with shayam to the dining table.
“mary, eva’s parents have cornered themselves. could you talk to them?” said prasad and mary walked way, danial and shayam sat in vacant seats. for a few seconds, they watched the girls giggling and talking.
“i am an old man. when i was young, love was defined between a boy and a girl. it took me time to adapt in this new concept; i am still trying. i have hurt my daughter enough for this. i don’t wanna do that to her again. i want to be there for her, like before. shayam, how did you convince your parents? they are older than me. it must have been hard for you. even i was so at stubborn that i didn’t even listen what tessa had to say.” prasad said calmly. he once in while looked at tessa; the house looked happy in a very long time.
“in the beginning it was tough, yeah. not just for him. to be honest, when i myself first time found out that i was interested in boys, i was scared. i don’t know how my parents cope up with it but i can tell you something that might help you understand.” shayam spoke up. prasad could feel the tension on his face. he was genuinely worried.
“prasad, you know even our daughter is gay. when she first time told us, we were hyped. we didn’t want her to face the humiliation we faced. that’s when i understood how hard it must have been for our parents to accept us as gay.” danial added to shayam.
“even you were worried about your daughter?” martian asked.
“yeah, i couldn’t sleep for days. not much of people do understand what we feel when we are outcasted because of our sexuality. in the beginning, we would think that those people were bad who had problem with our sexuality but when elizabeth told us about her, that’s when we realised that it is equally hard for our parents to accept us as gays as it was for us.” told danial.
“nowadays, we think dowry and sati are bad rituals but in past even women people thought of rituals differently. even you would agree with that? from your young age, you must remember how it was considered bad for a boy and a girl to talk and fall in love but now, you wouldn’t consider it bad for a boy to have a girlfriend. over time we evolved and we learnt better. it wasn’t like in a blink of second people accepted inter-religion, inter-caste or love marriages. it happened over time. same goes for homosexuality. it is hard for you to cope up with because you never grew thinking of as normal and it’s okay. but now that you wanna understand, you should know that its not easy for tessa either. she does worry about her sexuality like you do about her. be there for her and with time, you would grow to think of her sexuality as normal.” shayam followed danial.
it was like they knew each other’s soul. they completed each other. last time prasad checked definition of love from his experience, that was it. for the first time, prasad actually realised that danial and shayam were in love. that was how he felt about mary. he looked at tessa again. he saw his daughter, the same daughter he quit drinking, the same daughter who would hug him when he came back home from, the same daughter who was his happiness.
***
© the forbidden child
