Redemption

Illustration: TBS

Mehruz gave voice to what Rohini had been thinking, "Baba will be happy here," he gestured widely; the light, the air, the greenery. "Not that he's aware of much these days."

She rushed to Baba's defense, "There are terrific moments of lucidity and recognition; you'd be amazed."

"He'll respond to the stimulus of nature…" they both uttered, the phrases from the siblings more or less colliding.

Brother stared hard at sister, trying to assess. He sensed a palpable nervousness, a deep anxiety he could not put his finger on. He had no desire to delve further. "Well, your turn now, we had Baba for 5 years and you never once visited."

She wouldn't catch his eye fiddling with the whisky in her hand.

"You'd better clinch the deal and pay the man the two years advance he wants or lose the flat." As he spoke, the wind lifted the water of the lake, the bordering trees dipped graceful branches, and the leaves susurrated. A flock of parrots screeched dazzlingly green into the approaching gloom.

Truly, she could not take this away from Baba! The man had loved them unconditionally and provided them with the best, always, even long after Ma had left. They'd never felt her loss, his care had nourished and nurtured singly what both would have done jointly.

The flat and its balcony was a meandering dream. An enchanted isle in a city of bricks and concrete. Truth was, she'd invested the money entrusted to her for Baba's care. Playing the stock market had proved her ineptitude. Good money after bad, she just could not recover. She had meant to increase the capital but it was gone. She would never be able to confide in her sibling nor ask to be bailed out.

Mehruz kissed her cheek, bid her goodbye and left for the airport. She breathed a sigh of relief. She'd stopped her emotions, her anxiousness, her guilt; her fear of being caught out so ignominiously by the brother who'd always done good, lived life on an even keel and was feted as a success! She'd been the opposite, disastrous marriage, reckless feckless men, alcohol, but she had cleaned up her act and intended to devote herself to Baba. She needed to hold on to the flat. She made the call to the only person she knew would deal.

"Rai Babu, you know why I've called. You'd made me an offer some months ago. Does it still stand?"

The answer was what she'd hoped for, had been too nervous to anticipate, too anxious not to confront until all options were gone and no solution left. Tomorrow she breathed to herself. First thing tomorrow, the bank locker and the ring. The seven carat ring that had fallen to her lot from her grandmother's heirlooms. Rai Babu seeing her sporting it months ago had with a jeweler's zeal informed her should she ever want to sell such a stunning piece she would find him a ready buyer.

So the die was cast, she had no other cards to play, and strangely, the amount offered was exactly fifty lakhs, the amount the landlord had wanted as the advance.

She knocked back the malt in a single gulp as the tears welled and stung.