Healing Hearts

Chapter ~ 5

MUMBAI

Nandini came out of the terminal still muttering, and her phone rang before she reached the taxi rank.

“I am so sorry, I forgot to message. We landed half an hour ago.”

Said Nandini.

“Do not apologize. You must have been busy.”

Said Arjun.

“So what are you doing? Missing me already?”

Said Nandini.

“Look at this. Half an hour in Mumbai and she has become clever.”

Said Arjun.

“Wonderful. First the Eiffel Tower and now you. Goodbye.”

Said Nandini.

There was a pause.

“Who is the Eiffel Tower?”

Said Arjun.

Nandini shut her eyes.

“Nobody. There was a stupid man at the airport. He is not a friend.”

Said Nandini.

“All right, all right. Have you reached Priya di’s flat?”

Said Arjun.

“On our way. The cab is here — I will call you later.”

“What took you so long?”

Said Navya.

“I could not find it.”

Said Nandini.

“You could not find a washroom. In an airport. With signs.”

Said Navya.

“Get in the car, Navya.”

Two minutes into the drive, Nandini’s phone buzzed. She read it, and something happened to her face that had not happened in six months — a real, wide, uncomplicated smile.

Don’t worry. It will be taken care of, she typed back.

Priya, watching in the mirror, felt her chest go tight with a hope she did not entirely trust.

“All well, angel?”

Said Priya.

“Yes. Yes, that was — that was Arjun. Just replying.”

Said Nandini.

She had never in her life been any good at lying, and she was worse at it now, and Priya made a small approving noise and asked nothing further, and spent the next forty minutes wondering.

They reached the building in an hour.

“Dii, give me the keys. Navya and I will take the bags up. You settle the fare.”

Said Nandini.

“It will take two minutes, I will come with—”

“Dii.”

Said Nandini, leaning in.

“It is an emergency. Please.”

Priya’s whole face changed.

“Why did you not say so at the airport? Go, go — take these, take the small bags, I will bring the rest.”

Said Priya.

Nandini rang the doorbell.

“Have you lost your mind? There is nobody inside. You are ringing the bell of an empty flat.”

Said Navya.

“Wait.”

Said Nandini.

There was a click from the other side, and the door opened, and Navya dropped a suitcase on her own foot.

Aman Singhania stood in the doorway rubbing the back of his neck and looking extremely pleased with himself.

“In. Quickly. Both of you.”

Said Aman.

“But jiju — your meeting—”

Said Navya.

Nandini smacked her lightly on the head.

“There was no meeting. He never had a meeting. He has been here since morning. He messaged me in the cab and told me everything, which is why we came up first.”

Said Nandini.

Navya turned around slowly and looked around the flat.

There were lights strung along the entire length of the hall. There were photographs pegged to a wire that ran from one end of the room to the other — Priya at nineteen with her hair badly cut, Priya and Aman at somebody’s wedding, Priya with her arms round two smaller girls on a beach in Mangalore. There was a cake on the table with WELCOME HOME on it in slightly crooked writing.

“Jiju. This is genuinely beautiful.”

Said Navya.

“She is going to cry.”

Said Nandini.

“She is absolutely going to cry.”

Said Aman.

“Now stop admiring it, all of you, she is nine minutes behind us at most—”

A voice came from the kitchen doorway.

“Aman. I spoke to Manik. He has landed, he is coming.”

Said Cabeer.

.

“When did he land?”

Said Aman.

“This morning. Off a night flight. He did not tell anybody he was coming, he simply arrived, which is the most Manik thing that has ever happened.”

Said Cabeer.

Navya had gone a very deep shade of red and had become extremely interested in a photograph.

“Jiju, who is this?”

Said Nandini.

“This is Cabeer. Cabeer Dhawan. Navya knows him — Navya, shall I introduce you, or—”

Said Aman.

“Jiju.”

Said Navya, in a strangled voice.

“Introduce Nandini.”

“This is Nandini. Priya’s sister.”

Said Aman.

“Hello. Nice to meet you.”

Said Cabeer, putting out his hand.

Nandini shook it and produced a small smile, and Cabeer noticed — because Cabeer always noticed things like this and never said them — that the smile arrived about a second later than it should have, and left immediately.

“Lights off. Everybody down. Leave the door on the latch.”

Said Aman.

They got into position with the seriousness of people planning a robbery. Aman and Cabeer flattened themselves on either side of the door. Navya and Nandini crouched behind the sofa, and Navya immediately got the giggles and had to be silenced with a cushion.

They heard the lift. They heard bags being set down. They heard the front door swing.

“Nandu? Navya? Why is this door open?”

Said Priya.

Nothing.

“Girls, this is not Mangalore. You cannot leave doors standing open here, this is Mumbai, I have told you both—”

The lights came on.

“SURPRISE.”

Priya Murthy stood in her own doorway with her handbag still on her shoulder and did not move.

She looked at the lights, and at the photographs, and at the cake, and at the four people in her hall, and at the man in the middle of them who had told her three hours ago that he could not come to the airport.

Then her face came apart.

She had not cried in front of anybody in six months except once, on a bathroom floor, into a phone. She lost both her parents and was running a business she had never been trained for and held a household together and was the strongest one in every single room she had entered.

She stood in a doorway and cried in front of 4 people, and it did not feel like weakness at all. It felt like being allowed to put something down.

She crossed the room and hugged Aman.

“Thank you for existing. Thank you for being here. I love you.”

Said Priya.

“You have earned this.”

Said Aman.

“I love you too. And I am sorry about the airport.”

Cabeer cleared his throat with tremendous volume.

“Right. Stop. Whatever is about to happen next, some of us are unmarried and this is a family occasion—”

Said Cabeer.

Aman rolled his eyes. Priya moved away, picked up a cushion, and went for him, and Cabeer went round the dining table twice in a genuine run with a woman in her late twenties in pursuit, and the entire flat was shouting, and Nandini Murthy stood by the wall watching it and did not know what to do with her face.

They stopped, out of breath, and hugged.

“I missed all of you so much.”

Said Priya.

“We missed you too.”

Said Cabeer.

They cut the cake. Navya and Nandini carried plates. For about twenty minutes, it was simply a room with people in it, and nobody said anything important at all, and it was the best twenty minutes any of them had had in half a year.

Then Navya took Nandini off to show her the rest of the flat.

“Where is Manik?”

Said Priya.

Aman and Cabeer looked at each other.

“He is—”

The doorbell went.

“I will get it.”

Said Aman, far too quickly, and went.

“Cabeer. Where is Manik?”

Said Priya.

“Priya, I genuinely think you should sit—”

“Missing me?”

Priya turned around.

He was standing in her hall with his bag still on his shoulder, unshaven, flushed with tiredness, wearing an expression that was trying extremely hard to be a smirk.

“You. Malhotra. Where have you been? Everybody is here except you, and I am furious with you and I have missed you so much—”

Said Priya, and had her arms round him before she finished the sentence.

“You are angry with me?”

Said Manik.

“I should be furious with you. Six months, Priya. Six months and one phone call. Your parents, and the business, and the girls, and you did not tell me. I would have come back.”

Said Manik.

“That is exactly why I did not tell you.”

Said Priya.

“You were in the middle of a tour. I was not going to put that on you.”

“You are an idiot.”

Said Manik.

“Yes.”

Said Priya, and started crying again.

“Oh, for God’s sake.”

Said Aman, arriving with a napkin.

“Is there a tank behind your eyes? They have been going all evening.”

Everybody laughed. Somebody pulled somebody else into a hug, and then it was all of them, in a heap, in a hall, under a wire full of photographs.

“Where is Navya?”

Said Manik.

“Have you left her somewhere?”

“Shut up, Manik.”

Said Priya, hitting him.

“Ouch!! That hurts.”

“It was supposed to.”

Said Priya.

“Navya is showing Nandini the flat. Wait — I will call them.”

She raised her voice down the corridor.

“Navya! Nandu! Come out here, Manik has come.”

“Oh yes. Nandini. Your brand-new sister.”

Said Manik.

“Do not start.”

Said Priya.

“You must introduce them properly, Priya. Manik has been extremely curious about her. Haven’t you, Manik?”

Said Cabeer.

“Cabeer. I will end you.”

Said Manik.

Priya and Aman looked at each other and said, in perfect unison, “What?”

“Ignore him. You know what he is like.”

Said Manik, and turned away towards the balcony door, which meant that his back was to the corridor.

Footsteps came down it.

“Here they are. Nandini, come — this is Manik.”

Said Priya.

And Manik Malhotra turned around.