BlogchatterA2Z(Z) ~ Love On A Sunday Morning

“Shh, beti ! said Baljit, wrapping her arms around Madhuri as she broke down, unable to continue her tale. 

Dave felt helpless seeing Madhuri’s tears. He wished he could offer some words of solace, but what words could he offer to lessen the loss of a sister?

Instead, he offered her a glass of water.

Madhuri gulped it down gratefully before restarting her tale. 

“We both spent the days after Juhi’s death in a daze, unsure of what to do. We knew Jagjit was responsible for her death, but we had no proof. But we couldn’t walk out of the house. We had no money and no one else to turn to. 

Jagjit’s attitude towards us also completely changed. He would constantly belittle us, calling us parasites, living on his goodwill. We decided to start earning our keep. We would cook and clean, becoming unpaid maids for him. 

One day, when he was in a better mood, Varsha convinced him to give us a little money so that we could book a table at the Sunday market. She convinced him that if our pickles sold well, he could handle our business. By then we knew that never stayed in one job for long, looking for easy ways to make money. This was the reason he had married Juhi. Not because he loved her, but because he thought he was marrying a rich farmer’s daughter. He didn’t know our father had taken quite a few loans. 

Things continued going from bad to worse. He didn’t like us going out or taking decisions. We were almost under house arrest. He only allowed us to go for weekly grocery shopping and Sunday market. Cursing at us became his daily entertainment.”

“And the bruise I saw that day? Did Jagjit give it to you?” Dave asked.

“I did run into the door,” Madhuri said, shaking her head.

“Tell him why you ran into the door,” Varsha broke into the conversation. “Tell Dave that you ran into the door because Jagjit had lost his temper because there was less salt in the food. He raised his arm to hit you, and in trying to escape, you bumped into the door. He, instead of helping you, had laughed like a loon.”

Dave clenched his jaw at Varsha’s words. It took great effort to keep his tone gentle as he asked, “What happened today?”

The two sisters shared a look before Varsha gave a slight nod to Madhuri. Madhuri picked up the reins of the story again.

“Jagjit’s mother came to visit a few days back. Even though she barely stayed for less than four hours, she filled enough poison in his mind during that time. She wanted Jagjit to marry one of us to a man she had found, a widower who needed a mother for his two children. The widower would take care of the other sister, plus pay money as a commission to Harleen. Since I am dark-skinned, she said that the widower was my best option.”

“I knew that Harleen was an evil woman,” Baljit muttered under her breath.

Dave swallowed a curse, seeing the pain in Madhuri’s voice. He wanted to take her in his arms and banish all the pain. But knew he couldn’t. 

“Then?” he prodded gently.

“Jagjit decided to go against his mother. He said Varsha would marry the widower, and I would marry Jagjit!”

“What!” screeched Baljit.

Swallowing hard, Madhuri continued to speak, “I don’t know the reason, but suddenly he was adamant that I marry him. I refused. He broached the subject again with us the day before, and again, we said no. He screamed and shouted, but for once, we stood our ground. Instead, Varsha asked him for the money from the sale of the farm and house. He laughed at us, calling us orphaned fools. He had already spent the money. “You are now penniless, at my mercy”, he had sneered. Honestly, we didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t go back to India, and we couldn’t say yes to Jagjit. Last night, he once again asked me to marry him. I contemplated saying yes, even though being in the same room as him makes my skin crawl. He is responsible for my sister’s death!”

“Then why did you want to say yes?” asked Dave.

“Because of Varsha,” replied Madhuri. “If I married Jagjit, then maybe I could have influenced him to leave her alone. Maybe even let her work. But before I could reply, Varsha shouted no. She has been taking online tuition secretly and has some money saved. Not a lot, but enough to get away. Jagjit got so enraged by her words that he got up to hit her. I tried to intervene to protect Varsha, but he was incoherent with rage. He turned on me instead.”

“He was choking her,” Varsha said. “Her face was turning purple, so I whacked him on the head with a saucepan. For a moment, we thought I had killed him. But it needs more than a whack on the head to get rid of that evil scum. He lay on the floor, moaning. Grabbing Madhuri’s hand, I pulled her out of the home. But when we reached the street, the cold jolted us. We had no place to go. Then Baljit auntie saw us and brought us to her home.” 

“We don’t have any money. Our passports are still with Jagjit. I don’t know what we will do, how will we survive,” Madhuri said, covering her face with her hands as her tears flew unchecked.

Varsha cradled her in her arms, tears silently streaming down her cheeks. “Shh! Madhuri, we will figure out something.”

Unable to bear the pain of the two sisters, Dave walked out of the room and into the kitchen. A few minutes later, Baljit followed him and found him waiting for the tea to boil.

“It is a nasty coil. That Jagjit has a black heart,” she muttered. Dave stayed silent as he poured the boiling water into cups. 

“What will you do?” she asked as he picked up the tray. 

“Support them,” was his calm answer.

The hardest thing Dave ever had to do was tame the rage that bubbled against Jagjit. He wanted to walk over to Jagjit’s home and pound him into the ground. But that would just release his emotions, not solve the problems. He had to be practical about the situation. If he called the police, and the girls didn’t have the proper paperwork, they could get into even more trouble, and at the moment they were too fragile for him to be prodding them about their visas. He needed to tread carefully. 

Handing over the mugs to Madhuri and Varsha, he said, “Baljit auntie is correct, you cannot stay here. Jagjit can easily find you here. My house will be safer and unknown to him. Tomorrow, let me informally talk to a friend who works in the police and get their advice.”

“We will figure this out,” he added, his eyes steady on Madhuri, his hands clasping hers gently.

“But…” Madhuri started to object when Baljit said, “He is correct. Get advice and then decide what to do. Go with him now. I will call in and check on you both tomorrow morning.”

****

“Thank you,” said Madhuri as Dave handed her extra towels. Varsha was already huddled under the covers, her shoulders shaking. 

“Will she be ok?” he asked, nodding towards Varsha. After Madhuri had narrated their tale, Varsha had withdrawn into herself, not looking or talking to anyone. 

Madhuri sighed. “She will be fine. She just needs some time.”

Looking into his blue eyes filled with worry, she murmured, “Thank you.” 

Embarrassed by her thanks, Dave shrugged. “Try to get some sleep,“ he said. 

Madhuri nodded before shutting the door. She huddled close to Varsha, hugging her from behind. Slowly Varsha’s sobs subsided, and her breathing evened out. 

But it was a long time before Madhuri could sleep. The events of the evening kept playing in a loop. The anger in Jagjit’s eyes, the fury in her heart when he wanted to hit Varsha, the helplessness when he choked her, and the panic when they realised they had no one and nowhere to go. 

She hugged Varsha tighter as despondency threatened to drag her under, and it was almost dawn when her eyes finally shut.

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I am participating in #BlogchatterA2Z, and this is the post for the alphabet Z.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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