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Pavil had never seen Nehar as guileless. Her candid conversation and outspoken thoughts that mostly verged on the malevolent concerning Wasim and his family left Pavil a bit shaken. How could he ever imagine, that Nehar was capable of feeling something other than beautiful?
Her sudden brazenness captivated him with an endearing allure. She felt so much more real.
Of course, he concluded that the real reason she had let her guards down was that some secrets that she knew only herself privy to were now a common knowledge within that little circle of people at the station.
Pavil looked over and Khar and knew by his inscrutable features that he was expressionlessly deliberating and momentarily wondered what might have been going on in his mind.
What need has she anymore to be another person in front of us, now that we know the truth behind the real her?
Her winning smiles and steadfast support towards her husband, in fact, all her rituals that she lives daily are a stratagem. Embroiled she might be in those, as she says, but there’s nary a hint that she doesn’t enjoy living them.
Khar didn’t want to budge from his conversation with Nehar regarding Majid, and Pavil didn’t fail to notice her sudden reluctance to speak clearly.
What was she trying to hide and why? Hate is a big motive, isn’t it? Pavil wondered if Khar thought the same; hoping nothing untoward unravels anymore.
Do silent prayers work?
He eagerly wished for the forensics to come out with some positive ID, because now the story seemed to be taking a turn which didn’t look to be pleasant.
‘Clearly, you have a problem with Majid’ Khar said
‘Problem would be putting it mildly. He was cruel, irresponsible and needlessly curious’
Khar had an idea but still wanted to hear it from Nehar.
‘You think he was spoiling Tejan?’ He meandered from her drift
‘He was spoiling everything.’ Nehar angrily retorted.
The quivering cigarette with the duo-chrome peacock hues glinted in different colours as she held it, hinting at the shakiness of her hand. She was inflamed and her expressions conveyed intolerable hurt.
’Oh, he was sly. Coming into my beautiful home pretending to be a nice little kid, but when no one was looking, he’d mock me. Say the most disgusting, most atrocious things that no thirteen years old should even know. But as I said, a thirteen-year-old isn’t an innocent fledgeling. They have filth growing within’
‘Surely you being a grown-up could deal with one such young’ Khar spoke plainly.
Nehar looked away with disgust displayed all over her face. She tried drowning the surge of memories that threatened to besiege her words while Khar waited for them to begin spilling.
She seemed to be grating her teeth, her face flushed with anger and trepidation.
Nehar didn’t understand why she’d said all that she did. She didn’t want to blurt out the truth in such caustic fashion, when she could have subtly hinted at it more amiably, perhaps. But how could she hold herself back anymore?
This reserve had long been in the breaking, and what need had she to lie at this point?
These people knew about Veda bedding another man, what difference would it make if she told them the truth?
Dare she tell them that Majid had it coming?
That her happiness was only faltered by the severe pain in her son’s eyes, at the loss of his best friend whom she’d wished dead since that very day he’d had the diabolical audacity to come up to her and utter those words that he did, and now he was rotting under the earth. How fitting.
She gathered herself and slapped on the resolve she’d lost somewhere during her unbosoming.
Drawing herself up, urging her features to tighten into that unnaturally beautiful elegance she said ‘He..he knew about Veda and Jumaid’ she felt like she was about to cry again.
In all these weeks, Pavil had grown immune to shocks and he realized the mistake of his beliefs because he found his eyes widen till they hurt.
December had ushered in the chill with an unsympathetic cruelty and he’d often contemplated wearing two pairs of socks because these woollen ones that he currently wore seemed useless.
The tips of his fingers were always cold and Nehar’s long beige overcoat that exuded warm scents of some forgotten moments almost touched the floor as she sat on a chair opposite Khar.
She wasn’t wearing any socks, just a pair of open-toed expensive looking shoes with considerable heels, not enough to make walking uncomfortable, but enough to warrant rest after a long day.
Were her feet not cold? They were beautiful feet too..and why was Khar looking at him like he was about to throw a punch?
He let himself float in these thoughts simply because he couldn’t bear to listen what Nehar had been saying.
‘Majid said some unspeakable things about Jumaid and Veda. He threatened to tell Tejan every obnoxious detail and he had the talent to make it all sound painfully vulgar. Please don’t ask me to elaborate the disgusting things he said. Please’ she pleaded.
‘When did this all begin, Mrs Sinhal?’
‘About a year ago. It was almost the end of the year. Uh..during winter vacations. Majid had stayed over for the night, and that vicious little creep’ Nehar massaged her temples with her fingertips as if to keep herself from remembering that day ‘found me in the garden the next morning and said your husband is sleeping with my father…Though those weren’t his exact words and I’m not keen on repeating his obscene word usage either’ Her voice was sad and cracked with held back hurt.
‘I had no idea about the truth of that sentence at that time and for the longest while couldn’t believe that a child was capable of such vocabulary. Obviously, I had been extremely ignorant, because no matter how awfully uncouth his words were, they were true’ Nehar toyed with her cigarette case and looked past Khar’s shoulder at the window.
Pavil realized it’d been unlatched and proceeded to close it.
There was deathly silence in the room, broken only by the melodic voice of hot tea being poured into a cup.
Khar offered Nehar some tea, which she graciously accepted and let her features wear a thin smile.
‘So when did you find out about..?’
‘About my husband's colourful activities?’ she gloomily smirked.
‘Domestic balance is something of a taut string which grows out of tune when one of the persons pulling it loses interest, and when that happened I checked Veda’s phone and that was that. But it wasn’t because Majid had goaded me into suspicion.’ Nehar sipped on her tea.
She didn’t realize how good it felt to confess. Perhaps she ought to do it more often because there had been enough venom bubbling inside her and even if didn't need absolving, it needed to be let out.
‘I felt greatly disturbed by that morning’s incident and didn’t know how to keep Tejan away from his influence because Majid changed into a completely different person in front of him. He behaved like a child again. It discombobulated me, I wanted to throw him out of the house, out of his life, but what could I say? Veda had been gone for long and at that time I didn’t want to discuss these issues with him..and still haven’t’ she sighed.
‘I..I.. was afraid..Tejan is an innocent child and the more I tried to keep him away from Majid, the more viciously he’d menace me, threatening to tell Tejan everything in filthy details. He'd draw dirty pictures, make obscene gestures with his fingers to intimidate me. His reason for this torment was so that I don’t come between their friendship because Majid was lonely..and why wouldn’t he be? That bastard..but I think he also found some perverse enjoyment in knowing this dirty secret.'
‘So he was blackmailing you?’ Khar asked plainly.
‘That perhaps would be the technical terminology, and after finding out about the truth of things I even spoke to Jumaid, on several occasions, but had that idiot bothered his child wouldn’t have turned into that little devil that he was.
That man simply ignored my pleadings. He accused me of making up this plan to keep him away from Veda. According to him, that was my strategy and excuse to avoid their family, effectively cutting out Jumaid from Veda’s life.’
‘And you called him often? did you even meet him regarding this?’
‘Uh..I did call him frequently. Sometimes he’d send my husband a message and Veda would leave at odd hours. I’d usually call up then to check if they were together, but it was pointless. They had honed their lying skills..and I was wilfull and belligerent, and look where that’s got me.’
‘And did you meet Jumaid outside of social circles?’
‘Not purposely, except one day he called me to clearly tell me to stay away from their relationship. He said I was an unwanted equation. He’d dared say that to me, can you believe it?’ Nehar’s face was flaring with choler.
She lit another cigarette to calm down and Pavil noticed that she used her left hand to smoke but stuck her cigarette to her right lip while lifting her head ever so slightly and raising her eyes upwards. Her eyelashes were unnaturally long. Most beautiful.
‘What day was it?’
‘What day? uhh..Sunday!’ She quietly replied.
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