The Bandit Queens (65)

“What’s that mukkabaaz’s name, anyway?”

“Miriam.”

“No yaar, Imani.”

“Irem,” Geeta said.

“Ohhhh,” they said in unison. “Correct.”

“Shall we focus?” Geeta asked.

“Get angry!” Saloni suggested.

“How?”

Saloni pulled her shoulders back and declared, as though at a campaign rally, “How are you not angry that she’s the beautiful sister and you’re the ugly one? That for years you’ve had to have sex with a man who’s picturing her?”

The women gasped. Geeta joined: “Or that you two look like before-and-after pictures?”

“Well, now I just wanna hit you.”

Priya sighed. “Remember when we were kids and you really, really loved Mummy’s gold jhumkas?”

Preity frowned. “Yeah, of course. What about them?”

“Well, the reason she gave them to me instead of you is because she thought some chakkar was happening between you and that Sikh boy, and she never really got over it.”

“Why would she think that?”

Priya’s smile was sheepish. “Probably because some chakkar was happening between me and that Sikh boy, and I told her it was you when someone saw us?”

“What!”

“I’m sorry! But you were always her favorite anyway! Me, she’d’ve never forgiven.”

Preity punched her sister in the eye with impressive accuracy. Priya reeled. “I loved those earrings! I always thought I’d be married in them!”

“But you couldn’t have worn them anyway because of the acid— Ow!”

Preity easily landed another blow. One twin cowered, the other stalked forward. They both nimbly avoided Darshan’s body, but it was an inelegant tussle: Preity manacled one of her sister’s wrists to keep her within reach while she used her free hand to attack.

“I’ll give them back to you!”

“What the fuck good are earrings to me now!”

“Okay,” Saloni said after reading her watch. “Last one, Preity. She’s already bleeding.”

“I dunno! For Pihu, maybe? Ow!”

Priya ducked, protecting her face; Preity improvised deftly, grabbing a small slice of available flesh under Priya’s arm and twisting hard. Priya yowled.

“Shh!” Saloni said. “The kids!”

“Bahut ho gaya,” Geeta said. And to think, she’d once mourned her lack of siblings. “Enough. Last one.”

Saloni turned to Geeta while the twins combatted, sari pallus fluttering this way and that. “I mean,” Saloni said, “she did lie, take the earrings and, you know, mix her name with dirt and all.”

“Ugh! It all makes sense now! Mummy gave me the silent treatment for months, and I thought it was because my exam marks were low! Plus, she had all those ‘no one marries dheeli girls’ talks with me. God! You randi!”

“Really, this time. Last one, Preity!” Saloni said. When Preity ignored them, Saloni and Geeta intervened. Geeta guided the bleeding twin away while Saloni soothed Preity. “I know, I know, you didn’t even like the Sikh boy. If it makes you feel better, everyone knew it was really Priya who was dheeli. Always has been.”

Preity fumed. “I loved those earrings! And my mother!”

Priya was crying. Geeta tried to pry her hands away to assess whether the damage was convincing. She shushed Priya, instructing her to save something for her husband’s return. The four women convened near the foot of the bed. From her vantage point, Geeta could see the statue behind Saloni. She closed her eyes and saw Darshan’s sneering face, his hands on her as though he not only owned her but was extending her a favor. I know how you widows have needs. Her eyelids sprang open as realization washed down her spine. Her rage and adrenaline drained, leaving her weary. All this, she now knew, had been for nothing. She was in a worse soup than before.

“Remember: Geeta and I left right after Zubin did. Preity, go to the kids. Priya, go to your room and wait for Zubin. Everyone set?”

The women nodded. Saloni continued for Geeta’s benefit, “After things quiet down with the police, we’ll find Ramesh.”

Geeta exhaled. Her eyelids felt heavy. “No, no we won’t.”

“I don’t follow.”

“We can’t find him because they don’t know where he is.” Geeta looked at Preity, who suddenly found the floor fascinating. “Do you?”

Preity shook her head without looking up.

“Still not following.”

“He called me a widow,” said Geeta, pointing to Darshan’s body. “When he attacked me, he thought I was a widow. Which means you never saw Ramesh.”

Preity’s face scrunched in guilt. “I needed your help,” she said quietly. “When Saloni mentioned…I thought it was my chance.”

“You won’t tell, will you?” Priya whispered. “About Darshan?”

“How can I? I killed him. We’re all trapped in the same net.”





NINETEEN


“I didn’t know,” Saloni said as they left the twins’ house for Karem’s store. Just then, another power cut darkened the rows of homes on either side of them. The moonlight was strong and Geeta saw Saloni pinching her throat in a promise. “I swear, I didn’t know.”