Unmarriageable(80)

Alys woke the next morning and instantly recalled Darsee’s proposal. She took a deep breath and decided that there was no need to tell anyone. Her mother would faint at her having turned down an offer of this magnitude. Sherry would tell her that she’d made a bad decision. Even Jena, she suspected, would scold her for having been too quick to refuse. But Alys was more than satisfied with her decision. The next order of business was to go about her day exactly as she would any other day, and what was so shocking now would in time turn ordinary.

Alys slipped on running clothes and left the house for the park. Not bad, Alys, she thought to herself as she embarked on her first lap. You must be doing something right for two proposals in one year, all the way from Kaleen to Darsee.

Suddenly Darsee appeared before her on the path, holding out a letter.

‘I didn’t want this delivered at Kaleen’s house, in case anyone else opened it, so I waited here, hoping you’d show up. Please read this and then, as I said last night, goodbye and best wishes.’

Alys took it and watched Darsee disappear out of sight. She made her way to the nearest bench and slit open the sealed envelope.

Alys,

You made two accusations against me and I deserve a chance to explain. The first is about your sister. I’ve known Bungles for a long time, and he’s always falling ‘in love’. This time I did sense gravity in his feelings, but I honestly did not see those feelings reciprocated by Jena. I understand that in our society women play it safe until they get a proposal; however, there is a difference between showing restraint and showing indifference. I was beyond convinced your sister was showing indifference.

And then, your family. Look, you can’t deny that your mother and Lady display no propriety. Even if a guy acted in private the way Lady does in public, I’d call him out. Lady and Qitty quarrel in public like they’re hired entertainment. Your sister Mari is Muslim fire and brimstone, and your father seems unable, or unwilling, to discipline anyone. Then there is the matter of your maternal ancestry. Alys, you must see that no true friend would recommend marrying into your family regardless of whether the girl showed great interest, which Jena did not.

I accept one wrongdoing. I did know Jena was in Lahore. I’m sorry I lied to you. I am not a liar. Bungles had no idea, because his sisters and I didn’t tell him.

The second accusation concerns my cousin Jeorgeullah Wickaam. Wickaam gives everyone the sob story he gave you. My father and both his parents did pass away in the Ojhri arms-depot explosion; that much of Wickaam’s story is true. We were all traumatised.

Wickaam became extremely clingy. No one blamed him given his circumstances. He needed love and stability. He could not sleep alone, so he and I shared a bedroom. When my mother, sister, and I moved to England, he came with us.

After a string of unsuccessful relationships, my mother remarried and we moved to Bangkok. It was Wickaam who decided to stay back with his father’s family. As it turned out, he’d befriended an older woman; so began his philandering. When Wickaam’s father’s family found out about his ‘affairs’, they didn’t know how to handle it. My mother had divorced by then and so, after three years in Bangkok, we’d returned to Lahore, and my mother requested that Wickaam be sent back to us.

When he arrived at Lahore Airport, Wickaam was seventeen years old and turning every head. He targeted that most vulnerable of people, the adolescent maid. One, two, three maids came forward: Wickaam Sahib had seduced them by promising them marriage, money, gold earrings, etc. My mother was appalled. She tried to protect these young girls by sending them back to their villages and away from Wickaam’s urges. And then one of the maids got pregnant. Mahira was adamant that Wickaam marry her and legitimise their child. Wickaam said she had no proof that he was the father.

Thanks to my mother and Beena Aunty, Mahira delivered a healthy baby boy. We paid for her and the baby’s upkeep for life as well as his education. My mother and Beena Aunty requested Mahira not disclose the arrangement to anyone but, next we know, another pregnant maid shows up.

My mother had recently been diagnosed with a late-stage cancer, and all this stress made her sicker. She felt she’d failed her late sister’s son, and she worried about what would become of these poor maids, their children, and Wickaam with his inability to keep his trousers zipped.

My mother and Beena Aunty decided to use Wickaam’s inheritance to set up a school for underprivileged children, in which Wickaam’s offspring would also study for free, as well as a facility for taking in abandoned infants who may otherwise be victims of infanticide. Wickaam was livid at his inheritance being taken away. He blamed me. Instead of taking his side like a ‘brother’, I was some bleeding heart who’d sided with the maids.

After Wickaam visited my mother on her deathbed, my mother decided that he should receive tuition money for a university abroad, and Beena Aunty agreed. But what does Wickaam do? He uses the funds to travel the world of lechery in luxury.

My sister, Juju, is ten years younger than him, Annie, and me. Annie and I decided that Juju didn’t need to know about Wickaam’s sexual exploits. However, the minute I left for my MBA, that asshole began to prey on my sister, convincing her they were in love. Beena Aunty didn’t even know the two were meeting, let alone what was going on. No one did.

One day I received a phone call from Juju. She was pregnant and Wickaam was insisting they elope. But she wanted me to be at the wedding. I booked the first flight back from Atlanta to Lahore. I told my sister to tell him they could marry but that I was going to cut off her inheritance and there’d be no money. Wickaam called my bluff. Next I took Juju to the charity school, where she saw Wickaam’s children and had to believe what I’d been telling her. She was distraught. I told Juju to convince Wickaam she’d given up her inheritance to be with him. His response was to abandon my pregnant sixteen-year-old sister. Next I hear, he’s in New York, where, while having a good time, he has purchased a fake law degree and is now going around telling people he went to a university in New York. He did – he literally walked through a university campus in New York City.