Unmarriageable(86)

‘Is that so?’ Alys had asked in a cold tone. ‘That’s why her family has sent her away?’

Perhaps Wickaam had sensed her sardonic tone, because he asked her how her trip to Islamabad had been. Was not his aunt, Beena dey Bagh, a tyrant? And had Dracula been there?

Alys replied that Beena dey Bagh was who she was and that Darsee was who he was too but that, upon spending more time with him, she didn’t think he seemed such a monster.

‘Is that so?’ Wickaam repeated.

Alys replied, ‘That is exactly so.’

He’d wished her and her family well and, within seconds, he’d hung up.

‘No,’ Alys said forcefully. ‘No, Daddy, there is absolutely zero need for Wickaam to know that Lady will even be in Karachi.’

‘Oh dear,’ Mr Binat said, ‘still upset Wickaam-of-the-rising-star left you for Miss Jahanara Ana Aan. He’s free of her now and can return to you.’

‘God forbid,’ Alys said. ‘And I was never upset over anything. Simply put, Aunty Nona thinks Wickaam is a wastrel, and I believe her. As such, there is absolutely no need to socialise with the likes of him.’

Mr Binat shrugged. ‘Whatever you think is best, my princess. He’s moved to Karachi anyway and we’re in no danger of your mother inviting him to stay the night. Honestly, I think she’s too generous with the guest room, but she means no harm and just wants to entertain herself.’

Her father winked at her and, for the first time, Alys recognised her own complicity in her family’s dynamics. She was her father’s favourite daughter. His princess Alysba. And because she enjoyed her status as first daughter, Alys had chosen to overlook her father’s ridiculing her mother. It was not that her father was wrong, but he should not have turned Pinkie Binat into a joke between them. Should not the husband-and-wife bond be more sacrosanct than that between a parent and child?





PART THREE




AUGUST–DECEMBER 2001





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO





Alys and Lady boarded the bus from Dilipabad to Lahore, where Alys would meet Nona and Lady would fly on to Karachi. Mari waved goodbye with glee. She was looking forward to making some inroads into her Quran studies without Lady’s taunts of purity perverts, high priestesses, and hojabis. Qitty also waved contentedly, for she was looking forward to poring over the Mode magazines Alys had given her, without Lady insulting every voluptuous body. Mr Binat and Jena were looking forward to some quarrel-free peace and quiet, and they too waved gaily at Lady. Only Mrs Binat moaned about how she would miss her youngest daughter as she blew kiss after kiss to Lady, seated in the bus by the window.

‘I’ll bet they are all so jealous of me,’ Lady said to Alys. ‘Are they going to stand here until the bus leaves?’

‘Yes,’ Alys said, and she was right.

Once the bus left Dilipabad Station, Lady immediately opened the box lunch, unwrapped the chicken-salad sandwich, and took a messy bite.

‘Yum-yum,’ she said to Alys. ‘Are you going to have your sandwich?’

‘Yes, I am,’ Alys said. ‘And for God’s sake, try not to be greedy at Hijab’s house. Display your best manners. Don’t get overexcited about anything. Don’t speak out of turn. Don’t talk back to Hijab’s parents. Say please and thank you to the servants. Remember to tip them when it’s time to return. Do not use that tip money on yourself, Lady, I mean it. Imagine I’m right behind you, watching you the whole time.’

‘So creepy.’

‘Every minute my eyes will be on you,’ Alys said. ‘Did you hear me?’

‘What do you think I’m going to do?’ Lady said. ‘Run away with someone?’

‘The fact that you’d even joke about such a thing scares me.’

‘Aunty Alys, I’d warn you not to run away too, except you’re such a party pooper, I don’t know who’d want to run away with you.’

‘Khuda ke liye, for God’s sake, just don’t make you-you eyes at anyone, okay?’

‘What if someone makes you-you eyes at me?’ Lady finished her sandwich, opened Alys’s box, and took out her sandwich.

‘I’m serious, Lady.’ Alys eyed her rapidly disappearing sandwich. ‘Please remember that the actions of one family member have repercussions for all family members.’

‘Oh, I know.’ Lady licked mayonnaise off her fingers. ‘Do you know how many girls at school saw Jena’s name in Social Lights? Do you know how many asked me and even Qitty if we planned to allow guys to sweep us up in their arms?’

Alys looked at Lady in dismay.

‘Qitty and I don’t say anything, because we don’t want to upset Jena but, trust me, we’re suffering too.’

Having gobbled up Alys’s sandwich, Lady turned to her fashion magazine and a quiz on finding Mr Right. Alys opened up Sunlight on a Broken Column. She’d started reading it after Darsee’s proposal, curious suddenly about his ‘favourite partition novel’ and his claim that it had allowed him a ‘Pakistani identity inclusive of an English-speaking tongue’. So far, she was enthralled by the tussles between Laila, the headstrong, unconventional protagonist, and her cousin, Zahra, who wanted to marry well and enjoy her life.