The City Son by Samrat Upadhyay Read Free Book Online

violently every hour or so. A baby mewls. He hears a rustle outside his door. It’s not hismother’s footsteps; he can tell. He pictures a rotund man with a snarling face, waiting for him to open the door. Tarun cries out for Didi, silently, and the rustling stops, only to start again some time later.
    As soon as there’s a tinge of light in the sky, he goes looking for his mother. After about an hour, he finds her asleep in a pavilion by the Bagmati shore. Her head is on the lap of a saffron-robed sadhu, whose eyes shine fiercely. Upon seeing Tarun, the sadhu puts his finger to his lips and says, “Shhh!”
    “That’s my mother,” Tarun says, but he’s scared of the sadhu’s unruly beard and his gleaming eyes. The man’s long, blackened fingers stroke her forehead and smooth her wrinkles. Tarun leaves the pavilion, bewildered about what he should do. He wanders along the Bagmati shore, hoping he won’t run into one of his river friends—they live somewhere around here, don’t they? He considers going to Bangemudha and telling Didi and his father about what has happened, but he doesn’t want to cast his mother in any more of a negative light. Then he is in the Tripureswor area, and as the streets become filled with the hazy morning light, he finds a store with a phone and calls Mahesh Uncle, who has to be roused from his sleep. He tells the boy to stay where he is, and in about half an hour he arrives, driving his car.
    She has already left the sadhu’s side, and Tarun and Mahesh Uncle go to the flat, where she’s sitting by the window, whimpering, calling out Tarun’s name. “ Kahan harayeko , Apsara?” Mahesh Uncle asks. “The boy has been worried sick.” But her tear-streaked face is fixed on Tarun, and she continues to mumble his name. She looks like a street crazy who curses invisible people. Mahesh Uncle asks the boy to pack everything, and he, too, stuffs clothes and knickknacks into empty suitcases and bags, while Apsara watches. Mahesh Uncle says, “I’ll send the driver later to pick up the rest of your belongings.” When Mahesh Uncle asks her to stand, she refuses, saying she’s not going anywhere. Mahesh Uncle crouches in front of her and uses a velvety voice to fakau fulau her, telling her that it’s a temporary solution meant more for Tarun than for her. The boy shouldn’t have to go through what he went through seeing her in the pavilion with the sadhu, Mahesh Uncle tells her. Her eyes open wide in shame; she hadn’t known until then that Tarun had seen her on the sadhu’s lap. She covers her face with her palm.
    The Masterji is not happy about the move. “Who is this man?” he asks. He has known about Mahesh Uncle for a while now, how he is fond of Tarun and Apsara. A separate room for each of them? Yes, Tarun has a room to himself, with a proper bed, not bedding spread on the floor. There’s a bedside table on which Sanmaya puts a jug of water in case he gets thirsty during the night. Before he sleeps she brings him a warm glass of milk to drink and sits with him with that toothless smile of hers as he holds the glass with both palms and drinks. Sheleaves only after the boy has finished the milk and handed the glass to her. “ Ramrari sutnu, la? ” she says as she shuts the door behind her.
    Next door is Mahesh Uncle, and Tarun can hear him on the phone. Words such as “commission,” “contract,” and “discount” and “percent” have become familiar to Tarun by now because Mahesh Uncle uses them quite a bit. Just hearing his voice makes Tarun feel good.
    Mahesh Uncle’s intentions are not good, the Masterji is implying, but he’s looking at Didi to judge whether she approves of what he’s just said so he can carry his thoughts further and end them in some type of action, something like marching over to Lazimpat and wrenching the boy away from Mahesh Uncle. But Didi doesn’t engage her husband; she gets up and walks into the kitchen. Sumit is busy smiling into a