The City Son by Samrat Upadhyay Read Free Book Online Page B

stranger. His mother is next door, with her rustling and her mumbling. There are days when she sleeps all afternoon and is up throughout the night. One night he awakens and goes downstairs, where he finds her in the living room, lying on the floor with her arms and legs stretched out. The death pose, she says. Shavasana . She asks him to lie down with her. Another night she comes to his room just as he is about to sleep and strokes his forehead and asks him how things are at school. Before he can answer, she begins talking about a picnic she went on when she was a young girl.
    He is used to her erratic ways by now, and he has cometo accept that this is his lot. At school sometimes a new friend will ask him, “So, is it true that your mother has lost her mind?” and he answers tactfully, “She has a problem or two.” He’s calm about his mother, which makes his friends calm about him and his mother. His friends flock around him—he is well loved. Tarun also gets good report cards. He’s the type that the teachers call on, for he provides cogent, well-considered answers. The teachers also like the calmness he exudes. “Tarun, gharma saab thik chha ?” they ask, putting their arms around him. “Your mother is fine?”
    But now Tarun is so troubled by Didi’s withholding of affection that he can’t pay attention in school. When the teachers call on him, he gropes for answers. Two of his friends ask him whether things are all right with his mother—it doesn’t occur to them that things might not be all right with his stepmother. They all know that every Saturday he goes to Bangemudha to spend time with his father and his village family. They know that the older of the stepbrothers is a bully. They know that the stepmother loves Tarun.
    One day after school he gets off the bus at Ranipokhari instead of Lazimpat. He walks into Asan and moves through the lanes that surround the Bangemudha house, hoping he won’t bump into Amit or Sumit, either of whom could be nearby running errands or hanging out with friends. They are sure to ask him what he’s doing in Bangemudha on a school day. Amit is sure to jab him on the shoulder and say, “What’s up with you? Ta muji randiko chhorako yahaan yetibela ke kaam? Isn’t it enough that you show us your ugly face once a week?” And he might even kick Tarun, and what answer will Tarun give? That he is here to check on Didi to see if she is still unhappy with him? Tarun will laugh his head off then, call him a namby-pamby.
    Tarun circles and circles the area but doesn’t dare to move into the lane where the house is located. He doesn’t run into Amit or Sumit, although he does come across a couple of the neighborhood boys he knows through Amit. When darkness begins to fall, Tarun moves closer to the lane, and when it’s completely dark he gathers the nerve to walk by the house. There’s light in the kitchen window. He spots Didi, part of her head, shoulders, her side profile. She is cooking, her attention on the stove. To his left, through the living room window, he sees a figure move toward the kitchen—Amit—and sharp words are exchanged between him and Didi. A pressure cooker hisses. Didi turns her attention back to the stove again. She lifts her head as if she’s sensed something.
    Tarun retreats into the shadows of the house across the street. Didi leans sideways toward the window and peers out, her eyes devouring the darkness. “ Kina andhyaroma lukira ?” A voice startles Tarun. It’s the old man who does odd jobs in the Bangemudha house. He smells of alcohol. “Oh, I see, you’re playing hide-and-seek with your brothers.” The man smiles drunkenly. Didi can see the man because he’s under the streetlamp. After the man leaves, Didi lingers at the window, her eyes boring into the spotwhere Tarun is flattened against the wall. Then she returns to her cooking.
    At school Tarun’s eyes tear up for no reason, even when he’s not thinking about Didi. He can no