CHAPTER 12

Thinking of the whole matter I felt that I was getting a message meant for me only from a person who died some sixty or seventy years ago. But what's the meaning of it all? What does that person mean? Yesterday night I fell asleep after 2 O’clock midnight but only after a string of thoughts. I had in fact realized that I was sleeping only when I woke up with a start. And now I wish if it was only a dream!

Indira again took up the issue with me when Vandana went to school.

"I was dead scared........ Did you have a bad dream?"

Yes it was a dream, but what a dream!

"I was in the attic." I told her. "I was walking along the way we used to in the olden days. There was somebody walking along with me. I hadn't noticed who it was. He was leading me to that staircase. We climbed down the stairs to a room, which I couldn't recognize, because all the rooms there are almost alike. He pointed to a side wall and said. 'It's there.'

"Then suddenly I looked at him. It was a shock. What a horrible face it was! I woke up with a scream. It was the face of that old man in the photo, Ittiraman Menon. It looks like he had shown me his real face. Probably the face in the portrait might have been touched up to give it a better appearance. It could all be my feelings, but anyway I couldn't sleep after that."

"What's the meaning of it all?" Indira asked anxiously.

"Thinking about it I don't see any meaning. Either the old man started losing patience, or........"

"What for?"

“Just because I'm not able to locate the treasure. He had hidden a big treasure somewhere for a person to be born after generations, and leave clues for him to decipher and yet that person is not trying to locate it. He must be losing patience. Secondly the stair case he had shown me is non-existent. Things would have been easy had that blasted staircase exists. We could go down and dig up the treasure. Further what has that blessed chess board to do with all these? I think he had made a mistake."

"What mistake?"

"He failed to anticipate that the person for whom he had hidden the treasure was a dull fellow. He could've made things a little simpler."

"Right you are." Indira said with a triumphant smile. "He couldn't assess you as much as I could."

"Now, let us do one thing." I brushed aside Indira'a frivolous remarks. "We shouldn't talk anything about this till Vandana's exams are over, right? Let her jump over this hurdle of an exam. Then we could go home and stay there for a week and try once more to locate it."

Indira is happy. She had always insisted that we should go home and stay for at least a week, since arranging the kitchen takes couple of days and by the time everything is normal it is time to come back. She is happy at the prospects of staying there for a week on Vandana's vacation.

For a few days that dream and its analysis haunted me, and then like any other hassles of life I have given it a place to rest.

Once in a month Kuttettan calls from the States on a weekend. Travelling seven seas it reaches us on Sunday morning 8.30. The time lag is 10 to 11 hours. So Kuttettan must be calling Saturday evenings. That suits both of us.

"It's February here, and I hope it's the same there also." Kuttettan's joyful voice came through the mobile.

A thing one could imagine to tell waking up in the morning from the other side of the planet!

"Yeah, it's February alright, but the date 26th. It must be 25th only out there for you. That means you are one day behind us. Alright, you live in the country of Rip Van Winkle."

He talked to me for 15 minutes and said.

"Where's my niece. Better to talk to her than a dummy like you."

He talks to her for about fifteen minutes and hand over the phone to his daughters, who each would be talking to Vandana for quarter of an hour. Even though their mother is American they talk better Malayalam than anyone living in Kerala. For a person like me who uses phone sparingly even for local calls to keep bill down, these calls lasting over an hour are a surprise.

I hadn't told Kuttettan about finding the lost chess board. I don't know if Vandana had told him. She confesses everything in him, and must have told him as part of her dialogue about her fight with mother. He must have comforted her by telling, 'you never know how much we had to fight with your mother. She had made our lives miserable.'

Sunday life goes slowly. Even the breakfast is taken at ten, ten thirty.

"Why blame me for that. Dad and daughter would be on phone and I had prepared the breakfast long back."

"Mom is jealous." Vandana would say, "Just because Kuttamama has not talked to her."

"No thanks. I get itches even by listening to you two talking on phone for such a long time. What is there to talk so much?"

Even I used to think, what is there to talk so much?

"Mom, you never know what Sharichechi and Manjulachechi were talking."

Indira wanted to hear it, but she would frown and say. "Oh..."

And then come the exam days. As expected the three of them phone Vandana to wish her good luck. All three of them would phone from three different places. They meet only on Sundays.

"She'll have confidence only if she gets wishes from her uncle and cousins." Indira said.

"I see! All the girls the world over would be waiting for calls from their cousins to face the exams." I didn't like Indira's remarks. "These are some mindset, sort of addiction and nothing else. From whom did you get good luck wishes when you wrote your exams?"

"Any way, don't tell all these to Vandana." Indira hastened to say. "She considers all these very important. Even for Kuttettan, he likes girl children more than boys. He was so happy when both of them turned out to be girls. It looks like the American lady also likes it that way."

"You're talking about your sister-in-law."

"But then she is an American. I didn't say anything wrong or bad about her."

On the strength of good wishes coming from across the oceans the exams were over. The first thing she had asked us after writing the last paper was when we are going home.

"Tell us how your exam went by?"

"Eeea....sy."

"That means you'll just get through the exam, isn't it?"

"No Dad, the papers were easy. I'll get distinction."

She had packed her dresses in a suitcase before going to bed. It was fairly big suitcase and she looks forward to a longer stay. As for me I cannot take leave before the next week. I have decided to take them home and come back to work. There is a neighboring lady and her daughter who look after our house and compound when we are away, Bhargavi Amma and her daughter Devi. In my absence Devi comes to keep them company during night times.

Since we had informed them about our arrival she had removed all grass and shrubs in the courtyard and kept the house tidy. On our arrival she opened the house removed the cobwebs in the porch, dining room and kitchen and swept the rooms, of course the only room we use upstairs as bedroom. Rest of the rooms is kept locked. We had brought lunch form home and so we only had to warm it up and eat. After lunch I went up and lay down. After a while Indira and Vandana also came up after sending Devi away. These are the routine every time we come down. I should go back in the evening itself since tomorrow is Monday and I had to attend the office. Being a Sunday the shops are closed and we could not buy any provisions for the kitchen. Doesn’t matter, they will go and buy all by themselves. Indira would take Devi along.

Before leaving I had a walk through the compound. Nothing has changed. Even the twigs and branches of the trees remain unchanged. It was on those trees that Kuttettan and I climbed. Everything is normal and peaceful. I think the fear is only in mind. Perhaps all these were my imagination only.

Any way that journey had given me some peace. I was a bit troubled at leaving Indira and Vandana in that huge mansion. Slowly I went back to the world of figures. I would take lunch from the restaurant nearby, and reaching home would prepare something simple for dinner. The first two days were plentiful. There was food stored in fridge and I only have to warm it up. In between I called Indira and Vandana.

"Come early on Saturday." Vandana had said.

"Evening 8 O'clock."

I reached home exactly at 8 evening, went to the pond for a bath. I didn't give them the correct answer to their question, how much leave I had taken. I had indeed taken two weeks' leave, but if I tell them the truth they wouldn't allow me to go back before that. Had a nice dinner after a week and I went to sleep. Sleep without any dreams and when woke up it was already late in the morning. Indira and Vandana had gone to the temple. I came down the steps and on reaching kitchen saw Devi preparing tea.

"I knew that you woke up and am making tea." Devi said.

I came back and sat at the table in the dining room.

"They'll be back soon, had gone long time back." She said.

"Do you think that Indirachechi would come back so soon once she's in the temple? I am hungry. I think we'll have breakfast as soon as they come back."

"Yes, the Bengal gram curry is ready and pittu is on the stove."

I asked her about her mother Bhargavi Amma. She started talking as if waiting for a question, an endless talk about her, about the neighbors. The talk lasted for half an hour and with a relief I noticed that I regained all information lost during my stay in town. Now even if somebody whom I meet outside starts a conversation I can pick up the threads fast.

Indira and Vandana came.

"Ha, you haven't taken bath yet?" Indira asked. "Go and take back and come fast and we can have our breakfast." She has gone to the kitchen. Vandana sat facing me.

"Let me go Chechi," Devi said, "My children must be waiting for me now."

"Poor Dad," Vandana said. "Give him breakfast, he must be hungry."

"Thanks for the timely help." I whispered to Vandana.

"Dad, after breakfast I'll show you something?"

"Something what?"

"I got it from a locked room."

"From a locked room?" There were signals of danger flashing in my mind.

"Yeah, just listen." Indira yelled from the kitchen. "For the last one week, she has been inspecting all the rooms here. In a way that was good, we could get Devi to clean them."

"Oh, my God!"