River bound seacret swep.., p.9
River Bound Seacret Swept, page 9
And now as she straightened her spine in her chair, she was still tremendously intrigued. She clicked on Arnesh’s response to the entire group and stared at the content in stupefaction.
Chapter 7
“I will be offline for a while. I’m heading to Guyana for a funeral at Susannah’s Rust, Demerara River.”
Suzy felt unable to draw a proper breath as she tried to absorb the message of the email.
Someone she knew had died but whom? She kept in regular touch with Grandpa and all was well with—
What if he called when her phones were turned off?
What if it was—?
Did she really want to know?
No!
She was not ready. She was still processing the devastating news Arnesh would be offline for a while.
Already, she felt bereft.
She would miss him, miss his bold flirtation.
“Your mouth is aching for my kiss.”
She had replied. “Only in your dreams.”
Suzy could almost see a cocked eyebrow in his response, “oh, really?”
“Yes, really,” she had typed boldly.
“I intend to make it a reality, devour you, taste you, make circles on your swollen bud, have you burst open in my mouth, enjoy your quivers on my tongue. So how about that for starters, my little flirt?”
She had lost her breath, completely.
“Big, bad wolf!” was her response. “You shouldn’t write such x-rated stuff.”
What if he was a teenager or...an old man or Raju in disguise? God knows, the latter was devious enough. “I’m probably old enough to be your mother.”
“Nay,” he had replied. “You’re ripe enough to be my woman.”
“The picture on my profile is one of when I was much younger.” She giggled as she typed. “I’m 69 now.”
“Old ladies are not this flirtatious.”
“Me, flirtatious, har, har?”
“You have ‘flirt’ down to an art.”
The jarring tone of the phone brought Suzy back to the present. “Hello.”
“Suzy?”
“Grandpa!” A sob caught in her throat. “I was about to call—”
“Princess...” His voice broke. “Something bad—”
Pegasus…the dogs, Omigod—
Suzy life’s force drained in an instant.
Her heart pounded. “Tell me, Grandpa!”
“It’s your Grandma.” His voice caught on a new wave of emotion and Suzy understood right away.
Grandma Samundar was no more.
Feeling numbed, Suzy slumped into her chair, choking back tears as she recalled sweet moments.
Grandma reading her bedtime stories, Grandma singing lullabies to her in Hindi and Grandma making her a snack, Roti rolls filled with peanut butter and melted brown sugar.
Grandma had also refurbished an old nursery rhyme just for Suzy and Raju.
Old Demerara had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on this farm he had a creek, E-I-E-I-O
With a splash, splash here, and a splish, splish there
Here a creek, there a creek, everywhere a creek…
Suzy could have sworn Grandma was immortal. “How did she die? She was healthy and strong.”
“Drowned—she drowned.”
What the bleep?
It couldn’t be.
“But Grandma was a good swimmer!”
Grandpa heaved a sigh. “Come home…Princess.”
“Oh—but I…can’t, not this week, Grandpa. I’ve far too many deadlines…school…e-magazines…a book…and the kids are too young for a funeral…” Suzy trailed off.
“When will I see them?” He sounded dejected. “I got them a couple of ponies. I’ll teach them to ride.”
“That’s so sweet,” Suzy said, feeling rotten to the core. “I’ll bring them after the funeral, okay?”
She squeezed her eyes shut in defeat only to open them as the truth hit home.
Her reluctance to go to Guyana had little to do with her lame schedule.
A trip there would rip apart barely healed wounds.
Her thoughts slipped into the past.
The night with Adrian, she had reawakened in a panic to find it was almost 3:00 am.
Grandma!
Frantic, she managed to slide out from beneath Adrian’s heavy arm without rousing him.
It was a marvel she was able to find anything in the dark, including his shirt, a perfect cover-up for her bikini.
On her way out, she had even managed to raid his fridge for an apple treat.
Yin and Yang were waiting on the pier.
“Well,” Suzy had teased. “If you guys never invaded his solitude, chew on his authority and jumped all over his law and order, he wouldn’t have locked you out.”
Pegasus was in his usual sleeping spot, under the Jaldevs’ horse shelter, beside Orion.
He didn’t mind being roused.
Ok, Suzy mentioned there would be an apple at the end of the journey and Pegasus was instantly enslaved.
It was great Suzy had trained herself to ride him bareback and without reins or she’d have to walk barefoot, put up with creepy night crawlers, wine-drooling Dutch zombies or worse, His Creepiness’ tentacles reaching for her.
For once, Suzy was glad ‘locking up’ was her self-appointed job. When Suzy was not around, her grandparents and Raju slept with the doors and windows, unlocked.
She managed to sneak in, undetected, her loyal escorts behind her. She remembered feeding them their favorite snack but it never rid them of the starved puppy dog looks they wore like undeserved collars so she let them stay in her room.
She had climbed into bed, still moist and sore from all the heated couplings and fell into a deep sleep.
She awoke to low, menacing growls and Raju scowling down at her. “Where were you last night?”
Suzy, still half asleep had croaked out a lie. “With...um—I...I slept at the guest harbor…”
“Liar!” Raju accused at the top of his voice which incited the dogs into a barking frenzy.
“You slept with him, didn’t you?” And then his eyes narrowed in disbelief. “That’s his fucking shirt!”
There was a gasp of revulsion and Grandma hobbled into the room, screaming at the dogs to get out.
She looked down at Suzy, flints of hatred blazing in her eyes. “Are you in heat?” she demanded. “You couldn’t wait to spread your legs for that womanizer?”
“Did he promise to marry you?” Raju shouted at Suzy.
“You think he wants to be saddled with her?” Grandma asked Raju. “Who wants a princess who can’t even boil water?”
It was as if Grandma lost all hopes and wrath and insults were her only road to salvation.
She turned to Suzy. “You fill me with scorn!”
Angry spots, the color of gangrene suffused her sallow cheeks. “You’re a disgrace, a shameless whore like your mother,” she continued, never letting up, her diatribe gushing forth like sewer.
Outwardly, Suzy acted indifferent but inside she was sick with dread and burning up with shame.
Unable to goad a response out of Suzy, Grandma did the unforgivable.
She spat on Suzy.
Eyes stinging with tears, Suzy ran to the bathroom to scrub her face with all kinds of soap and even toothpaste.
She exited the bathroom an aeon later, still mad as hell, but Grandma was not done.
“Do you have any clue what you have done?” she screamed. “Answer me, you little slut!”
Suzy glanced at Raju.
He was the antidote for Grandma’s rage but he made no move to step in her line of fire.
He was definitely against Suzy as well.
Oh, well. It was time to help herself from her own imprisoning tower. She knew it would start a war but she had enough of Grandma’s venom.
She lifted her chin. “Yes, Grandma. I’m a slut. So what?”
For once Grandma was taken aback. She stared at Suzy, venomous spittle on her lips. “That’s all you’ll ever be, a slut. Sex was all he wanted from you, the only thing you have, the only thing you can bring to his table!”
A spurt of white-hot rage blazed through Suzy.
“Says who?” she railed. “If sex was all he wanted, almost any woman would have done nicely!”
“But he prefers cheap, loose and easy women like you. If you were any decent, you’d hold out until marriage!”
“Isn’t it supposed to be the other way round?” Suzy glared at Grandma. “A decent woman would never force herself or her partner into marriage until they’re mutually ready for it.”
“Then you don’t love each other!”
Suzy blanched at the fury in Grandma’s frame but she had to keep airing more perspectives just to show Grandma her narrow views were so BCE.
“Do you bring flowers to the altar of Surya the Sun God for material wants or is it because you’re filled with unconditional love for him?”
“Sluts should not talk about God!”
“Ma! Don’t be ridiculous,” Raju admonished. He darted a glance at Suzy. “Did Adrian ask you to marry him?”
“No,” Suzy answered. “What matters is I love Adrian. I want nothing from him. But I’d give him the world if I could because that’s how love expresses itself.”
“Then you’re indeed a slut,” Grandma barked.
“And those who traded their virginity for marriage or saved it for the highest bidder are what exactly?” Suzy demanded.
She knew she had crossed a dangerous line but she was too far gone. “Isn’t that the real shameless act here?”
“You dare to backtalk to me?” Grandma roared.
“I dare because your teaching is egocentric and profane! When there’s a sacred connection between two people not blood related, sex is an expression of love and nurture and shouldn’t be traded for anything.”
“He doesn’t need love and nurturing. I do,” Raju grumbled to himself.
Suzy turned her attention on Raju. “Well then, you shouldn’t have rejected Sondra—!”
Grandma seized that exact moment. She reared her arm and backhanded Suzy across the face.
“Stop!” Raju yelled as he grabbed Grandma’s arm.
Suzy stared at Grandma, too stunned to react. Gingerly, she cradled her stinging cheek. “How come you never lectured Raju when sex was all he wanted from Sondra?”
“She’s a whore,” Grandma snapped, freeing her arm from Raju to point at Suzy. “And you’re one too.”
“Well, know this, slut-shaming are what have us all enslaved,” Suzy declared. “It’s not gonna work on me. Find a new victim, Grandma and leave me the fuck alone!”
Raju’s gasp was audible.
Grandma’s face tightened. Her lips stretched into a snarl. “Don’t take that tone with me!”
She grabbed Suzy’s hair with one hand while trying to rip Adrian’s shirt off Suzy with her other hand.
And she wouldn’t let go even after all the buttons clattered to the floor.
Raju intervened at the exact moment the dogs bound back into the room.
Instant war erupted.
Suzy managed to calm the dogs but still, Raju and Grandma both got horribly bitten.
Poor puppies, they were locked up but were eventually rescued by Grandpa and Uma who were back from the pastures.
But Grandma was not done with Suzy.
What she said next was like a bomb that blew Suzy over the rapids, leaving her broken and drowning.
Adrian had a socialite wife and child in America and countless mistresses in every port he owned.
Grandma’s tirade had also woken Lily who reiterated Grandma’s preposterous claims.
As if that wasn’t enough, Grandma was proven right for Adrian had disappeared.
Suzy searched her memory for confirmation.
The night with Adrian, after a bout of lovemaking, he had ruefully confessed he lied about his parents inviting her over for a sleepover.
Ok, so he meant to seduce her but did he also intend to take off without a word to her?
Perhaps, this was how they rolled in America when it came to one night stands?
In Guyana, it was slightly different.
1. After the sex act, most women expected a binding relationship or they’d feel duped. Shouldn’t it be the other way round? (This womentality is so BCE!)
2. If the dude was uh… indeed a loser, some parents would rather force the said loser to marry their daughter than lose face. (Did they even have a shining face to begin with?)
3. Sometimes the dude wanted marriage but his SNOTTY parents were against his choice of bride. (Sadly, this was grounds for suicide in many cases.)
4. Because Grandma saved her virginity for marriage, she expected everyone to worship her feet and treat her as Goddess Laxmi, reincarnated. (Virginity or none, all women were sacred …except Grandma.)
5. Raju said Sondra acted as if she owned him after he had sex with her so he dumped her. (Grandma planted both ideas in his Suzycentric mind.)
Suzy never wanted to be those types.
But perhaps Adrian thought Suzy was all of the above? If not, why did he not tell her he was leaving the same night?
He mentioned to Grandpa that he and his parents would be leaving in the evening of the next day. Grandpa also added Adrian only came to Guyana to make sure his father returned to the USA on time for his scheduled hernia surgery. Apparently, Papa Niv had escaped to Guyana to avoid it.
Even though it was the year 2003, neither Suzy, her aunt Charry nor her grandparents owned a cell phone, had Internet access or owned a computer.
As for landlines, Susannah’s Rust was not linked to the country’s telecommunication system but there was a cellular tower for mobile phones.
Aunt Charry had a landline but after she received a series of threatening calls, she disconnected her phone.
Suzy waited two days, hoping Adrian would be back but after no show, she was certain something horrible happened.
Lily offered to let Suzy used her cell phone.
Suzy tried Adrian’s number but it was out of service.
She also called his office.
It was a frightening experience with many dropped calls, background noises and distorted voice quality.
Adrian’s rude secretary, who was obviously screening his calls for stalkers, mistook Suzy for a desperate one.
Suzy was told Adrian would be out of the office for quite a while so it was best Suzy called back or leave a message. Suzy opted to leave her name and Lily’s number but no message.
Suzy cheered up when she remembered Carl, the Jaldev’s property caretaker. Maybe Adrian had left a message with him. However, Carl was nowhere to be found.
Raju would later confirm Carl had taken a leave of absence to be with his mother who was battling cancer.
When RiverBound returned two days later, the clueless stable boy was at the helm. He said he was at his Georgetown home when he got a call from Carl to bring the boat home and to watch over the property until Carl got back.
Two weeks later, Suzy was hit with a severe bout of vomiting. After testing positive on a kit she stole from Grandma’s store, Suzy knew she was in a dilemma.
There was still one other option. Write to Adrian. To hint to him she may be pregnant and also to find out if everything was ok.
The next day brought more agony.
Grandma, who was unaware of Suzy’s pregnancy, confiscated Suzy’s passport and refused to give it back unless Suzy agreed to marry Raju.
Suzy immediately called Momma on Lily’s phone but was shocked to find she no longer had an ally in Momma.
Her own mother was now forcing her to marry Raju!
And it wasn’t because of Suzy’s pregnancy. In fact, no one but Suzy knew of her pregnancy at that point.
Suzy was mystified. What had gotten into Momma?
And why was Fate on Grandma’s side?
After another week, Suzy’s hope not only died, she found she was determined to keep her baby. She would get her passport back from Grandma, move to Canada, find a job, study, work hard and during her spare time, she would write beautiful stories with her baby, her new muse on her lap.
She had already accepted the fact that a man as powerful as Adrian would not want to marry every woman he—seduced.
If only she hadn’t seen her future in his eyes, eyes she was pining away to see again even though he belonged to another.
She needed him like she needed air.
It would be impossible to get over him but her rationality dictated it was time to move on.
Suzy managed to conceal her pregnancy for a bit longer until Raju found her slumped on the floor in a helpless heap.
She was dragged off to a ‘quack’ doctor who ordered Suzy to follow him up the stairs. She flatly refused and things got ugly. In an instant, she was surrounded by Lily, Grandma, the doctor and his assistant.
“Please, Grandma,” Suzy had begged. “I can’t murder my own child. I’ll raise it all by myself.”
But Grandma shrieked at Suzy instead. “You want to ruin our good name, drag it into the mud?”
The doctor lost his patience and accused Suzy of wasting his valuable time.
Suzy tried to break free but was cornered.
She began sobbing and screaming until help intervened in the form of the doctor’s receptionist interrupting him to take a ‘life and death’ call.
From Aunt Charry!
Suzy still hated to think of the outcome had Raju not persuaded the receptionist to call Aunt Charry.
While they waited for a taxi, Aunt Charry arrived in person. With uncontrolled fury, she told Grandma if she dared to drag Suzy to another doctor, she would report her not only to the Guyana police force but the Canadian embassy as well.
It worked! Aunt Charry also wanted to hide Suzy in her friend’s house but Suzy knew what she had to do.
The least Suzy could do was marry Raju for saving her unborn child. Who knows, maybe he would be a good father?
Also, when Aunty Charry asked about Suzy’s pregnancy, Grandma lied outright. “It was Raj. Mahesh must never know. It would certainly kill him.”
