The Unexpected Son. Shobhan Bantwal
lifted his mug in a mock salute. “To my good friend, who will always be faithful to his wife.” Even if she looks like a camel, he added silently. As he took his first scalding sip, he wondered if Raju was the luckier of the two of them. There was something to be said for living a bland, uncomplicated life. Fewer problems.
And Som had his share of problems—too many, in fact. Vinita was in love with him and she was becoming too clingy and demanding. His own pinpricks of conscience were making him uneasy. It wasn’t like him to experience remorse. There was only one thing he could do. He had to stop seeing her.
So how was he going to let her down gently?
Raju continued to study him with the probing expression that Som disliked so much. It made him squirm. Despite the fact that Raju was a wealthy drifter like himself, Raju still lived by a different set of rules. He wasn’t joking when he said he’d be faithful to his future wife. Raju would also turn into a seriously committed businessman once he joined his father and two older brothers in their profitable timber business.
At heart Raju was a good man. He had always been a loyal friend to Som—since they had been classmates and fellow Lingayats in a Catholic boys’ school, where there were only a handful of students of their faith at the time.
Taking another thoughtful sip of the potent, bitter coffee, Som avoided Raju’s incisive gaze and turned his eyes to the scene outside the window instead.
The sun was losing its luminescence, getting ready to set. The traffic was heavy—people going home from work. The nearby masjid, the mosque, called the faithful to their evening prayer.
He had to work out a few things, he reflected, mostly concerning Vinita. Unfortunately, she was so damn serious and committed about everything, even something like having an affair. Why couldn’t she have some fun for a change?
Once again Raju interrupted Som’s wandering mind when he put his empty mug down along with some money to pay for the coffee. “I have to go,” Raju said, thrusting his wallet into his pocket.
Som absently lifted a hand to wave. “See you tomorrow.” He watched his friend walk out the door. Then he went back to brooding.
He’d have to think of a way to tell Vinita that the thing they had together was over.
Chapter 7
The drizzle hadn’t let up in five days. It was well past the monsoon season, but a rare typhoon had traveled up the coast, bringing with it relentless rain, even as far inland as Palgaum.
Vinita leaned a shoulder against the window frame of the small flat and watched it fall noiselessly, the moisture weighing down the blades of grass and the branches of the small tree in the courtyard. The window was open, so the chilly moisture traveled directly into the room with every gust of wind, making her shiver. She felt sick. Lately she felt that way most of the time.
Dead leaves and other debris floated along with the muddy water that flowed into the street and ended up in the nearby sewer drain. If this rain continued, a flood was likely.
She disliked cloudy days, and rainy ones even more. But the current weather suited her mood—gray, wet, miserable. She’d been doing a lot of weeping lately.
“What do you mean it’s our responsibility?” Som’s words jerked her out of her grim thoughts and forced her to turn away from the window. The outrage in his golden eyes could burn laser holes in anyone who dared to be close enough. The eyebrows looked menacing.
Nevertheless Vinita stood her ground and looked him in the eye, her legs shaking so badly she didn’t know how long they would hold her up. “You’re a big part of what’s been happening all these months, Som.”
His jaw tightened. “As if I need reminding.”
“To you it may have been some cheap bet, but to me it was serious.”
All she got in reply was silence.
This was not going well. He looked livid. But after she’d missed her third monthly cycle she’d decided that Som had to be told. She couldn’t handle the crisis alone. She was facing total disaster. And time was running out.
He was in this as much as she—actually more than she, because he had pursued her. Hadn’t he deliberately orchestrated their collision the night of the dance recital? Prema had told her the truth about that, too. He had asked her out, then sweet-talked her straight into his arms, and eventually into his bed. So why should she have to suffer the consequences alone? The baby was his.
He looked incredulous. “You’re sure this is not a joke?”
She tossed him a blistering look. “Do I look like I’m joking? Being pregnant at nineteen is hardly a joke.”
His face turned a curious shade of red, telling her the remark had struck home. Finally. He thrust his hands in his pockets and started to pace the length of the tiny sitting room of his friend’s flat.
This was the place where they’d met on the sly at least once a week for the last few months. Adjoining this room was the bedroom, where the bed took up nearly the entire space.
She had considered that bed a small piece of heaven as she’d lain beside Som and listened to his gruff smoker’s voice talk about his cricket team. She’d loved hearing him speak, and even come to appreciate the trademark scent of him—cigarette smoke combined with his bold aftershave. She could have picked him out in a crowd with her eyes shut, just by his smell.
He turned to her with a frown. “Couldn’t you have protected yourself?”
“So it’s my fault now? I was the inexperienced one in this relationship.” She pointed a finger at him. “You are the experienced fellow who’s had countless affairs.”
“That’s not true!” he growled.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me that, Som. You know you’re the Casanova of Shivraj College. And don’t even try to deny it.”
“If you knew all that about me, why did you go out with me?” His nostrils flared. “I didn’t exactly abduct you. So why did you go to the café with me? Why did you sleep with me, damn it?”
Clasping her hands tightly, she turned again and gazed at the falling rain, trying to keep her own temper under control. Angry outbursts were bad for the baby.
She didn’t have any answer to his questions—not verbally, anyway. In her heart she knew exactly what the reasons were: she was too dazzled by his charm to see the corrupt soul that lived inside him—too foolish to decline his advances—too naïve to foresee the trouble she could land in.
She’d chosen to see only his kind side, his wryly humorous side, his altruistic side that gave alms to beggars, loans to his less fortunate friends, and generous tips to starving waiters. And she had to admit he did have all those attributes. Somewhere inside that broad chest lay a heart—but like a stagnant pond, a thick layer of slime covered up the hidden depths.
“You want to know the truth, Som?” On a defeated sigh she returned her gaze to him. “All right, then. Since I’ve humiliated myself to this extent, I’ll go all the way and finish the job. I did it because I love you. I thought you loved me, too. I knew precisely what you were, and yet I believed you’d changed since you met me. I thought a plain girl like me had caught your attention because you were finally beginning to make the difficult transition from being an immature boy to a responsible man.”
She buried her face in her hands and breathed deeply to keep the threatening tears at bay. There, she’d finally admitted to him her innermost feelings—something she’d never told anyone. Her mortification was complete.
And yet he said nothing in response.
He continued to pace silently—like a caged animal. He reminded her of the circus that had come to town when she was eight years old. Watching the wild cats pace back and forth in their cages had both fascinated and terrified her. To a free spirit like Som, maybe this did feel like being