"There's a problem?" Roma was at my door. Genie, Fish and I had arrived in the morning at Pretty Villa in Lonavala, just outside Mumbai, for our three-day holiday with family.
"Oh?"
"Where are we going to put Genie?"
"With me," I unpacked Fish's things and put their comics and eats within sight. I eyed Genie's holdall on his bed. He had disappeared soon after we came to our room.
"Are you nuts?" Roma said, throwing herself onto one of the beds, holding her head with both hands and staring at the ceiling.
"Sometimes. What's the problem? Genie and I have lived in the same flat for years, even after Papa and Mummy died." I had wondered when someone would bring it up, especially considering the conundrum that our cousin Eva, her estranged husband Ashok and her new boyfriend Arief represented. "Is Arief really her boyfriend?"
"Don't change the subject!"
"Couldn't she have gotten better?" Roma's eyes moved from the ceiling fan and glared at me. But I couldn't help it, "What's wrong with Ashok? He's way smarter than Arief!"
"Yes, but we have a problem on our hands."
"Really?"
"Both sets of parents are upset Eva is sharing a room with Arief and when Mummy spoke to Eva she said if you and Genie could share a room so could she with Arief."
"Hahahahaha!"
"Dammit! It's not funny!"
"Of course it is! Genie and I have been living together for years - whatever twist anyone wants to put on it! All the aunties and uncles had issues with it even when my parents were alive. Genie even left a couple of times and returned - I do not know why. I've never been able to make out the excuses. My parents thought of him as a son. He thinks of me as a sister. What is there to argue."
Roma's mouth opened, she looked at me coldly and then shook her head vigorously. "No one for a moment thinks there's anything innocent between you!"
I felt shock, though I'd never been in doubt of what my relatives, or the rest of the world, thought. "Well, there's nothing I can do to change the way they think."
"Of course you can! You can ask Genie to leave!" Roma burst out. "Or-Or-Or he can live nearby and come over every day for work."
"People are going to talk anyway."
This is a fictional series about the narrator, her former manservant Genie and their fish. They arrive at Hotel Pretty Villa on a vacation with the narrator's family and get sucked into family politics and lingering resentments. The unpleasantness peaks, forcing a cousin to step in.
"This arrangement," Roma spread her hands and looked about the room, her eyes settling with distaste on Genie's holdall, "isn't going to work."
"Tell Aunty to put Eva and Arief in different rooms!"
"Mummy did. The only option is Nidhi or you sharing a room with Eva. Nidhi refused." Nidhi was Ashok's sister and Roma's dad had tipped off Ashok that Eva was going to bring a boyfriend.
"Tell Eva and Nidhi to fuck off."
"Please, babe. Adjust some!"
"There's nothing to adjust! Eva has no business sharing a room with Arief especially with Ashok around and even more so since they're still married!"
"You move in with Eva and we can move Genie to the servants dormitory."
I felt shock and anger begin to rise. "Did you call us here to insult us?"
"No! No, of course not!"
"I'll have a chat with Aunty."
"Baby, think logically..."
"Out!"
"Babe..." Roma tried to hug me.
"What I can't believe is you thinking I'm having a rip-roaring affair with Genie! You don't know him, but don't you know me?!"
"Umm..." Roma twisted her hands.
"I'm damned if I'm going to let you guys treat him like the help. He has never been and has never considered himself one!"
"But he..."
I walked out of the door. I kicked every door until I reached the one where i could hear an argument. I banged the door with my fist, wishing I was pounding the shit out of all my relatives. A red-faced, agitated Arief opened the door. "You!"
I pushed my way in. By now, everyone had followed me. My aunt and uncle were very angry with me. Nothing could make me stop. But I did. My cousin Eva was in tears. She rubbed her face with a disintegrating tissue but the tears continued to fall.
I felt all my anger melt. I quickly went to her and held her. "What's wrong, Eva?"
She shook her head. I turned to Arief, "What the hell did you do to her!"
"Nothing," Arief shrugged. He looked embarrassed.
"Did he hit you, Eva?!"
Eva shook her head.
"So why are you crying!"
There was silence. And more tears. I hugged her and said softly in her ear, "What is it, darling? We'll sort it out, just tell me. I won't tell the others."
"I want to go back," she whispered in my neck.
"Why?"
"I made a huge mistake coming."
"Are you still angry with Ashok?"
She started to cry more. I said to the crowd behind me, "I'll move into this room with Eva and Arief can move into my room."
There was a ripple of discord behind me. "What?" Kurian Aunty, Roma's mother in law, said. "You want Arief to share a room with your servant?"
"HE'S NOT A SERVANT!"
"But you told us he's your butler and Man Friday," Roma's mom said, confused and nervous.
"He visited me for Christmas and is staying back to sort out stuff."
"Why didn't you just say so!" Georgy, Roma's husband said.
"Did you think anyone would believe me?"
There was silence.
"Does anyone believe me now?" I asked the group in front of me. They looked confused and angry, while the Kurian women looked happy at the implied salaciousness.
I heard a throat clear. Genie said, "I'll get a room down the road." There was disbelief and the group turned to stare at him.
"Good. I'll come too," I said.
There was uproar, with everyone talking at once.
"Quiet!" Uncle shouted at the group. He turned to me, "You will do no such thing!"
"Er, I'm going back, Uncle," Arief said.
"Sensible decision," Kurian Uncle, Georgy's father, said.
Ashok muscled his way in. "Stop it, Uncle. Arief, you're staying right here. Genie, you're not going down the road either. You're a part of the family and whatever anyone has to say," he glared at his assorted family, "they can keep it to themselves! There will be no more rudeness on this trip - we're all friends and family."
We stared at him, nonplussed. Finally Roma's mother broke the silence. "So where does everyone sleep tonight?"
"Right, Aunty. Arief, Genie and I will take this room. The three ladies will sleep in the other room."
"I will not!" Nidhi said hotly.
"You have a better idea?" Ashok asked, his body very still. I wondered suddenly if he was prone to violence. I felt a frisson of discomfort.
"But that will mean we'll have to give up one room."
"Yes. I've suddenly made your holiday cheaper," he told his sister unnecessarily.
"I don't want to..."
"You will."
Nidhi closed her mouth and walked off. "Right," Ashok smiled at the group. "All's settled. Back to your rooms everyone. Genie, let's get our gear."
They moved out, leaving the elders staring at us blankly. Then Roma's father walked out, her mom followed and then her parents in law and sisters in law and their spouses.
Roma and I sat on the bed, with our arms around Eva in between us. She was still crying.
"What, baby?" Roma asked Eva. She didn't answer. We stayed until the guys returned with their luggage. Ashok looked Eva over. His eyes never left her face.
We left Eva in our room and Roma and I walked quickly to the front lawn and sat on the large swing.
"I'm not comfortable with us being in full view of everyone," I said. I wanted to hide in a deep hole and hold myself tightly.
"Ashok is a moron," Roma muttered.
"What?"
"Of all the times to be cost conscious!"
"What are you saying, Roma?"
She turned angrily to me. I shrank back. "Did you notice the way Ashok looked at Eva? He still loves her!"
I had noticed too. He hadn't cared she was with another man. "So?"
"So? So! Soooo!!!! He could have sorted things out by just moving into the room with Eva. Staked his claim! Kicked every other man's butt! Tossed Arief out on his ear! Bloody hell! Instead he's saving money for Daddy!! ARRRRGHHHHHHH!" she screamed.
She grabbed my lapel and shook me, "For once in his life, he could have been a he-fucking-man and said he was going to share the room with Eva!"
"O-O-One problem with that!" I stammered, trying to free the front of my shirt from Roma's grasp.
"WHAT!" Roma spat into my eye.
"Eva might not have wanted it."
"Bah! Not a chance! Just bloody ego, both of them!"
I agreed. The moment Eva had told me she had made a mistake, I knew what she meant. Ashok was a kind man. For both of them, I hoped things would work out. I hated the fact that there was such a big audience. The Kurian women hated Eva, but everyone in my family liked Ashok.
Roma grabbed the flesh of my thigh and squeezed hard. I yelped in pain. She shushed me angrily and gestured with her chin at the large bush near us.
I could see Ashok smoking alone on the ground floor, near the entrance leading to the garden, his eyes caught by something upstairs. We looked in the direction he was looking - Eva was in the balcony staring at him.
The pain in my thigh became unbearable. I threw off Roma's hand and massaged my thigh.
Genie and Arief came out of the hotel and spoke to Ashok. The three of them walked up to us. "We're going to have cutting chai from down the road. Want to join us?" Genie asked.
"Sure," Roma said, immediately on her feet. She put her thumb and index fingers into her mouth, let out a shrill whistle and shouted, "Eva, we're getting tea! Hurry up and come downstairs!"
Eva started and immediately left the balcony. Roma smiled.
"Er, Georgy?" I asked Roma.
"Oh, he's probably with Mummy. In very safe hands. Come on, Eva's here!"
Roma looped her arms into Eva's and mine and dragged us towards the gate. The men followed.
