The Mirrors of Fate (9 page)

“
Dad—”

“
Plain and simple it is the culture of this family.”

“
You don’t have a say in the matter,” her mother reinforced.

“
And I find it quite interesting that even though you acted like such a disgraceful excuse for a lady, it appears your defiance actually helped build his interest in you.” He said it almost proudly, as if her rebellious ways had been a direct result of his own molding and he had only himself to be immensely pleased with. “But God only knows why he’d want to be with someone like you for the rest of his life,” he began, setting up for a scathing joke. “We can barely stand having you around now as it is.”

He laughed and her mother joined in with a chuckle.

Maria gritted her teeth. The teasing comment didn’t hurt her more than it escalated her temper. She tried to keep a grasp on composure, on self-control, but all that was slipping away quickly. Her last resort was to plead.

“
Would you just listen to me, you guys? I’m begging you. I already told you how I feel. I want to be free to choose who I want like every other normal person, like even you did, Dad.”

He scoffed arrogantly. “We’re back to this again? I’m a man, Maria. The cards are just dealt differently. You can whine about it all you want, but that’s how it goes. My parents weren’t happy about it, but at the end of the day they remembered what? That I’m a man and fortunately society affords me that luxury to choose. I chose your mother, yes, didn’t care that she was white, didn’t care she couldn’t have children, didn’t care about much save for making my
own
choice. And you’re forgetting I was out of my parents’ house when I made the decision to marry her. I won’t have my own child tell me how her life is going to be run under my roof.”

Just because he was a man...Just because she hadn’t been able to escape this roof yet. Running away to university was really the only chance she had to avoid her fate. But if she couldn’t...

“
This is so wrong. It’s wrong and you know it! It’s ridiculous that I can’t have a boyfriend like everyone else. It’s stupid that I can’t even go out on dates because I’m already ‘reserved’ for potential people. Look, I know you guys want the best for me, but I feel like you just don’t—”

“
He was such a nice one, wasn’t he, honey?” Mrs. Jaghai asked her husband.

He nodded firmly. “Very nice indeed,” he said with the same lilt. “Very intelligent and very charismatic.”

“
Yes, yes, very charismatic. He’s such a
wonderful
guest as well. His parents taught him how to be cultured, obviously. Don’t you think so, sweetheart?”

He nodded again. “Yes I do. He’s an amazing choice.”

Maria grimaced and sealed her eyes together to stop a stream of angry tears from flooding out. “Stop that!” She wanted to scream something so loud and powerful her words would shake the house, crack the windows. Anything so they would finally hear her! But this was what they enjoyed, torturing and ignoring her.

This was how it always was.

“
So, why don’t you sit down and eat, honey?” her father asked with a mocking grin. “We’re going to have to work extra hard to impress him and his family when they come, so eat, eat! We don’t want you fainting in front of the poor gentleman or anything. You’re looking too thin.”

Maria’s lips quivered. “I’m...I’m not hungry!” She charged through the kitchen door and left.

Susan looked at her husband dependently for a moment. She went behind him and wrapped her arms about his shoulders. “Sweetie, what do we do with her? She is so against this. How can we convince her? No man is going to want a disagreeable wife like that.”

Rupak closed his eyes and sighed. “It’s times like this when a parent wonders what they did wrong in raising their child, but I’m not going to regret a damn thing. No child is going to dictate to me how things will be run. So long as she’s living under this roof, she’ll have to abide by my rules.”

“
But of course. That’s the way it
should
be,” she said without hesitation. “My papa raised us the same way.”

“
She’s too young to really consider the ramifications of not properly mapping out your life from now. But that’s where we come in. We as her parents have to do it for her. We can’t leave her side right now. So many parents are willing to desert their children when they’re a little lost, before they even get a proper foothold in the world, but I won’t do it. I won’t do it. She needs us now more than ever.”

“
You think so?” she said by his ear, nipping at it gently with her teeth.

“
Without a doubt. The Singhs will keep us where we are, in life, and with the community. Louie has business sense, life experience. He’ll be good for her. I should’ve just chosen him outright instead of giving her an option. Whether or not she likes it, I’ll make sure she marries him.”

•

At about one-thirty on that same day, Maria finally found herself able to indulge in a hot but not particularly tasty meal. The cafeteria serving of mashed potatoes and barbecued chicken wasn’t enough to appease her appetite, so she carefully savored each bite until it turned into a watery mess in her mouth before she swallowed.

Though she had been strictly ordered not to leave the house, her parents taking away her car keys couldn’t stop her from sneaking out her window and walking to school. School was the best place for a free meal, even if it meant arriving late on a Friday afternoon. Maria refused to eat what was already in her house and succumb to the bribe for her to behave.

Coming to the end of her first sloppy dish, she quickly began gobbling down what remained so she could go for seconds before the lunch ladies cleared away the trays lying out on the long buffet-like lunch counter. She was so focused on the food before her she did not hear anyone enter the cafeteria.

Alan came in and stood by the doorway. His gaze surveyed the large room. Maria was sitting by herself at a round table.

Ah, that student in the hallway was right about seeing her arrive a little while ago,
he thought. He grinned to himself, finally pleased to see her back. She hadn’t heard him enter, and with the privilege of not being seen, he simply stood there and took a moment to study her, a moment he wasn’t quite sure why he decided to take.

He could compare her to a pig eating from a trough based on the way she hurriedly used her fork to scrape up every last bit of mashed potato remains on her plate. When she finished, she got up and amazingly went to request more.

For the first time he really looked at her. He stared at her African-influenced caramel complexion with a natural gold tint to it; at her long, curly auburn hair hanging down to the middle of her back; at her thin limbs and her tall, slender body that was mostly leggy with a small upper torso and a nicely shaped waist and broad hips. In profile, her breasts were appreciably nice round mounds on her chest. His eyes lingered there for a moment; they were impressive enough. But her ass was the most prominent and loud thing on her slim figure—perfectly rounded and incredibly noticeable by any man.

In truth, she wasn’t such a bad sight to look at, at least from afar. Up close she was nothing remarkable. Her face, with a saving grace of high cheekbones, was still not very striking. To add to any unflattering observations, her stomach, which probably would have been flatter in normal circumstances, now had an unbecoming, noticeable bump after her gluttony.

Still, even with all this, he found himself standing there watching her for considerably longer than he had planned to.

Maria finally sat down again, and when she raised her head from her plate she waved to him.

“
Hey Alan!”

He returned a wave and made the long journey from the door to her table. “What’s up? How are you?” he asked her when he finally reached her.

She straightened her back and quickly adjusted the fabric of her tight gray top, which seemed to magnify the bulge of her stomach. “I’m good,” she said as he sat down directly across from her at the round table. “Sorry, did I look spaced out a while ago?”

“
I don’t know. You waved to me as soon as I saw you. Did
I
look spaced?”

“
No, not at all.”

He tried to mask his relief with a casual smile. “Good. So, what are you doing here? You just decide to come to school late so you could eat?”

She would’ve taken more offence had she not known he was merely joking. But she was upset and hoped he could see it. The first thing he should’ve asked was how she was feeling since the accident. Didn’t he notice that she missed a week of school?

“
I just needed to get out of the house,” she began after swallowing a ball of food in her mouth. “It’s too boring there. I could have easily gone to the Square, but why not get some free food here instead?” A blatant, poor excuse for a lie. She hoped it sounded as blithe as she had intended it to sound.

“
So, the food at home isn’t free too?”

She smiled. “Yeah...but the house was just too boring, amongst other things.”

“
What other things?”

His tone was probing, curious, intrusive. She fretted that her responses were taking a few seconds too many to compose.

“
I...well...My parents are annoying,” Maria said with finality, not leaving the statement hanging in the air so he would feel the need to ask or add anything.

If smiles told tales, she would have loved to know the story behind the smirk that crossed his face now.

“
So, how are you feeling?” he asked when it faded.

She glanced down at the food a little guiltily. “Uh, hungry.”

“
Yes, I saw you eating,” he said, sounding a little evasive. He leaned forward now, looking at her with the searing heat of his green marble eyes. She leaned back in her chair, shyly unsettled by his closeness. “I was actually inquiring about the condition of that pretty little head of yours.”

“
Oh, that!” The words sprung out of her like a rat from a cupboard. “No, don’t worry, it wasn’t serious at all.”

“
That’s good. I’m glad you weren’t hurt. I guess the ladder was faulty.”

She hesitated. He watched her.

“
What’s the matter Maria?”

She withheld for a moment, quickly debating in her mind whether she should go further and discuss it. She remembered what possible conclusion she came to last week—he made her fall—he pushed her. But to even say such a thing to him, could she?

“
Maria, you’re quiet all of a sudden.”

Okay, so what if my conclusion is stupid? Just ask about it anyway.

“
Hey, you know I don’t understand how it happened,” she began with forced coolness. “You look fine, so you must have seen it. How did I fall off the ladder like that?”

“
I don’t know. Like I said, the ladder was probably faulty. I turned away at the time. I’m sorry about it.” Alan stared at her, his eyes solid with his premise.

She tried to smile off her confusion but then spoke again. “But I’m pretty sure you were behind me the whole time. Did anyone discover a faulty rung later or something? I mean, do you really think it was faulty?”

“
It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said slowly, definitely. The silkiness of his voice slid its way underneath her skin.

Fine then. She must’ve been mistaken. Simple. She had been mistaken.

Maria smiled, lowered her head and began eating again. Levering food into her mouth was all an awkward motion that showed her uncertainty, though she had hoped it wouldn’t.

In a swift movement, Alan abruptly leaned his upper body over onto the table and came up close to her face. “Oh my God!” he said dramatically. “Madam, am I to assume that you think I pushed you off?! Is this the way of it?”

Guilt climbed into her throat. “A-Are you crazy? Of course not, silly.”

For no more than a second or so Alan’s gaze searched hers seriously. He drew forward even closer, his face hovering near hers. “Tell me where hurts.”

“
M-My left side,” she managed to say after her heart skipped a beat, “and just a little place on my right.”

“
Ah, I see. It makes sense. I shoved you on your right side and you fell on your left. It wasn’t enough of a push to make you fall far from the ladder, but your feet slipped from underneath you and you fell in the direction that I pushed you.”

She stared at him silently, confusion prevailing over horror. He had explained the entire thing to her so nonchalantly, as if he’d just been reading off the ingredients on a milk carton.

“
That’s not funny,” she said seriously.

“
It isn’t, but your expression is, for believing something so ridiculous.” Suddenly he slumped back in his chair, throwing his body back playfully. “Oh, I must have done something horrid to the lady! The audacity of such an assumption! I am appalled!”

“
Okay enough. Just don’t joke like that again.”

“
I will never joke again or see the light of day again! I might as well gouge myself with the very fork you gouge your potatoes with for such a wicked falsehood!”

Maria fought back a smile, tightly pursing her lips so the food would not fall out. Only he could be this cheesy and it come across as endearing. But damn it, she wouldn’t let him get away that easily by breezing everything over with humor.