The Zoya Factor (57 page)

'Later, thanks,' Khoda called back and turned around to look at me as I sat there, surreptitiously cleaning the mud off my face. 'You know, this new look of yours will take some getting used to.'

I glowered at him, knowing full well that with all my hair gone, my cheeks looked huger than ever. I had these mad little corkscrew curls all over my head and looked pretty much like a wheatish golliwog. My stupid tee shirt with 'Happy Girl!' written down the front, my grubby cargo shorts revealing unmoisturized legs with dirt-encrusted knees, and sockless and therefore slightly stinky red sneakers didn't help. Besides, I knew that that whole unconcerned attitude of Zoravar's had been an act. He had accelerated rapidly as he made for the house, and I knew that by now he would have gathered the whole clan together and that they would all be watching us and giggling up a storm. I looked towards the house - and all the genteel curtained windows looked like blatantly unblinking eyes to me.

Scowling at Nikhil, I said belligerently, 'Who's telling you to
look
at me?'

He grinned, completely unaffected by this graceless remark and said, 'What were you thinking? That being a Goddess makes you immune to fire?'

'What are
you
thinking?' I retorted instantly. 'That winning a World Cup makes it okay for you to wander around the countryside being rude to people? What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you be in Bombay riding through town on an open bus or something?'

'Are you trying to get rid of me, Zoya?'

I looked up, surprised. His lips were playful, but there was this unsure look in his eyes which, after all these days of waiting for him to call me, was like balm to my broken heart (and, I must admit, to my battered ego). The
Raktdantini
flexed to life in my veins.

'Maybe,' I said, with a light, soft laugh.

His eyes blazed suddenly, he leaned forward and said, his voice like silk. 'Yes or no?'

I shrugged.
'Uff...no,
okay?'I said crossly.

He folded his arms across his chest. 'Lokey told me what happened at your shoot.'

Okay. So maybe that was good news. And, of course, I wanted to ask him if he believed what Zoravar and I did, that Jogpal had been out to get him. But I didn't want to talk to him nicely yet. In fact, at that moment, when I looked at him and remembered how even Sonali from
Sonali's Gupshup
had gushed about the Laphroiagh brown of his eyes in yesterday's
Mid-day
, I didn't want to talk to him nicely
ever.

Words tumbled out of my mouth, anyhow.

'Oh, so now that someone you know well has vouched for me, I'm good enough to be spoken to again? Is that it?'

He said, 'Zoya - '

I put up one hand, 'Hang on, okay? You sent me a stinky sms, you said mean things about me on TV, you have children scattered all over the globe, you don't call me
once
since you get back, and now that your fat friend Lokey has "exonerated me of all charges" you show up here willing to forgive and forget?'

'It isn't like that at all,' he said, urgently. 'Of course Vikram
did
get a guilt attack and tell me what had happened between the two of you.... I didn't tell him about us, you know. He happened to see us by the pool that night, that's all.'

I gave a shaky laugh. 'Oh so
now
you like me again because of what Vikram-the-groper said? Is that it? So now supposing tomorrow someone else says -'

'I don't need to be here, you know,' he said cutting me short. 'And if I remember it correctly, it was
you
who left.'

I sat down abruptly on the garden swing and started swinging, the hinges
chwing-chwonging
madly. He sat down on the swing beside me. 'Zoya, please, what underhand motives could I possibly have
now?
'

'How do I know?' I muttered as I continued to swing. 'You're touring South Africa in ten days' time I hear.... Maybe you'll need me there.'

'Shut up,' he said abruptly.

His voice had a nasty edge to it. I shut up.

'You have no idea what it was like, do you? I mean, you called and said you weren't coming, and honestly, I was okay with that. I was sick and tired of being heckled in the media about you and I figured, at least I'll finally know if I can do anything on my own or not. I called a team meeting and told the boys and they all got completely hysterical of course, Harry specially. Wes had to pep-talk him all night. But then Jogpal made that statement to the press, and forgive me, but I believed it. I thought you'd...'

'Gone over to the dark side,' I supplied sulkily.

'Well, yes,' he admitted. 'There were all these pictures of you in some Goddess get-up. I
told
you not to do that stupid ad!'

'Well, I didn't, did I?' I said hotly.

He said, 'Well, anyway, it was all for the best because it made the boys so mad they went out and played their hearts out.'

'So they
did
win because of me,' I couldn't resist pointing out, rather childishly, I'll admit.

He said, 'Zoya, you know as well as I do that if we'd won with you there you'd always have thought me a bit of a loser. And a user too.'

He was right, of course. But then, he mostly always was. It was the most irritating thing about him.

'And what about your little Willie?' I demanded. 'Shouldn't you be thinking about his happiness here?'

He looked at me blankly. 'My little Willie?'

I glared at him in exasperation. 'Your little
William
Nicholas
. Your baby boy.'

He said, grinning a little, 'Oh. For a while there I got all excited thinking you were talking dirty to me.'

I didn't laugh. This was important to me. He must have sensed that because he said, very gently, 'Zoya, that baby boy is not
my
baby boy.'

I opened my mouth to argue but he didn't let me: 'And you're just going to have to take my word on that. Like
I'm
taking your word on the fact that you weren't holding out for more money as Jogpal Lohia claimed you were.'

I snorted in a way that reminded even me of my father but I didn't say anything more.

Nikhil said, 'Look, I humoured Jogpal and let him bring you to Australia because I wanted to see more of you. I figured the lucky theory would come a cropper during some match or the other. Then I could tell you I didn't give a damn about your luckiness and that you would be so devastated and so far from home, you'd fall gratefully into my arms.'

'What a romantic little storyline,' I told him. 'Me, the pathetic damsel in distress, you the knight in shining blue.'

'Yes, but then you turned into some kind of rampant Goddess. Everything spun madly out of control.'

'The Gods always think they can control the
Raktdantini,'
I told him loftily. 'But they can't.'

He choked. 'The
who?'
he asked.

'The
Raktdantini,'
I told him. 'She, of the bloodstained teeth. She is not a mere tool or a pawn.'

'Uh, okay,' he said.

I shook a finger under his nose, driving the point home: 'She is not Anybody's Creature!' and added, 'Thanks, Eppa,' because Eppa had materialized suddenly at our side, with two mugs of Boost on a tray.

Nikhil started nervously, stood up and said, 'Thank you, thank you...you must be Anita...uh, I mean Eppa.'

She looked him up and down with her beady black eyes and then said kindly, 'You vant to stay for dinner? I vill make
isspecial
Balls Curry and rice. You like Balls Curry?'

'Uh...' Nikhil said uneasily, not looking so world-beating any more as he reeled under the twin onslaught of the
Raktdantini
and the Balls Curry. 'Sure, why not?'

Eppa nodded approvingly. 'Gud! Now drink yor Boost before malai comzes on top.'

And then she swept indoors magnificently.

Nikhil said, in a stunned sort of voice, 'You were saying?'

'Drink your milk,' I said wickedly.

As he obediently drained the cup, I said, 'Do you know your eyes are exactly the same colour as Boost powder with Advanced Energy Boosters?'

'What?' he said dazedly, then made a valiant attempt at pulling himself together. 'We'd got to the bit where you were saying you were not Anybody's Creature.'

'That's right!' I nodded vigorously, slurping my Boost. 'So I realized that I had a duty to Indian cricket which was bigger than just eating breakfast with you guys before every match.'

'You're doing it again,' he said, smiling a little, and putting his mug down on the grass, where Meeku started licking up the dregs eagerly.

'What?' I asked.

'Making me feel humble,' he replied.

I shrugged uncomfortably even though my cheeks glowed with pleasure. 'Don't be silly,' I said.

He spoke, and the warmth in his voice made my toes curl involuntarily inside my stinky red sneakers. 'That was a really gutsy thing to do, Zoya. Unselfish too. You must have lost out on crores in advertising contracts.'

'I know,' I said sadly. 'Lokey had a fit.'

'Hey,' he said lightly. 'My crores are your crores.'

I gave a shaky laugh, my heart beating madly, 'Yeah,
right
,' I said, putting a hand up to tuck my hair behind my ear and then remembered I didn't have any.

'I'm serious,' he said. 'What do you think I've come here for?'

I said, 'Um...for Balls Curry and rice?'

He said impatiently, 'Be serious. Are you upset about what I said on TV about us not needing you?'

I said carelessly, 'Oh, did you say that? I wasn't watching.'

'Bullshit,' he grinned. 'The entire country was watching. My masterful captaining had all the girls going weak at the knees.'

I almost choked.

He added, rather wryly, 'I hope you've noticed that I took care not to park in your esteemed Gajju Chacha's slot.'

Which made me giggle.

Which made his eyes glitter.

'Now
that
,' he leaned closer and murmured into my ear, 'is a very sexy giggle. In fact, some people may even go so far as to say that is a oh-please-take-me-home-and-turn-me-from-a-
bud-
into-a-
flower
giggle.'

He looked down at me, his eyes teasing. 'Am I right or what?'

I got on to my toes and kissed him - an open, Boost-warm kiss, in the madhumalati-scented garden, as a barely smothered, many-lunged cheer rose from the house behind us.

'You're right,' I admitted happily.

***

Epilogue

Sonali's Gupshup

And so our chocolate browniekins Nikhil Khoda turned out to be a total chhuppa rustam, sweeties... romancing little Zoya under the frangipani trees in Australia, or so a reliable little kukkaburra birdie tells me. Lucky little girl, but let's see how long it lasts. I wouldn't order my shaadi-ka-joda, or whatever it is you Rajasthan rurals wear to get married in, just yet, if I were you, Zoya, because if your horrible new haircut doesn't put off your honhaar hottie, your agent's recent activities certainly will. Yes, my honeycakes, Zoya's agent, Lokendar Chugh, has been hobnobbing with any number of IPL team owners, including two dimpled Bollywood superstars and an overweight business tycoon, all of whom are desperate to get their hands on a lucky charm before the season starts again, no matter how avaricious she may be...

***

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the encouragement, help and blatant lifting of idiosyncrasies of so many people. Vibha Rishi, who put the thought of a human lucky charm into my head in the first place. Sankar Rajan, whom I miss at work, almost everyday. Eppa, my Best Female Friend Forever - well she's
mine
even though she may not deign to think me
hers
.

My long suffering First Readers (
I've written three more pages! Read read read! Whadyuthink, Good? Huh?! Huh?!)
Shalini Beri, Alok Lal, Papa, Nika and (most often) Choku.