Flame Tree Road. Shona Patel

further than he did. He never wanted the boys to work in the jute mill. There is no future there. Shamol was so brilliant in his studies, but he had to give everything up and go to work to support our family, because you...you...” She sighed. “You are ill.”

      “Ill, my left foot!” exploded Grandpa in a fit of rage. “You are bone lazy, that’s what you are. Too high and mighty for any job. So many jobs have come your way but you turn them down because nothing is good enough for your highness. Even if you did a part-time job—which you know very well you are capable of doing—it would have eased Shamol’s burden. He would have had time to pursue his own studies. Shamol was the brilliant one and look at the kind of job he did! Did he once complain? Now you are trying to deprive his children of an opportunity he has paid for with his life. What is wrong with you? Now, you stop all your addabaaj under the banyan and get some kind of a job. It’s high time.”

      “Baba, please calm down,” pleaded the older daughter-in-law. “We all want the best for Biren and Nitin. I just don’t think Shamol would have wanted to send his children so far away from home, considering the current circumstances. We think the children should stay close to their mother and be a comfort...”

      She froze and her hand crept up to her mouth.

      Shibani stood in the doorway with her shaven head and her white borderless sari. Her face was waxen, her eyes cold and dead. She rarely showed herself in public and, when she did, her presence was chilling.

      “You really think so?” Shibani said in a soft voice. “You really think my two sons are a comfort to me, sister-in-law?” she repeated, her voice turning hard and cold like marble. “Then, why are they kept away from me? Why are they never allowed to come close to me? Why can I not cook for my own boys, feed them with my hand, comb their hair like a mother should? Because my curse will contaminate their young lives, is it?”

      Nobody said a word.

      “My children have already been taken away from me,” Shibani continued. “Do they even see me as the mother they once knew? Look at me!” She spat out the words. “Just look at me, will you? Is this the girl you brought into this house as your daughter-in-law? Is this the woman who gave birth to your two grandsons? Is this the way God wanted me to be, or is this your doing? You tell me.” Her eyes, brittle with anger, snapped from one face to another. She exhaled sharply and, as she did, the flat look returned. It drifted over her eyes like scum, covering a splash in a pond. “I lost my beloved husband to snakebite, but I will not lose my sons to ignorance.” Her voice was deadly. “I, as their mother, may not have a say in their future, but remember this—if you don’t let my sons go, I will hang myself. The only reason I am keeping myself alive is to protect my sons, to see their future is not marred.” She looked at her brother-in-law without blinking. “If you stop them from going to this school, you will have a widow’s death on your hands, brother. And this family will be doubly cursed. Remember that.”

      With that, she turned around and vanished in a whisper of white, leaving her ominous words hanging like a shroud over the stunned family.

CHAPTER

       18

      Willis Duff, the twenty-two-year-old assistant engineer of Victoria Jute Mills, felt dreadfully inadequate about his wardrobe. After living three years in the small jute mill town, he had sacrificed fashion for the white ducks and bush shirt he wore to work every day. Now he was going to Calcutta on his furlough and his clothes looked hopelessly avuncular. Willis had looked forward to the Calcutta trip with feverish anticipation. He had saved up a nice bundle of pay and dreamed of cocktail luncheons at the Great Eastern with the pretty ladies of Calcutta who would hopefully grant him a kiss or two.

      Any spare moment he could find, Willis sat at his office desk and browsed the mail-order catalog that had arrived from Cuthbarton and Fink, fine gentleman clothiers of Calcutta. He was just earmarking a page for white pique bow ties when his boss, Owen McIntosh, summoned him to his office.

      “Duff, I have a job for you,” he said.

      Willis Duff’s heart sank. Was his furlough going to be canceled?

      “There is a young Bengali boy I want to send with you to Calcutta. Do you recall the godown clerk, Shamol Roy, who died from a cobra bite some months ago?”

      Willis nodded. “Yes, sir.”

      He remembered the fine upright young man in his spotless white Indian clothes that looked out of place in that dank and filthy godown. Willis had felt sorry for the man and given him his last butterscotch toffee.

      “This boy is Roy’s son,” Owen continued. “Your job is to take the lad and deliver him to the representative of Saint John’s Mission. The priest will meet you both at the steamer docks. He will be carrying documents for the boy. You will need him to sign the documents when you release the boy.”

      Willis was so relieved to hear his furlough was not going to be canceled that his face broke into a grin. “That should be no problem at all, sir. No problem at all.”

      Owen McIntosh looked at him grimly. “I want you to take this assignment very seriously, Duff. I am entrusting this lad to your care. He is a plucky little fellow, very intelligent. I suspect he has never left the village before, so he is likely to be nervous and upset. Be gentle with him, will you? Don’t leave him alone in the cabin and go off drinking with lascars on the riverboat. I am more than a little worried about the lad, to tell you the truth. He was very attached to his father. I want to make sure he is all right.”

      “Of course, sir. I fully understand. Please rest assured.”

      Owen’s cryptic words had a sobering effect on Willis. He had indeed toyed with the idea of wild drinking and gambling on the riverboat with the captain and crew, but now he would have to be careful.

      * * *

      Willis Duff had only to take one look at Biren Roy to feel his heart melt. An orphan himself, he could well understand the terror and uncertainty he saw in the young boy’s eyes as he stood clutching his uncle’s hand at the steamer ghat. The wee lad looked small and lost in his new travel clothes—an oversize pair of matching sky-blue shorts and shirt that flopped on his skinny frame. His only luggage was a cloth bag worn on a long sling that hung past his knees.

      “Traveling light, are we?” Willis joked. Seeing the blank look on both their faces, he tried again, speaking more slowly. “Is that all the luggage you have? Only one small bag?”

      “Yes,” said the uncle. “Biren is carrying two sets of clothes. The school said not to bring anything else. They will provide everything—uniform, books, toiletries, even pocket money.”

      “I dare say they’ll throw in some whiskey, as well.” Willis winked at Biren, who shied behind his uncle.

      “No whiskey, no whiskey,” said the uncle uneasily. “This is a strict Christian institution.” The boy peeped out and gave Willis an impish smile. Intelligent little fellow, Willis thought. The uncle on the other hand looked as though he would not have understood a joke even if it jumped up and bit him you-know-where.

      “Quite so, quite so,” Willis agreed. He turned to Biren. “Say, Biren, do you know how to play fish?”

      Biren’s face brightened. “Can you catch fish from the steamer boat?” he said, momentarily forgetting his shyness.

      “Not that kind of fish.” Willis laughed, delighted to hear the boy speak English. He had worried how they were going to communicate. “This fish is a card game. I can teach you how to play it, if you like. But you know what? We may not even have time to play card games. Have you ever traveled by steamer down the big delta to the sea?”