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‘It took you four years to leave that man?’ Ma spat out the words, disgust and anger written across her face.
‘I … I … tried to make it work … I…’
‘Koyal,’ said Ma, trying hard to keep herself calm, ‘if there was ever a problem with you, it was the fact that you could kill when all that was needed was a strong word. And you are telling me that you – you – tried to make that joke of a marriage work?’
Koyal looked up.
‘Why did you let this happen?’
‘I … Ma … I felt so weak…’
‘Look at me, no, now, look at me now,’ Ma said, turning to her side with difficulty. ‘I will be gone soon, but don’t you dare, don’t you bloody dare to ever say that again. I did not raise a wuss.’
Koyal looked at her mother, startled. This was the first time she had heard her swear.
‘Call the police.’
‘No.’
‘Do it now!’
‘Ma, no. I honestly don’t want to ever have to see him again. Please don’t make me do this. My body is exhausted.’
Mother and daughter stared at each other, Ma’s eyes angry and Koyal’s pleading. And then, a few minutes later, when Ma again opened her frail arms wide, Koyal rushed into them. And when Koyal cried, she was, for the first time in many years, not alone.
Her mother, weak and dying, cried with her, for her.
‘I died a bit today, Koyal,’ Ma said finally and Koyal wrapped her hands around her mother tighter than ever before. ‘Promise me,’ Ma said after a while, ‘that you will never be weak again.’
‘Ma, I don’t want to be weak again.’
‘I know what the problem is.’
‘What?’
‘You let that bastard do what he did, because you didn’t think you deserved better.’ Koyal hung her head in shame. ‘Why, Koyal? Where has the confident girl I raised vanished?’
‘I don’t know, Ma, I don’t know. I am useless.’
‘Why are you useless?’
‘Ma, look at me, I have no job, no money, no education … I am just a burden.’
‘Okay, you don’t have those things at the moment, who says you cannot get them in the future? Do you want an education?’
Koyal looked up, startled. ‘Yes,’ she heard herself say. ‘Desperately. More than anything else.’
‘What’s stopping you?’
‘Money.’
‘Open my cupboard. Open the safe, the password is 4534S. And bring the box inside to me,’ Ma said.
Koyal looked questioningly at her mother but obediently followed instructions.
‘Now come and sit by my bed,’ Ma said, taking the box from her daughter. Once Koyal had settled in her chair, Ma spoke again. ‘Ignore your brother,’ she said.
‘He was right, anyway,’ Koyal said.
