The Music Box
“ It’s been licked †a voice stated. Ranu turned around in trepidation to find herself face to face with a girl slightly taller than herself. The object in question was a musical box with a little pink ballerina twirling to Chopin’s tune. Ranu cared not much if it had been licked.She had not imagined such beauty. Be it to a city dweller ,only a simple music box used to store inexpensive trinkets. Ranu glanced again at the the tinkling box and stared instead at the girl who stood before her. A vision , with long dark hair tumbling down her back, symmetrical fine features marred somewhat by her sullen expression.
“My dad got me this when he was posted in France .He is in the Army and kills bad guys. And you are to keep your hands off it and anything else in this room. All my toys have been licked .My clothes too. I have poisonous spit !So if you do touch any of my belongings,you are going to turn purple and DIE!†Ranu nodded fervently, eyes wide with terror.
The girl continued, “ I am really hoping you will go away after a few days like all the other guests from the hills. Mamu told me that you might be staying a bit longer and helping out in the house. And attending my school too. †The girl, with her brow furrowed, paced the length of her pastel shaded room. On one side of the walls,were pictures of her as a baby,toddler and the striking 6 year old she was today. “Mamu and daddy had some big fights because of you,you know,†she accused. Ranu’s cousin had not much contact with her paternal side of the family from which Ranu hailed.
Ranu had arrived in the dead of the night with her father ,clothed in the only unpatched coat that both she and her younger sister shared. During her last lucid moments before she had drifted off to sleep the earlier night ,she had gnawed over that particular worry. This morning, she had been awakened by her father at dawn. He was somber as he blessed her while she,hardly having shaken off her sleep, prostrated at his feet, He murmured softly, “ Meri chori.†And with that he had swung his battered faux Adidas bag strap on top of his head,resting as comfortably as a doko , and ambled out of the room. He made out a pitiful figure; scrawny, knobby –kneed ,a man who had aged much before his time,partly due to ceaseless smoking and in majority due to poverty.
Ranu watched him leave and persuaded herself into thinking she would be back home soon..They would not be able to do without her . After all who would look after her new baby brother and her Hajoor Ba? Didi had been married off at 12 ,three years ago and lived in a village worth two days of walk. Her two brothers were already working in the fields. Her younger sister, Syani , was much too young.Only four this year and not too bright too,she remembered. Syani lived in a world of her own,where she played with her shadows and her stones. Ranu;s younger sister was fascinated with all kinds of stones. Rocks,pebbles,stones, and bits of gravel. Syani responded poorly to people and surroundings. There was no way Syani could take care of her baby brother and Hajoor Ba who was bed ridden after a particularly bad fall whilst being drunk up to his gills on borrowed money. Ranu tossed and turned. Her simple 8 year- old mind not being able to rest easy. Her mother had explained to her that she would be going to Pokhara ,to her Kaka’s place where she would be helping her Kaki with her housework in the mornings and evenings and attend school in the daytime at one of the best schools in Nepal!
“At Gandaki Boarding!†her mom had crowed. The name made almost no sense to Ranu besides the fact that the Master in her school had a son who went to school there and he talked about the subject incessantly. This was the only reason the name had even stuck to her. The mere thought terrified her .In her village, school meant only one thing for her.Freedom .The few hours she had been able to get away from home and her share of chores. But more often than not, she had to remain home and tend to one of her sick siblings or her ailing Hajoor Ba. Or plant new crops.Or make rows and rows of cow dung pies for future use. Or take the neighbour’s cows to graze in exchange for a liter of milk.. Or a thousand other things.
Although it was Ranu’s first day at her Kaka’s place,she was assigned chores both in the garden and the kitchen. She had been greeted stiffly by her elders before breakfast.
Kaka had in an absent minded manner told her to be good and help Kaki and hurried off to his restaurant cum ghazaal he co-owned with some ex colleagues. Kaki had not deigned to say anything but had instead asked one of the maids to get her her usual cup of hot lemon before she left for gym. Ranu had proceeded into the kitchen when she had been called upom for breakfast .The vast amount of food had shocked her greatly. And she had her first bite of bread. She was still undecided as to whether she liked the way it sort of melted into your mouth and then slid down the throat. The older of the maids had then told,no,commanded Ranu in her superior way to go the last room upstairs and wake her cousin . Ranu meandered through the big house,pausing to admire certain things, gawping at others and at last stopped at the very last door;to find it open. The bed was rumpled ,the coverlet thrown back.No cousin to be seen anywhere . Her curiousity getting hold of her,making her edge into the room,to lift, touch ,look and admire.In the middle of the pretty room, there was a dresser and on the dresser lay the music box.It had been wind up and Ranu could hear the tinkling notes from the doorway. And without knowing it,she had found herself looking into the mirror of the little music box and the little pink ballerina turning in its revolver. Ranu had almost reached out when she had been stopped by a voice. And in this way,she first met her cousin,toothbrush in hand, toothpaste foam dribbling down her chin and obviously not very pleased at the sight of Ranu.
[I have not written fiction ever!!! So here goes..what happens to Ranu is as big a mystery to me me as it may to you. Wish me luck wud ya?]
