On the train, we had our separate compartment. Joe, Roxy and Del sat opposite me, while Annie was right next to me. This was the time we could talk about everything that happened more lucidly. The origins of our Aunt weren’t opaque, and my sisters began to ask me all that I knew of our family’s history. I began to delineate all that I did know of, however limited. I had seen very little as a child, but had seen the most. Mom did have sisters…but not the kind you’d go to for emotional, or for that matter, any advice at all. ‘Sister’ was just a word that bound them together. Grandma Neema, with her signature round spectacles that magnified her eyes and frizzy golden hair, always tied roughly back in a bun, with two strands loose on each side of her face, had four daughters, that included our suddenly interested Aunt Sora. Aunt Cora, Sora and Nora weren’t triplets, but were born three days consecutively, which was quite bamboozling and deemed ‘medically inaccurate’. At the time of delivery, the doctors stated the babies weren’t ‘ready’ to come out; in the sense that despite attempting several times, the two wouldn’t move, after Aunt Cora was born. Resulting in severe exhaustion each time, Grandma Neema was made to rest, until through the prolonged periods of three days, she was finally able to evacuate her womb. Greatly resembling each other, they grew up rather…weird. They had a wild disgruntled mane each, that was as black as darkness; and all three of them had wobbly bodies that made them slouch or in some cases, produce a completely semi-circle hump when not walking. Their faces were always hidden – under layers and layers of unprecedented amounts of make-up, because they were obsessed with beauty. Not the kind you would encourage within healthy limits, but rather, a mentally disordered attempt at plastering good looks onto themselves. I don’t know how they looked without their facemasks on. They behaved most despicably, and on ANY comment that negatively spoke of their looks, unleashed an uncontrollable perturbation that could not be hushed easily. Perhaps their real perturbation was the fact that they were really, very ugly. It piqued them beyond anything in the world, and anyone and everyone who had a charming delicacy to them – made them positively swell up with biting envy. Grandma Neema used to call them her maggots. It had become a family joke…since none of the Aunts ever displayed any ounce of even the minutest form of affection for anyone, but instead, only concentrated in hiding the insecurity of their hard-features.
Then, one fine day, mother was born. Her beauty exceeded every notion of divinity, and her ways and mannerisms evoked the fondest and most tender feelings because of their innate goodness and genuine stature. She had straight hair that was deep copper, framing a fresh, heart shaped face that had been cherry blossomed with the pink flush in her cheeks. Her eyes were a gateway into an abyss of onyx and midnight blue jeweled dreams that left many breathless. Her body was sleek and slender, perfumed with the chastity of snow. She was…exquisite. Nobody had ever quite encountered someone like her, and, not surprisingly she stole the show…lighting the fire to Aunt Cora, Sora and Nora’s core. As mom began to mature, naturally, she bloomed a whole lot more. The Aunts went absolutely bonkers, and didn’t know what to do, what method to adopt, to gain supremacy over their six years younger sister. They got plastic surgery done, too. But the surgery only disproportioned their features further…and if you ever thought they’d stop their pointless madness; then you were wrong. They disappeared. We don’t know what happened to them but every night, they began to act more and more bizarre. Grandma Neema became frightened at her eldest daughters’ descent downwards, and tried to talk sense into them one night; mom was out on a date then…with dad, when the confrontation took place. However, it failed to produce anything meaningful. Weeks later, Grandma Neema became plagued with an illness that took her life away. Mom, 21 at the time, had gotten married to dad, George Phoenix, a smart businessman of 23, and moved with him to Alistan Town after a few years. Aunt Cora, Sora and Nora had also moved out…but no one knew where. They were never heard of again, until Aunt Sora’s visit today.
The entire compartment was aphonic, save for my voice penetrating its still air.
‘So, mom and dad lost all contact with our Aunts?’ Roxanne twisted her hair around her ear, and leaned forward, her feeling of restlessness transferred to us all, like heated molecules. ‘Perhaps, they deliberately kept this a secret from us?’
‘What secret, Rox? It’s bloody obvious they detested mom. Why the bloody hell did we even listen to her? What’s it to her if we die or live?’ Joe broke out in a tone of severe agitation.
‘Look…for what it’s worth, I think whatever their issues and problems are, it shouldn’t matter to us. I mean you all heard what Carr said? That thing is coming for US next. It’s better to go somewhere remote till we get our payments and fly over to Uncle Dennison in Virginia, than stay in Alistan Town one more night. We’d be sitting ducks there!’ Delilah broke out.
‘Oh Delilah! You could have asked your boyfriend to give us loans!’ Roxanne uttered in the most woebegone fashion ever.
‘Whose boyfriend? What boyfriend? Ricky is NOT my boyfriend. He did it out of sympathy. You and I BOTH are his company’s top employers. Why the heck would he want to lose us? Anyway, dad ALWAYS spoke about how we should never take loans we can’t pay back, so I’m going to honour his words. Where else can we go that’s NOT in Alistan Town? Everyone should know this is the best place we’ve got in such short notice. Far away and all.’
‘Whether it’s the best or not...I can’t say. What I CAN say is that whatever happens, we have to look out for each other. Annie is precious to us all, and, if in any way, her dreams have been the root cause of it – which I KNOW is probably not true and was blown out of proportion, then by George we’ve to put our heads together, and work it out…LOGICALLY. There’ll be much more to understand then.’ I acquiescently acknowledged.
Annie, who had been huddled next to me, and had palpitations, relaxed on hearing what I said – particularly about her. She suddenly brightened, ‘Yeah, for mom and dad, too!’
I smiled. ‘Yeah, for mom and dad, too.’