Anu drove back feeling relaxed. Vicky was happy! But soon that happiness began to morph into a small worry. By the time she was home, that worry had turned into a full-blown panic. How was she going to tell Sanju about this? Already things were so tense between them. If she could somehow manage the fees, she need not tell him about this at all for the time being. Vicky mostly talked in the middle of running or biking and panting, so even if he managed to tell Sanju about the change of school, he would not understand him anyway.

Now, she only had to pay Rathnamma’s ten thousand and this sixty thousand. And Anu’s account, as of that day, had fifty rupees.

27

27

That night Anu observed the father-son duo. While Vicky went hiding, Sanju kept finding him. There was no talk about school that evening, not yet. But it was bound to come. Sanju always asked a few customary questions about school and Vicky gave highly irrelevant answers to all of them.

‘Enough hide-and-seek. Sit with me. We will watch cricket.’ Sanju forced Vicky to sit next to him on the Sofa.

‘Let us play cricket!’ Vicky got a new idea for running around. ‘Watching is boring.’

‘We will watch for half-an-hour and then play. Sit now.’ Sanju wouldn’t give up on making Vicky sit.

‘I will play with Mommy then.’ Vicky came running to Anu.

After chucking the ball at him a hundred thousand times, Anu sprawled on the floor exhausted. She had to keep her energy for a food battle with Vicky still. Though she made him sit on a high chair and strapped him to it while feeding him dinner, he still managed to make it a prolonged and messy affair.

Just as she got up, mustering the courage to bring out Vicky’s dinner, Sanju’s phone chimed. Reading his message, Sanju broke into a happy smile. ‘Anu, Padma aunty says she has a surprise for us!’

Anu had a minor heart attack. Padma aunty’s surprises were never good news; they were mostly some large and fanciful gift that she hoisted on them. In her favour, she bought expensive things but they were quite … hideous. It started when she had bought a matching saree-and-kurta combo for Anu and Sanju for the wedding reception. It was bright pink! Anu had her reception outfit carefully selected for both of them but Sanju had fallen in love with Padzilla’s gift.

Luckily, Sameer had averted that catastrophe. ‘Wear a suit. If you wear this pink number, people will think you are a music teacher from the seventies.’ Anu was never more grateful to Sameer. For Sanju, though he never admitted, Sameer’s words were his commands. Anu’s mother-in-law had shoved the receipt to the saree into Anu’s palms when Padzilla wasn’t looking and had whispered. ‘Exchange the saree for something humans wear.’