I finished up and headed to the mandir to meet the guys for a friendly basketball game. If I had to go to a temple, it might as well be fun.
The makeshift court was small, and the movable hoop was a crying shame, but the room was free, and these boys didn’t seem to believe in a gym they had to pay for.
“I can’t keep doing this,” I said.
“What?” my brother, Jahn, asked.
“This sorry so-called court. We have gym memberships. We need to use the court at the gym.”
“What about us?” Samir asked.
“Get a membership!”
“It’s not that bad,” Jahn said.
“Yes, it is. I can throw the ball across the entire room. We have to dumb down our skills to fit in here. It’s hardly exercise.”
“Any more complaints?”
“Yes…” I grumbled, agitated in one of those ways where no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake it off.
I exhaled and shook my head.
Samir restarted the game, made points, and the ball came back to me. I loved the feel of a rough, rubbery basketball in my hands. I could grip it as tightly as my fingers allowed and pummel it against the floor, aggression flowing from me and through it.
The pounding of the ball echoed against the walls as Rohan tried to block me, but I moved left then right. My back hit his shoulder as I crouched, then shot up to score.
“You mad?” Samir asked.
Clenching my teeth, I only cocked my chin and bent over, my hands on my thighs as I waited for the next chance to get the ball.
“I thought this was a friendly game,” Rohan said, bouncing the ball from hand to floor to the other hand.
“Sorry,” I muttered and snatched the ball from an unsuspecting Rohan and made another point. His team groaned and threw up their hands.
“Yo, what’s going on with you?” Jahn asked.
I shoved a hand through my damp hair. “Sorry. I had a rough night. Not that it’s an excuse to demolish you guys. Then again, you’re easy to demolish.”
And thus, the smack talk began, which siphoned the tension out of the air. The room rumbled with laughter and scuffing sneakers. We didn’t keep score, just played. It was enough to ease my thoughts away from the nightmares. Unfortunately, that left just enough room to recall the debacle of meeting Liya Thakkar.
Crap. And just like that, I was irritated.
“Seriously, what’s up?” Jahn asked for the third time.
“You know Ma and I met with a woman and her parents. Take a guess.”
“Ma hated her? No, she loved her and you hated her? No, wait, she was great, but you couldn’t stand her parents? No, I bet—”
“Funny,” I said, cutting him off.
“Oh, wait, those have all been done before. Why do you care? You don’t want to get married anyway.”
Jahn was right. I didn’t want to get married, not really. But that was beside the point. I said, “Want to hear something that hasn’t been done before?”
The guys slowed down to a casual game. Rohan dribbled the ball in place. All eyes were on me.
“As soon as we walked into the living room, she bolted. I had to run back out to grab our gift for her, and she bulldozed me, she was running so fast. Thank god Ma didn’t see that.”
“Ha! Messed up!” Jahn chortled like it wasn’t a big deal. “One look at your ugly face and she ran? That’s new.”
The guys chuckled.
“It’s not funny. Look, I don’t care if she thought I was ugly or weird. Whatever. Why agree to meet if you’re going to bolt? The worst part was how her parents tried to cover for her. Ma and I felt so bad that we ate with them anyway. She didn’t have to run. She could have just said she didn’t want to meet me. Ma was so happy about us all having dinner, too. She thought the girl running off was something against her. Ma is distraught.” My anger surged just remembering Ma’s teary eyes and embarrassment, her cheeks pink and burning. With all that she’d been through with Dad dying, I couldn’t stand that she’d been brought to tears by some stranger.
“Ma can be sensitive. Maybe the girl will want to meet again when she’s gotten her nerves under control. It’s kinda sweet.” Jahn grabbed the ball.
I glared at him. “Sweet is if she actually ran because of some endearing reason. Selfish is putting us all through that at the very last second. At the very least, she could’ve just lied and said she wasn’t feeling well. But no. She actually snuck out the back door, and I happened to catch her. Literally. She ran into me and knocked me down. And despite that, I tried to be casual and play it off, I tried to make jokes and smile to hopefully put her at ease so it wouldn’t be a big deal and we could talk, but she just rolled her eyes and left. Didn’t say a word. Didn’t apologize or make up an excuse. Just left.” Although, admittedly, for a quick minute she did look as if she might rattle off a reason for having to leave. A very brief expression of awkward panic crossed her delicate features before she hardened into stone.
“It’s for the best anyway. I’ve heard some things.”
“Why? What’d you hear?” I stole the ball from Jahn but lost it to Rohan.
Jahn caught his breath before replying, “Word around the mandir is that she’s…well…how to say this nicely. Easy. Gets around.”
“What?” I choked. By now the other guys had stopped, curious and nosy.
“You know I don’t like to bad-mouth people, especially when I haven’t met them. But when all the aunties say she’s disrespectful, and some of the girls say she gets drunk and sleeps around, then I’m going to be cautious if she’s being suggested to my brother as a potential wife.”
“What happened to giving the benefit of the doubt, man? Running out on dinner is one thing, but those are serious accusations.”
“This is a large community; we can’t possibly meet everyone here. But when that many aunties are saying the exact same thing, it makes you think. All we do know is that her parents approached Ma and talked her up. Gave her a picture. The usual. Ma asked if you were interested. You agreed. We should take into account what people who know her have to say. I’m not saying it’s all true. I’m just watching out for you.”
“Did you tell Ma what you heard?” I ran a hand down my face, half pissed at this woman and her parents and half pissed just to be pissed.
“Not exactly. I can’t say something like that to her. She’d ask for proof.”
“Ma is smart.”
“Be cautious is all I’m saying.”
I mulled over his words. Ma was the traditional type, which was fine. She didn’t push anything on me. I grew up knowing what had to get done. High GPA. Esteemed college. Prestigious career. Remain Hindu. Marry a Hindu. Raise a couple of Hindu babies to repeat the cycle. I was appeasing my mother by meeting these women, whom I had no interest in actually getting to know, much less marry. I guessed I wasn’t any better than Liya.
“Who are you talking about?” Ravi asked.
“Look, I don’t want to make a big deal if, by chance, everyone is lying or making crap up, but I’m talking about Liya Thakkar. You guys know anything factual about her?”