‘You didn’t know that?’ Now Mindi looked confused. ‘What were they doing in your neighbourhood?’
Nikki struggled to remember that day but she had a vague recollection of having the class there. Then finding out about Jason. But hadn’t some time passed between then and the man attacking her? Jaggi. Tarampal. It came back to her in fragments. When did the widows arrive? Why? Maybe they had been warned somehow.
‘They came to save me,’ Nikki said, tears burning in her eyes.
Kulwinder’s doctor told her she had suffered from smoke inhalation. ‘We’ll keep you here for a night to monitor your symptoms and then you can go home,’ he said.
When he left the room, Sarab took her hand. His eyes were red and weary. ‘What were you thinking, running towards a fire?’ he asked. Kulwinder opened her mouth to speak but her throat was dry. She pointed at the water pitcher on the side table. Sarab filled a glass for her and waited while she sipped.
‘I was thinking about Maya,’ Kulwinder said.
‘You could have died,’ Sarab said. A sob escaped his throat and he buried his face in her hands. As he cried for his wife, for his fear, for his daughter, his tears spilled down her arms, soaking through her sleeves. Kulwinder was still stunned. She wanted to comfort Sarab but all she could manage was a squeeze of her hand.
‘And Nikki?’ she asked.
Sarab looked up and wiped his eyes. ‘She’s fine,’ he said. ‘I spoke to her sister in the hallway just now. She’s injured but she’ll recover.’
Kulwinder slumped back against the pillow, closing her eyes. ‘Thank God.’
She was afraid to ask the next question. She looked at Sarab and he seemed to understand. ‘They’ve arrested him,’ he said. ‘I spoke to her mother in the hall. The police want to question Nikki before charging him, but he’s in custody now for breaking into her home and assaulting her.’
‘And for Maya?’
‘It looks like they’ll open up the case,’ Sarab said. ‘He could go to jail for a long time.’
Now she began to cry. Sarab mistook these as tears of relief, but Kulwinder had been transported to the past, when she had given this boy her blessings. He had turned out to be a monster, but at one point, she had called him her son.
Chapter Eighteen
Traces of Nikki’s teenage years still existed in her childhood bedroom. The walls were marked with traces of sticker residue from the posters she had put up and a few old photographs remained in picture frames on the dresser.
She used to tape her cigarette packets to the back of the bed leg, but when the packet fell one day, she upgraded to a Velcro adhesive tape. Now she wondered if there was a packet left there. She could use a smoke. Crouching next to the bed and reaching into the narrow space between the leg and the wall, Nikki heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She withdrew but her elbow got caught. Mum appeared in the doorway to find Nikki wriggling on the floor like an insect.
‘Uh … I just dropped an earring,’ Nikki said. Mum’s stony face indicated that she knew the truth. She dragged the bed out to free Nikki’s arm and left the room. Nikki followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. ‘Mum,’ she began.
‘I don’t want to hear it.’
‘Mum, please.’ How long was this going to go on? Since she’d been discharged from the hospital this morning, Mum hadn’t looked her in the eye.
Mum continued to bustle about, attending to her morning routine of putting last night’s dishes away. The plates clattered loudly and the cupboard doors slammed. Over the noise, Nikki wanted to scream I’m a bloody adult!
‘Mum, I’m sorry about the cigarettes,’ Nikki began.
‘You think this is about the cigarettes?’
‘It’s about everything. The moving out, the pub, the … just everything. I’m sorry that it wasn’t what you wanted for me.’
‘The lying,’ Mum said, staring squarely at her. ‘Those classes you were teaching. Here you had us thinking you were teaching women to read and write but instead they were …’ She shook her head at a loss for words.
‘Mum, some of these women spent their married lives wondering what it would be like to enjoy their husbands. Others missed the intimacy they used to have with their husbands and just wanted to relive those experiences.’
‘So you come in and think you can save the world by making them share these tales.’
‘I didn’t get them to do anything,’ Nikki corrected. ‘They’re strong women; you couldn’t force them to do anything.’
‘You had no business getting involved with other women’s private lives like that,’ Mum said. ‘Look at the trouble you got yourself into.’
‘I didn’t get myself into trouble,’ Nikki said.
‘That man attacked you because you were meddling.’
‘That had nothing to do with the classes, that was about Maya, the girl he killed.’
‘If you hadn’t got involved in the first place—’
‘So I was asking for it?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘What are you so angry about then?’ Nikki asked.
Mum picked up a dishrag as if she was going to begin cleaning and then she dropped it. ‘You have a double life. I’m the last person to know anything. You’re always hiding things from me.’
‘Mum, I don’t know how to be honest with you,’ Nikki said.
‘You spent all this time talking about such personal things with complete strangers. You were honest with them.’
‘The last time I told the truth in this house, there was an epic argument and I moved out. I was called selfish for not wanting what everybody else wanted for me,’ Nikki said.
‘We know what’s best for you.’
‘I don’t think you do.’
‘If you had told me what you were doing, I could have warned you about the dangers of it, and if you’d listened, that man wouldn’t have come after you. Tell me: was it worth it? This thing you’ve started in Southall – was it worth nearly dying for?’
‘But those women came to save me,’ she said. ‘Even Kulwinder came. I had to be doing something worthwhile if they risked their lives for me. Mum, I didn’t just start a little bit of mischief in Southall and I don’t intend on leaving it at that either. Those meetings gave those women a strong sense of acceptance and support. For the first time in their lives they could openly share their most private thoughts and know that they weren’t alone. I helped them to discover that, and I became willing to learn from them as well. Those women were used to turning the other cheek when injustices were committed because it’s inappropriate to get involved, or to go to the police and betray your own. But they didn’t hesitate to help me and put themselves at risk when I was in danger. They know that they’re capable of fighting.’
Nikki was breathless. She had spoken rapidly, expecting an interruption from Mum but there was none. Mum’s steady gaze had softened. ‘This is why your father thought you’d be a good lawyer,’ she finally said. ‘“That girl can find the logic in anything,” he always said.’
‘I couldn’t convince him to accept that I didn’t want to be lawyer though.’