Connie

I do not quite remember when Connie became a part of my life. For
thirteen years, my first thirteen, she was like my shadow. She was
better than average looking. But then she was just a child as I was, a
year younger than me. Wherever I went Connie came along. In fact on the
days when there was no school Connie would be at our residence from ten
am. I used to think childishly that she came on her own. Well, after a
while she did too. But the person behind her daily visits was Barry.
Barry lived on the same floor as us, so did Connie. Barry used to be my
elder sister's suitor. In fact my sister got rid of him after a while.
To take revenge he spoke to Connie's mother, Nellie. Nellie was quite a
lady. She had wanted to be an actress. She was not too pleased being
the mother of an ordinary girl. To get back to the point Barry asked
Connie to visit us everyday. Of course her mother did not mind. We
would all gather in our balcony. There was Connie, my mother, my sister
and myself. As soon as the precocious children of our building (who
were gathered in the lawn) spotted Connie and me they would scream,
"Boyfriend, Girlfriend". This shouting would continue till all of us
left the balcony in disgust. With time though we got used to the
taunts. The children were influenced by Barry to call us these names.
Why they would choose to listen to a fifth-grade dropout like Barry is
of course a mystery.
In the early days we played games like hide and seek. The rules were
elaborate and loaded heavily in favour of the older children from the
rich families. Both Connie and I were kind of middle-class. We had a
tacit understanding. Whenever I was required to 'seek' she would always
appear and give herself up. She would also tell me where her friends
were hiding. The thing is that I never reciprocated her noble gesture.
Whenever she had to look for people and slap them on the back to get
them out I helped our common enemy, the rich boys. We would hide
ourselves in the local toilet for the drivers, a place which Connie
would never visit. She never became angry with me for betraying her.
Indeed she always wore this blank look. It was difficult to comprehend
what she was thinking at a given moment. I admit that I always took her
for granted. Always took advantage of her goodness. Take cricket for
instance. When I started playing cricket with the other boys Connie
joined us. Just like that. We never gave her any bowling. She was
always sent to fetch the ball from all kinds of places, she was our
all-purpose fielder. Of course when our turn came Connie would bat.
Here too we tricked her. We made her believe that if someone put a cap
on her head while batting she was out. She was not stupid by any means.
Her grades in school were as good as that of anyone else. But she could
never figure out that putting-the-cap-on-head rule was applied only to
her. After a while she gave up cricket. Thereafter I saw less of her.
She no longer visited. But we used to have strange meetings on Saturday
afternoons. We met in her house, her mother was aware that I was
coming. Anyway, we played this quaint game. She cut up vegetables and
offered them to me to eat. Of course the vegetables were raw. But I
pretended to eat them and she was happy. She arranged her furniture in
a certain way, opened and closed the curtains repeatedly . We were both
little kids and we greatly enjoyed this meaningless, stupid game.
After a few years her uncle, Dr Alan, got married. That reminds me of
another thing. When I first met Connie she used to tell me a certain
story quite often. The story was that Nellie, her mother, and Alan were
supposed to marry originally. By using vile methods, Mike, who was
Connie's father had stolen Nellie from Alan. Alan was of course a good
ten years Nellie's junior and had been studying medicine all this time.
Indeed Alan got married to Nellie's kid sister Daisy. In the months
after the marriage Connie would tell me the things the bespectacled
doctor Alan would say to his wife. "Daisy, you are the best thing to
happen to me.", "Daisy, you have changed my life." Though Connie said
these things with a straight face I found it difficult to suppress
laughter. Dr Alan was known for acting serious and grave even with
friends and to think he was already hen-pecked.
A year later Connie's cousin Ronnie visited along with her family.
Ronnie was both beautiful and smart. She also had a fiercely
independent spirit. I began to like her immediately. I wanted to speak
to her in private. The opportunity came when my cousin brother and I
were invited to their house. Ten minutes after we arrived the elders
went out for shopping. There were five people in the house now, Connie,
her cousin sister Ronnie, Ronnie's brother Mark and my brother and I. I
tried hard to get rid of the people I considered unnecessary. They
could be persuaded to go to another room at the least. Connie began
saying, "My sister Ronnie and I are better at Maths than you boys." I
suddenly became very angry and rude. "Aw shut up!" I said. That was it.
Both Connie and Ronnie got up from the sofa and walked out of the
house. The door was closed very loudly behind them. I looked at Mark
helplessly. He was not very helpful. Mark said, "They have gone to do
suiciding." "What!" I said. Mark continued quite unfazed, "Whenever
they are angry they go to do suiciding." I was too stunned to
react.
I never saw Connie again. Her family sold their apartment and shifted
to a distant suburb. I did miss her for a few days. Then I forgot her.
I believe, though, that there is a corner of my mind that thinks of her
all the time.