Chapter Eight- Lightning at Dinner

In the light of my new discoveries, I tried to avoid my mother as much as possible. I am ashamed to admit that I had begun to see her pregnancy as a weakness of resolve; a sway in her abstinence rather than a planned happening.

Saawan, meanwhile, had gone from the quiet big brother I'd known all my life, to a rather bothersome person indeed. I knew his worries had good intentions behind them and were only natural brotherly feelings for Pavni, but I did not take kindly to have him confronting me rather regularly, and furthermore, in the most unusual of places. I briefly considered telling him about the forthcoming baby to shut him up, but then decided against it in fear of him having a complete and thorough breakdown. In the back of my mind, I was aware that I was probably not being the best of sisters right now to either of my siblings, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was trapped: within my own worries ,within my own head.

Slowly, however, I began to realize that Saawan had made a fair point. Pavni, I soon saw, was beginning to spend an entirely disproportionate amount of her time with this Javed. They were beginnng to walk to school together, home together, and would wander about the market any time in between. Pavni, however, still kept up her immaculate results at school, so that not even Pa could say anything negative without being completely unreasonable. But when she was home, there was a dark, mournful air about her all the time. I began to start worrying just as much as my brother; probably more. That's a weird thing about siblings: you hate each other, you fight, sometimes it feels like they were given life specifically in order to ruin yours, but still you love them. It's not the same as parents, who you love anyway because they gave you life and raised you up to be who you are. It's truly amazing.

But that night, as usual, the lighting struck during dinner. It seemed that Pa had not been entirely oblivious to Pavni's wanderings with this boy. "Pavni!" he thundered. "What is this I hear?"
Pavni put down her spoon with an air of one condemned. Which, in a way, she was.
"What is this I hear about you...travelling around with this...Javed?"
Pavni fingered the spoon lightly, her eyes fixed on it. "He's just a friend, Pa," she assured him, her voice coming out (surprisingly) clear and strong.
"He better be," he said quietly; threatingly. "Or I will beat you black and blue."
There was silence around the table as if murder had just been committed.
Then our mother placed a hand on our father's arm. "Enough," she said calmly. "Stop."
It all occured very quickly then. Pa raised an arm, quick as a snake, and brought it down on Ma's left cheek. Then three things happened simultaneously; Ma's hand flew to her cheek, Saawan and Pavni gasped in horror, and I got up from the table, feeling a mixture of emotions.
"How could you?" I cried, horror-struck. "In her condition, too!"
Ma's hand stopped caressing her cheek, genuine confusion in her eyes. The others turned their attention to me with curiosity. "What?" whispered Ma, evidently wondering how I'd found out. Finally she said, "I'm not sick." Then she got up and left the table. There was distrust and anxiety hanging in the air like dead bodies, horryfingly tangible. Then Saawan and Pavni got up together and left.
I was left sitting at the table with the person I hated most in the world.