Page 37 of Made in Mumbai

“Ok, daddy,” she rolled eyes. But she found the glass of water and ORS packets on her bedside, made one drink and gulped it. Her already full energy levels skyrocketed. She checked the time, it was just after 11, which meant he would have left half an hour ago. If she showered and got ready, she could take a car to the mill too.

Maya rolled out of the bed to make haste when her feet faltered. A cramp ran down her thighs. “Shit. What is this.” She trudged to the bathroom, breathing through the pain until it passed. It wasn’t her ovulation time, neither was it her period… blood began to thump in her ears and she rushed out to find her phone. She pulled up her period app and scrolled down.Shit, shit, shit.

Sweat broke out on her forehead. Her head began to swim. She crumpled to the bed, counting the weeks, months. Two. More than two. She trailed her hands down her belly, her thighs. How did she not notice it? She had been eating freely the last few months but this padding wasn’t that.Shit. Are you a teenager, Maya? How could you not see it?

But the last four months had been stressed. The last few months to go through in her marital home and then the final grant of the divorce…

With shaking fingers she lifted the telephone receiver and dialled the concierge.

“Hello, how can I help you?”

“Hi, I need to know if there are any pharmacies in the area…”

“We have one in the hotel. Let me connect you to them.”

“Oh great… hi, umm… do you have one of those pregnancy tests?”

“Hello, yes, ma’am, we do.”

“Ok. Can you please send up one… wait, two, no three to my room?”

“Right away, ma’am. Anything else.”

“No, that will be all. Thank you.”

Maya replaced the receiver on its cradle and began to pace. She strode into the bathroom, looked at herself in the mirror and then strode back to the bed.No, shit, no. He didn’t want babies! And now? No, no, no.She was just getting back on her feet. It was just beginning to feel like life was back on track.New job, new friends, new house… new baby? Ha,she laughed out loud, hysterical.No, no, no.

But,she thought, what if the tests came negative?Yes.That was a possibility. This was just a bad flu and bloating from her months of indulging and yes… her period could have actually skipped two months because of the crazy stress.Yes. She couldn’t ignore that possibility.Yes. Cheer up, Maya. It’s nothing. Just a negative pregnancy test, or three, and you are back to acing single life again. Yes.

The doorbell buzzed. And she flew to the door, accepting the three tests with a kind of dread she hadn’t felt. Maybe ever. On shivering legs she went to the bathroom and read the instructions. Thrice. They didn’t make sense in the first go, and she was a super-intelligent backbencher who aced tests without studying!

“Fine. Ok. I can do it.”

She finally managed to successfully finish the test and laid the stick on the counter. Her eyes didn’t leave the result window. Couldn’t. No amount of pep talk could make her tear her gaze away from that window. It was like all her emotions had gone silent, and she was numb, waiting for the direction of her life to go this way or that. And it wentthat.

Maya collapsed on the toilet seat. The next second she sprung up, working the other two tests. This one could be faulty.

Yes.

Faulty tests happened, right?

Her friend had told her that story one time when she had taken a test, it had come out positive but her doctor had confirmed that she wasn’t pregnant. That could happen to her. Of course, it could! Murphy’s law worked preciously on her.

Maya shook on her feet, waiting for Murphy’s law to work its magic on the remaining two tests.

But they didn’t go wrong.

At the end of the hour, she was left with three positive pregnancy tests lying in one line, taunting her from the counter. And all she could think was that she hadn’t ordered breakfast.

She grabbed the tests and padded out to the phone, ready to pick up and order when the keycard beeped and her door opened.

“Hey,” Gautam came in, running a hand through his rain-dampened hair. “I figured you were still sleeping since you didn’t cal…” he trailed. “Maya? Are you vomiting again? Sit down.”

She shook her head. And it hit.Shit.She would have to tell him. Tell everybody. Her parents, her friends, her colleagues. She would have to tell everybody unless she pretended to eat a lot and convince them all that it was her food belly.

“Maya?” He came to her and held her shoulders, pushing her down on the bed. “Did you drink that ORS? What is that in your hand…?” He reached and pulled one of the sticks. And froze. She wasn’t looking at him, but she knew he was muted. Nothing moved in the room. No sound came.

“Aahhhhhhh,” she exhaled, pushing her head between her thighs as her breath came in pants. “Aaaah,” she hyperventilated. “Phew… phew…”

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