Page 21 of Driven By Desire
“It used to be in a condition to drive back then. Mom claims she fell more in love with the car than him.” Grinning now, he added, “I have the strangest suspicion I was conceived in this car though I try really hard not to think about it. Especially given the fact that it’s a two-seater.”
Laughing, Max was about to reply, when Pooja erupted out of the back door yelling, “I’m bored.”
“Already? Didn’t you just get back from school?” The dry question from her brother had Pooja checking her headlong rush towards them.
“I was bored in school too,” she shot back cheekily. “And I’m hungry.”
“Eat a fruit. I don’t want you spoiling your appetite before dinner.”
“Usually it’s dinner that spoils my appetite.” Laughing at her brother’s mock growl, she retreated to a position of safety behind Max. Confident she was now out of reach, she intoned gravely, “And on the menu tonight is burned vegetables with wet rice.”
“You little brat.” Laughing, he swiped at her and missed as she dodged around Max. “Just for that, you’re eating Maggi Noodles tonight.”
“Really?” Giving a loud whoop of joy, she danced around the two of them. “Best punishment ever!”
Chuckling as she watched Pooja do a victory lap, Max said, “Next time, try oats.”
Wincing, he said, “That’s just vicious. No crime is awful enough to deserve oats.” Snagging Pooja’s collar as she ran past him one more time, he added, “Go inside and change out of your uniform.”
“Later.”
“Now.”
Recognising the steel in his voice, Pooja shrugged in defeat and turned towards the house. She managed two steps before turning back. “Why are you in home clothes?”
“I stayed home today.”
“I had to go to school while you got to stay home?” The genuine outrage in her voice had them both burst out into loud laughter. Unable or unwilling to see the humour in the moment, Pooja’s face started to set in familiar mutinous lines.
Digging an elbow into Krish’s ribs to get him to stop laughing, Max gestured to her overalls and said, “I worked.”
Raising an eyebrow at the glare he was receiving, Krish said, “Not that I’m answerable to you but I worked from home today. What are you whining about anyway? The weekend starts tomorrow.”
“And I’ll be stuck in the house while all three of you do your own thing. It’s BORING.”
The decibel level of the whining was rising at the same alarming rate as Krish’s temper. “We’ll figure tomorrow out later. Go in and change. Now.”
The quiet whip of his voice had Pooja’s next complaint dying silently on her lips. Accepting defeat for the moment, she ran towards the house in defiant silence.
“Damn.” The fatigue in the almost inaudible mutter had Max wincing in sympathy.
“It’s just a phase. It’ll pass.”
“You think?” The desperate hope in the glance he shot her would have been amusing if it hadn’t been so poignant.
“I know,” she replied, firmly. “She’s just testing boundaries. Time, patience and, when required, a little firm discipline should sort everything out.”
He couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm out of his voice while asking, “How do you know so much about kids, Oh Wise One? You have some tucked away that I don’t know about?”
Turning, she kept her back to him and started to pack her tools before replying, “No, but sometime in the distant past I, too, was a sad, angry, motherless teenage girl who traumatized her poor, clueless father.”
Silence greeted her pronouncement and she was almost done packing up for the day before she heard him say, “I’m sorry. It’s easy to forget in the face of your confident, well-adjusted personality.”
Tossing him a smile over her shoulder, she said, “If I am any of those things, it’s because my father never gave up on me. And Krish?”
She waited for him to meet her eyes before saying, “As Pooja has a brother who will fight just as hard for her, I can tell you in all my wisdom that she’ll be just fine.” The strength of the emotion swarming his eyes made her ache to comfort him but she kept her eyes trained on her tool box and her arms resolutely at her side. Trying to discreetly give him time to compose himself, she continued without waiting for a reply, “I’ll come in to work a little early tomorrow. Say about eight? I’ll be winding up for the weekend by two in the afternoon.”
“Sure.” He nodded before stepping back to make way for her to leave. Lost in their own thoughts, they made their way to the front of the house in silence. Max tossed her tool box into the back seat of her car and opened her door preparatory to getting in.
