Page 107 of I Wish We Weren't Related

Reeva turned to Satya Auntie. “Wait, did you shave your hair off when you were a nun?”

Her aunt nodded. “Of course. We all did.”

“No way! I love that I’m doing what you did. It makes me feel so...”

“Nunlike?” offered Jaya.

“I was going to say connected. But sure. I do also feel a bit nunlike.”

“Or priestlike,” said Nick, gesturing toward the doorway, where Rakesh was now standing next to the elderly male priest with a shiny bald head. “You guys are rocking the same hairstyle. Though yours looks cuter, obviously.”

—

“Okay, so onthe kriya, we finish thirteen days of samskara. Though here, is fourteen days. But it’s okay. We can be flexible.” Reeva stifled a yawn. The priest had been talking forever, in Sanskrit and Gujarati, as he chanted and waved his hands around with incense, but now he was trying to engage his audience by swapping to broken English. Reeva’s gaze fell on her family. They were all in the garden sitting in a circle: her mum and MJ, Satya Auntie directly opposite her, Nick, Lakshmi, Rakesh, the twins, and her sisters on either side of her. Nick, Lakshmi, Rakesh, and MJ all seemed politely interested, but the rest of them—the blood relatives—looked unashamedly bored.

“We will offer the rice balls and milk to the deceased, to Hemant Bhai, to show our gratitude for his life. We, his family, are grateful he was allowed to join us on Earth for this time.” Having completed his speech, the priest swapped back to Gujarati, not realizing he was now alienating more than half his audience as he chanted his way through the various rituals.

“Guess that’s all the English he’s got,” Sita whispered to Reeva.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Reeva whispered back. “When does the soul go?”

“No idea. But at the rate he’s going, Jaya will have had her baby by the time it’s over.”

“What?” Jaya leaned over, speaking in full volume. “What did you say about me?”

“Ssh!” said Reeva. “The priest will get mad.”

“Uh, he looks pretty preoccupied,” said Sita.

“Mum’s giving us evils,” said Jaya. “But her forehead doesn’t move properly. Oh my god, look.”

Reeva laughed despite herself. She caught Nick’s eye and he grinned.

“Cute!” cried Jaya. “Sorry, sorry.” She tried to lower her voice. “You guys are very cute.”

“I told him he was an lcb,” whispered Reeva. “He found it funny, but he’s also going to up his game!”

“About time,” hissed Sita. “You should have told him earlier. People can’t give you what you want if you don’t ask for it.”

Reeva nodded. Her sister had a point. “Well, I think I’ve finally learned to ask for what I want. At age thirty-four.”

“Took you long enough,” said Sita.

Reeva shot her a look.

“Hey, shall we go to the bathroom after this?” asked Jaya as quietly as she could. “Take some snacks up?”

“I already hid a bottle of wine in the laundry basket,” whispered Sita. “And juice for Jaya. Oh, and I’ve invited Satya Auntie to join us.”

“I wonder what Dad would think,” said Reeva wryly. “He wanted us to pray for him and clear his stuff out. Instead, we’ve just snooped around and gotten drunk in the bath.”

“It could be worse,” said Sita. “We could have done oral sex in his bed. Oh, wait...”

Reeva glared at her as Jaya snorted. The priest glanced over to them and gave them all a warning glare. Jaya widened her eyesand smiled prettily at him, Sita met his eyes defiantly, and Reeva mouthedSorryin apology.

“Let’s be quiet now,” she whispered. “I feel like I need to actually be here after all the drama of me getting here.”

Her sisters shrugged as Reeva closed her eyes and tried to connect with herself the way she had during the previous night’s prayers. She found her thoughts going to her dad and what the priest had said about gratitude. It felt odd to feel gratitude toward her father—this complex man whose deep problems had torn their family apart and almost taken her life from her—but Reeva wanted to try. Especially before they said goodbye to him forever.

---