Song of the Cuckoo Bird: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

Tella Meda was calling it pitiful. “I don’t know how to cook. My father lied.”
    “You can learn how to cook,” Charvi said softly, her eyes warning Kokila not to say anything more.
    “Why don’t you want to go, Amma Kokila?” Ramanandam Sastri asked. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes.
    “I want to stay,” Kokila said, afraid now that if she left she would have to take care of her “delicate” husband.
    “Are you sure?” Ramanandam Sastri asked.
    “Yes,” Kokila said firmly.
    Ramanandam Sastri let go of Kokila and turned to face her in-laws. “I can’t force the girl,” he said.
    “Nanna,” Charvi began, and then fell silent, shaking her head.
    “But she’s our daughter-in-law,” Kokila’s father-in-law said angrily.
    “I can’t force her,” Ramanandam Sastri repeated.
    “What is wrong with you, you stupid girl?” her mother-in-law demanded. “Are you an idiot? You are married. You can’t stay in this low-life ashram all your years. What do you think will happen here? Nothing! Do you know the kind of people who live here?”
    Kokila nodded but looked at her turmeric-stained feet.
    “Some prostitute’s daughter, this teacher whose sister is an abortion doctor . . .” Kokila’s mother-in-law waved her hands as she spoke. “All losers and discards. You want to live with them?”
    “Yes,” Kokila said.
    “Then you can’t come back later and say ‘Where is my husband,’ okay?” the mother-in-law yelled. “We have another girl in mind, and we will get our son married to her immediately. So don’t show up and demand your rights.”
    “I won’t,” Kokila said, happiness blossoming inside her. She lifted her head a little and saw Chetana, who looked sad now and was shaking her head. She’s just upset that now she can’t have Vidura to herself, Kokila thought gleefully.
    “This is your bad influence, Sastri Garu.” The mother-in-law now turned on Ramanandam Sastri. “We knew it was going to be trouble when you brought her here. We know all about your sister and family, chee-chee. And this ashram . . . we should have known something like this would happen.”
    They left on that note. No one told Kokila she had made a mistake, though she caught several pitying looks from the others when they thought she wasn’t looking. She later found out that Ramanandam Sastri had given strict orders to leave Kokila alone and let her be happy with her decision.
    At first she was happy. But then her chores continued, the looks grew more pitying, and even worse, Vidura began to turn away from her. And then, just like that, he stopped talking to everyone.
    When Chetana and Kokila told Ramanandam Sastri they were concerned about Vidura’s silence and how much time he was now spending alone, he assured them it was just a passing phase.
    But it wasn’t a passing phase.
    Kokila tried to talk to Vidura several times and each time he shunned her. And each time it tore at Kokila. It was not just that he didn’t want to talk to her; it was as if he was angry with her for not having left with her husband. In addition, he seemed angry with Charvi and Ramanandam Sastri. He wouldn’t say anything but every time Charvi or his father was nearby he would leave, bitter anger in his eyes.
    “He’s just a boy,” Subhadra said. “And he’s turning into a man; it’s the change that makes him behave like this.”
    Kokila wasn’t sure what was going on with Vidura, and every time he walked away from her without a smile or any form of acknowledgment it was an arrow through Kokila’s young heart.
    “Stop crying for him,” Chetana told her when she caught Kokila weeping by the tulasi plant in the courtyard. “If he doesn’t want to talk to you, why bother?”
    Kokila didn’t know how to explain to Chetana that she had stayed in Tella Meda for Vidura. She had stayed because she loved him.
    “You won’t understand,” Kokila said.
    “Yes, I will,” Chetana said confidently. “So