The Monsoon Rain Read Online Free PDF Page A

all his fault, and he had lost her forever.
    Derek was a proud man, and saying sorry was not in his psyche.
    At last Derek turned into her cul-de-sac. Miranda did not wait for him to open the door; she bolted out of the car and into the house.
    For a long time he sat there, thinking. At last he turned around and left. She was watching him the whole time from behind the lace curtain upstairs, suppressing her tears.
    It was a lovely summer day, blue sky and a dazzling sunshine—very rare for England. An Indian summer, as predicted by the weatherman. The garden would need watering.
    Miranda was missing Derek, which she realized was rather strange after the way he and she had behaved. Mulling over the incident in her mind again and again she was unable to draw any conclusions. Why had she behaved in that strange manner from the time she’d met Derek to the ride home?
    Charu had asked her about the date but Miranda had been noncommittal and not very forthcoming, leaving Charu rather disappointed to say the least.
    Derek’s world was alien to Miranda; she was a girl from the suburbs. This, all this glitter, money, penthouse flats were not in her vocabulary. Best to be sensible and try and push the whole thing to the back of her mind, to the innermost recesses where it would bedifficult to extricate. Her life was an ordinary mundane life, and his was different. They were worlds apart.
    “I know, I should have been more cautious,” Derek admitted to Charles as they sat in his penthouse.
    “I warned you! Why do you do such things?”
    “I don’t know what came over me,” Derek replied.
    Was there a hint of remorse? Or was it because the poor girl had managed to get away, Charles wondered, a cruel thought that disappeared as soon as it had appeared.
    “I have decided to go back to the gardens soon,” Derek said.
    “That is the best you can do? Run and hide when the going gets tough?”
    “I don’t run away from circumstances or ‘things,’ but I have a tendency to commit blunders.” Derek looked very worn and weary. “You know, Charlie, my friend, I thought I was falling in love with her, and even now I have this very tender feeling for her.” He clenched and unclenched his fist.
    “You are a brute, Derek. Don’t you ever think of the consequences?”
    “What should I do?”
    “I don’t know. What should you do?” Charles stood up to leave.
    “Please, Charles. Wait. I was mistaken. I thought she was in acquiescence, I was wrong. So dreadfully wrong. But I will have to make it right, somehow.”
    Charles went up to his dear friend and brushed his shoulder lightly. “The best would be to return and resume your relationship with Hannah.”
    Charles left Derek slumped in the chair looking dejected and forlorn.
    Miranda woke up after another fretful night.
    Her mother was in the garden at the back of the house, watering the wilting plants. The day was already turning out to be hot, andthe air felt very still. The garden umbrella was up, and everything looked so bright and dazzling. Mira made her way to the garden and her mum. Her darling mum, solid and loving. Oh so very loving. Her eyes suddenly filled with tears, she loved her mum so. Mira ran to her mother and gave her a very big hug.
    “Oh, Mum,” she said and buried her face in her mother’s ample bosom. Her mother and father had had to work hard for the little luxuries of life, including this lovely house—semidetached, as her mother never failed to emphasize.
    Miranda often thought of her father who had passed away a few years ago.
    “Did you have a good time last night, dear?” Molly asked.
    “Yes, Mum,” she said, her face still buried in her mum’s chest.
    Molly slowly stroked her daughter’s lovely hair. This only daughter of hers, how much she loved her. “There, there,” she said in a very gentle voice. “Let’s sit in the garden. Maybe we should have some lunch,” she said. With a jolt Mira realized that it was late afternoon and Mum