On Time (Persaud Girl) Read online

  “How long is God going to punish me?” She asked Bianca one night.

  Bianca did not take note of the sarcasm in her voice. “Let us hope not for forty years like the children of Israel!” She declared. “Maybe you will meet someone when you are twenty-five.”

  Well, she had passed twenty-five a whole year ago, and even passed twenty-six three months before in March, and still, nothing. It was beginning to look like a forty-year punishment indeed! Klao did not think that she needed a man to be complete. She was complete enough – bright and successful, with a wonderful family and wonderful friends. She just wanted a man -- to go home to someone, except her brown and white, four month old shih-poo puppy, Minx. She wanted to have a first date and a first kiss, and fall in love, and have a man call her on the phone and tell her he loved her – someone, apart from her father, or her brothers.

  She wanted the excitement and the novelty of being in a relationship, and then to settle down comfortably with someone who knew her and finally a proposal, and a plain band engagement ring, and a wedding, and an over excited mother and mother-in-law. She could imagine her mermaid wedding gown, and the bridesmaids, and Bianca as her maid of honour, and that walk down the aisle, with her daddy on her arm. The ‘I do’ and the ‘kiss the bride’ and the raunchy jokes and trite toasts, the first bite of the cake, and the first dance, and the dance with her father, and the exotic honeymoon…. She wanted it even more, now that she had been there to witness, first Samantha, and then Andie getting it. But she did not begrudge her cousins their happiness. She just yearned for happiness of her own. Klao knew it sounded desperate, but she wanted someone….

  “I am late, I know!” Klao’s daydream was broken by her cousin Samantha running over to their table.

  Samantha looked a knockout as she usually did: five feet-nine, and built like a supermodel, with flawless caramel skin and feathery light brown hair. It was hard to believe she was someone’s mother, although proof of that was attached firmly to her hip. She had taken Caitlin to lunch with her.

  “Caitie!” Andie cooed, quickly standing and taking her niece from her sister. “Hey baby!”

  “Hey Kittie Cat Caitie-Lin!” Bianca chimed in.

  Klao helped Samantha arrange the little girl’s school bag and lunch pan, on the floor and out of the way of Gauchos’ waitresses, and watched as Bianca and Andie played pass around with Caitlin, taking turns smothering her with kisses and hugs.

  Klao was not as close to Caitlin as Andie and Bianca were. Of course, she liked her. She was as cute as a button. That was expected. Between her parents, Caitlin Malcolm had won the genetic lottery. It was as though God has taken her parents’ best features -- her mother’s heart-shaped face, her father’s dimples, and a smile that would melt the stoniest of hearts -- and moulded them together to make the perfect little girl. But Caitlin was the most stubborn child in the world, and at four plus, still did not understand the meaning of the word ‘no’. Bianca was present at her birth, and Andie was her aunt, so they were both obligated to love her unconditionally. Klao did not find herself under any such obligations. It was stupid, she knew, but Klao was carrying a card against the baby.

  A few months before, Samantha and Jeremy both had out-of-town projects, and Caitlin was in desperate need of a weekend baby sitter. Bianca had work and Andie was up to her ears in wedding plans, and the only available body with the time and energy to take on the task was Klao. At first, she was not sure if taking Caitlin for a full weekend was a good idea. After all, she told Samantha, she had never spent more than a few supervised hours at a time with her. And deep down, Klao was afraid that something untoward would happen to the baby. She was afraid she would stick her finger into a socket and electrocute herself, or burn herself on the stove, or pull a plastic bag over her head and suffocate to death…. All the scenarios included something tragic happening to Samantha’s ‘one egg’. To say that Samantha would not be pleased would be an understatement. But Samantha was desperate, and Klao could not let her down. She spent Thursday night ‘Caitie-proofing’ the apartment, and had calmed herself enough by the time Jeremy dropped her off after work on Friday evening.

  “Thank you for keeping me, Auntie Klao,” Caitlin had said in her sweetest baby voice, as she kissed her father goodbye. “I brought my own blanket and pillow and snacks, so you don’t have to worry about me.”

  She pointed to her pink flannel and pink pillow, and the Dora the Explorer knapsack stuffed with juice boxes and fruit roll-ups and gold fish crackers, and Klao was instantly filled with relief. This was just a little girl. How difficult could she be?

  That was the worst weekend of Klao’s life. Not to mention the worst weekend of Minx’s life. Caitlin succeeded in traumatising them both. She pulled Minx’s tail, held him upside down, and force-fed him fruit roll-ups that made him sick. Caitlin ignored the colouring books and scrap paper that Samantha had sent with her, and opted to colour and paint on Klao’s parquet floors and her freshly painted walls, not to mention on poor Minx. Caitlin, deciding that her crayons were dirty, threw a box into the washing machine along with a few of Klao’s underwear. She was the queen of multi-tasking, because she had to watch Dora the Explorer at maximum volume while listening to her CD of ‘Sally, The Camel, has Five Humps’, and other equally delightful songs also at maximum volume at the same time. The words ‘no’ and ‘stop’ and ‘calm down’ meant nothing to Caitlin Malcolm; neither did the words ‘naughty corner’, ‘wait until your parents come home’, or ‘I’m going to spank your butt’.

  While Klao was in the laundry room trying to salvage her delicates, Caitlin got into the freezer, hid Klao’s home office, and ate a tub of Häagen-Dazs strawberry cheese cake ice cream, then proceeded to throw up over the notes Klao had been making for an upcoming trial. Finally feeling totally defeated, Klao called her mother. Dr DeLisser had clearly forgotten what it was like having a four year old in the house, because she’d insisted that Caitie was not that bad.

  “She is that bad, Mommy!” Klao insisted, while fighting back tears. “Poor Minx is hiding under my bed, my notes are ruined, I have a splitting headache, and my house is a mess. What I am to do?”

  “Take charge!” Her mother told her. “Let her know who the adult in the house is! If you don’t give her boundaries, she is going to take advantage of you.”

  Klao had no idea how to do that. She did not know how Samantha and Jeremy did it. She was convinced, when she woke up in the middle of the night to strange sounds coming from the powder room, and found the child there throwing her tampons into the toilet, and watching them swell before flushing them, that Caitlin had a demon.

  Klao was relieved when Sunday evening came, and Caitlin’s parents came to pick her up. She decided she hated the little brat when she suddenly transformed into an angel, as she politely thanked Auntie Klao for a nice weekend, kissed her and Minx, who she had finally coaxed from under her bed, goodbye, and settled into her booster seat in the backseat of her father’s BMW X5. As she tried in vain to scrub paint stains from her previously pristine floors, Klao decided that motherhood was not for her, and seriously considered paying a visit to her ObGyn, and getting her tubes tied.

  “Hello, Auntie Klao!” Caitlin planted a kiss on Klao’s cheek. “Where’s Minx?”

  “Minx is at home,” Klao told her pointedly.

  “When can I come over and play with him again?”

  Klao resisted the urge to tell her ‘next of never’. “We’ll see!” She said diplomatically.

  “Have we ordered yet?” Samantha motioned to the waitress to bring her a menu and an extra chair for Caitlin.

  “We were waiting for you,” Bianca told her. “Where were you, dude?”

  “I’m sorry!” Samantha repeated. “I thought Jeremy was going to pick up Caitie, and he thought I was going to pick her up… I was about to leave the office to come here when her teacher called to ask why no one had picked her up…”

  “They forgot me!” Caitlin whined as her mo
ther arranged her into the chair the waitress had brought.

  “No one forgot you, munchkin!” Samantha told her. “Do you want French fries and ketchup?”

  “And soda?” Caitlin asked hopefully.

  Samantha shrugged. “Why not? I’m working late tonight. Your father will have to deal with you!”

  The girls placed their usual lunch order, and soon, Klao was watching Caitlin suck down a small plastic cup of Pepsi.

  “Soda will rot her teeth, Sam!” Bianca said through a bite of her chicken fettuccini alfredo.

  “They’re going to fall out anyway!” Andie interjected. “Let her live a little!”

  Klao did not comment. She was just glad she was not the one who was going to have to scrape the child off the ceiling in a few hours when the sugar and caffeine set in. Samantha claimed she was working late, but doubtlessly, she would be going home to the remnants of hurricane Caitlin. Sure, Klao thought, she would not mind going home to Jeremy, but Caitie she could do without. That little girl with the face of an angel and the heart of Satan. Klao recalled that Caitlin was the product of too much tequila, and a failed dose of Plan B. Samantha was not even dating Jeremy when Caitlin had been conceived. They had a drunken one-night stand when Samantha was at NYU and Jeremy was at Columbia, even though Samantha had vowed never to have sex before she got married. Klao frowned. Why wasn’t Samantha punished? Why was she rewarded for breaking her chastity vow? She got wasted and slept with a man she did not even like, and look what she got out of it! She got a hot husband. And Jeremy was smoking hot: chocolate brown and built like a brick wall – all muscles and manhood. She also got a pretty baby. A demon possessed baby, but a pretty baby nonetheless. She got a happily ever-after. Klao decided then and there that life was not fair. At least she had been in love with Vishal…

  “Okay, so I have news!” Bianca once more interrupted Klao’s thoughts.

  “Good news?” Andie asked.

  “Wonderful news!” Bianca beamed.

  Klao looked up from her salad. That was all she was having, as, a few late evenings at the office with Burger King Whoppers for dinner had put an extra layer of fat around her thighs. Even Mrs Reyes had noticed and pointed it out to her. Bianca’s eyes were dancing, and her cheeks were glowing. That was not just excitement. Bianca was ecstatic about something.

  “What’s up?” She asked.

  “Guess!” Bianca grinned.

  “You miraculously breathed life back into a blue baby today, and as a result they are excusing you from the rest of the paediatrics programme and making you an official consultant?” Samantha asked, wiping the ketchup from Caitlin’s hands before she could smear them over her blue and white Hialeah Academy Kinder-Prep shirt.

  “I wish!” Bianca said. “But my news is even better!”

  Klao noticed that Bianca was about to burst and suddenly she knew. A lump instantly formed in her throat.

  “Tevin proposed!” She screamed, holding out her left hand. Its third finger was suddenly sporting a platinum band of bead-set, round brilliant diamonds, with a dramatic six-prong setting in the middle, which had to be at least 2 carats.

  Instantly, Samantha and Andie were all over her.

  “Oh my God, when?” Andie screamed.

  “Let me see the ring!” Samantha demanded. “Hand over that ring!”

  Klao truly wanted to be happy for her cousin, but all she could think at that moment was that she was going to be the only single one of the lot. Even Margaux, Aunt Elisabeth’s daughter, and the youngest, except for Christopher, Andie and Samantha’s fifteen-year-old brother, lived with her haunted, tortured poet boyfriend in Manhattan.

  “Tell us everything!” Samantha ordered, as soon as the screaming was over.

  Bianca was all over in smiles. “It was after your wedding, Andie,” she explained. “Tevin decided he wanted to take out Daddy, Julie and me for drinks. And of course I was pissed. It had been the longest day, and I had duty at eight o’clock the following morning. Anyway, I went – what choice did I have. And right there in the hotel bar, he just got down on one knee…”

  Klao allowed herself to zone out and resumed picking at her salad while Bianca went on about her fairy tale proposal.

  “Awww!” Andie and Samantha cooed, and Klao resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

  “He’d even asked Daddy first!” Bianca announced.

  “Tevin is the best!” Andie said. “I don’t think Nathan even remembered to ask my father anything.”

  “And Jeremy knew he’d better quit screwing around and marry me if he knew what was good for him!” Samantha added.

  Bianca nodded and took a sip of her drink. “Julie told me after that when Tevin asked Daddy ‘for my hand’, Daddy told him it was about damn time!”

  “And it is!” Samantha said. “You two lunatics have been dating for longer than most people have been married. Do you know how much you could have accomplished in the ten years you have been dating?”

  “You’re like Carrie Bradshaw and Mr Big from Sex and the City!” Andie added.

  “Well, you certainly did not expect us to get married when we just started dating at 15!” Bianca pointed out.

  “Do you have a date in mind?” Andie asked again.

  “We always wanted to get married on New Year’s Day,” Bianca told her. “But considering school and work…”

  “We can totally do New Year’s Day!” Andie clapped her hands in glee. “That is all of seven months away. That would be perfect! I still have all my bridal magazines, and the numbers for the flowers guy, and the video guy…”

  “I really don’t want to piggy back on your wedding…” Bianca began. She glanced at Klao, wondering why she had not said a word since she announced her engagement. More than any of the others, Bianca wanted Klao to be happy that she was finally engaged. Klao was more than a cousin to her. Andie and Samantha had each other. Bianca was an only child, and Klao only had brothers, so they had been more like sisters all their lives. Klao was the first to know about her crush on Tevin back when they were fourteen. Klao was the one who had told her that Tevin had a crush on her too – it was so obvious. Klao was the first one she had called to say that Tevin had asked her to ‘go steady’ - a line he had picked up from too many episodes of ‘Saved by the Bell’. And Klao was the one who told her not to give up hope when her father told her that fifteen was too young to have a boyfriend. It was because of Klao that she was now engaged to Tevin Pederson – the only man she had ever loved, with the exception of Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid when she was eight, and former teenage heartthrob, Usher Raymond when she was twelve. She needed Klao to be as happy as she was at that moment. Klao could almost read Bianca’s mind. She could not look at her cousin. She was too embarrassed by her less-than-supportive thoughts.

  “There is something else,” Bianca said.

  “Are you pregnant?” Andie asked, wide-eyed.

  “No!” Bianca declared. “I also wanted to tell you that although I love you and Samantha dearly, I want Klao to be my maid-of-honour.”

  This time Klao did look at her. “Me?”

  “Yes!” Bianca nodded. “Andie and Sam are my cousins, but you are my sister. It would be a dream come true, if you would stand with me, KoKo – just like we planned when we were little.”

  Klao looked at Bianca, and felt her eyes tearing up. She felt like a slimy, belly low, thousand legged, good-for-nothing worm. She could not believe that she actually begrudged Bianca her engagement. Bianca was her sister from another mister, albeit the other mister was her uncle. Bianca had been her rock when she was mourning over Vishal. Her relationship with Tevin had weathered numerous storms and a few break-ups over the past ten years. She deserved to finally get those exquisite diamonds in the platinum band that she had been dreaming of for most of her life.

  “Of course I’ll be your maid of honour!” She told Bianca, forcing herself to smile. “Hasn’t that been the plan for the past 25 years?”

  “And will
I get to be a bridesmaid?” Andie asked.

  “Both you and Samantha if you agree,” Bianca assured her. “And Margaux, too, of course.”

  “I can’t wait to go home and tell Nathan!” Andie trilled. “You and Tevin are finally getting married! Yay!”

  Klao had not seen Andie that excited since she had announced her own engagement at a lunch just like this. She wondered when, if ever, she would produce a diamond in a platinum band, and proudly announce her engagement to her cousins and decide on bridesmaids. Never! She thought wryly. She glanced at Caitlin, who was happily munching her fries and oblivious to what was going on around her. Even Caitlin was probably going to get married before she did!

  “Don’t tell Nate anything just yet,” Bianca was instructing Andie. “I told you guys because I really couldn’t hold it in any longer. Tevin wanted it to be a surprise. We’re going to officially announce it at our anniversary party next week.”

  The lump in Klao’s throat grew bigger. She had forgotten about the anniversary party. Now, it was going to be an engagement party. She would have to suffer through smiling and being happy for Bianca, and have Grandma Sylvia and Aunt Julie and Aunt Janise, and whoever else would be there, question her coyly about when she was going to ‘find a nice young man’ and settle down like her cousins.