Wedding Bells & Rainbows

Ek ~ One

~ Nanon ~

"Get up, you dog!" I kicked my brother as I found his leg on mine once again this morning as I opened my eyes. I quickly snoozed my alarm on my mobile.

Fourth grumbled in his sleep and rubbed his eyes once. He looked at me and then went back to sleep.

"Why the hell do you keep crawling back to my room?" I slapped his back and got up from bed.

As expected, he snored, ignoring me entirely. I shook my head and got into the bathroom to freshen up.

I know it was our common room before, but now he has his own room. Still in his sleep at night, when he goes to the washroom, he comes crawling into my room.

"Good morning, beta!" Mae hugged me and kissed my forehead.

"Mae please. Stop giving me kisses. I am 26 now." I said, agitated, rubbing away the flour that was now on my cheek from her hands.

"Wow! Do you know that no matter how much you grow up, I am still your mother?" She yelled as I dodged her, taking the cup of tea from the side of the gas burner, and walked out to see Pa, as usual, stuck on the couch with his newspaper in one hand and tea in the other.

"Good morning, Pa." I said that and took a seat beside him.

He simply nodded without looking at me.

I took the remote and switched on the TV to watch some news.

"Tsk." Pa frowned. "Keep the volume down." The famous side-eye made me turn off the TV.

"Pa, did you get the deal?" I asked curiously.

He kept the newspaper on the table and turned to me. "It's just 10 minutes that I read this paper, and you have everything to do in that duration, right?"

I looked at Fourth, scratching his butt, and he was walking out of my room. He winked at me, and I frowned in response, which made his morning better than he wanted it to be.

I gulped down my tea and got up.

"I did not get it." Pa finally decided to answer me.

I paused and turned to him. "What happened this time?"

He finally folded the paper neatly and kept it on the side table. "That Mishra has a son-in-law who works in railways. So obviously, he got the first preference."

"Pa, c'mon. I don't think it works this way." I tried to comfort him.

"Shut up! Just because you have started working doesn't mean you can teach your father now." He snapped. "I have had enough of this. I told you that we needed to mingle with that Thai merchant family. You be ready for what I asked last time."

I rubbed my forehead, agitated. "Pa, mingling doesn't only mean having your kids married. We can befriend them."

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" Pa yelled. "LAST TIME, I LOST THE TENDER BECAUSE OF YOU. AND NOW YOU ARE GOING BACK FROM YOUR PROMISE TO HELP ME?"

Mae and Fourth came running out of the kitchen.

I took a deep breath to calm down. It's true that I ruined my pa's biggest bid by showing up at his party drunk and creating a scene. And he has been suffering losses since then. But what he is asking from me is completely fraudulent.

"We are not fraudsters, Pa."

"Doesn't matter. Desperate times demand desperate measures." Mae came walking towards us and took the cups in her hand. "Your pa is right. We need this relationship as a way to save this house."