He thinks I can do it on my own.
“Only three have you lost.
Only temporarily.
You have all seven other talents.”
He repeats those words
as though they’re an incantation.
Listening to his resonant voice,
I rise to my mismatched feet.
TWO MEN
Our exam results arrive.
Chandra tops the list.
Paati and my parents sign a card for her and
Chandra and I go to her favorite café—Java Joy—to celebrate.
“Your family must be thrilled,” I tell her. “My ma’s backed off
since the accident,
but deep down
she probably still wishes I could be an engineer.
She’d exchange you
for me
any day.”
Chandra stabs a piece of cake. “Your family gives me
so much attention.
Mine hardly notices my achievements.
Everything I do, one of my sisters did already.
Plus, you know that boy my sister was seeing in secret?
His parents found out about them.
They were angry because they’re wealthier and a different caste.
So he dumped her.
She’s miserable, poor thing.
She was so upset she even told my parents about him
after they broke up.
So my parents are in a tizzy trying to set her up
with a suitable boy now. No time for me.”
To steer Chandra’s thoughts away from her family,
I ask if she’s decided what she wants to do in college yet,
though college is still years and many exams away.
“I’m going to become a biomedical engineer,”
she says, starting to cheer up. “Someday
I’ll make a leg that’ll listen to your brain
so you can do every Bharatanatyam pose you can think of.”
I’m glad my accident at least helped
Chandra figure out her career path.
Chandra spears another piece of cake.
“Speaking of dance poses, how’s it going with dancer boy?
He sounds interest-ing. And interest-ed.”
No boy is going to find me
attractive.
Least of all someone as gorgeous as Govinda.
“He’s helping you out a lot,” Chandra says.
I shrug. “He’s helping me out. Yes. Not asking me out.”
“Do you like him better than Jim?” Chandra asks.
I roll my eyes. “I don’t like either of them that way.”
But her question makes me uncomfortable.
In my mind, I see Jim and Govinda side by side.
Govinda standing tall like the dancer he is,