Collected Short Stories: Volume III Read online

  Mr. Chowdhary made a disagreeable face. “Even as a child, Terry had more in common with Attila the Hun than her 19th century namesake.” “And how she eats!” Mr. Chowdhary lowered his voice as though what he had to say was a mortal embarrassment. “My voracious daughter - that's what I call her. Not to humiliate the girl or hurt her feelings. God forbid! I do it only to remind her that there is a problem.”

  “But your daughter isn't fat.”

  “Not yet.” Mr. Chowdhary shook his head and the corners of his lips puckered in a bittersweet smile. “No matter. Despite her faults, Terry is a good girl. Her life will fall into place and everything will work out for the best.” He looked up at me with an affectionate grin. “Just as it will for you, my friend.”

  Mr. Chowdhary’s youngest daughter wasn't fat, certainly not by conventional standards. Fat was two hundred pounds on a 5-foot frame. Fat was when a woman walked across a solid oak floor wearing high heels and left a dimpled trail from one side of the room to the other. In her early twenties, Terry Chowdhary was a plumpish woman with a modestly good figure. I had first noticed her working in the main office alongside her father. Or sometimes she tended the bed of flowers - mostly marigolds, petunias and pansies - that her mother had planted near the motel entrance. A prominent, hooked nose did nothing for her aesthetically but was not overly large, certainly not out of proportion with the rest of her features. And she had inherited her father's dark skin tones.

  Granted, her face had begun to flesh out, to lose definition and her body was beginning to go slack in certain critical areas - the valleys rising up to meet the peaks, so-to-speak. She hardly ever came by the lobby at night and, on those few occasions, had nothing to say. Most often, she wore a sullen, disinterested expression as though she found the universe too crass for her high-minded sensibilities and was living her life under protest.

  One night after I had worked at the motel for several months, Terry wandered into the lobby. “Quiet” she asked in a flat voice. The hooked nose set against the high cheeks lent her a haughty, almost arrogant expression. A thin, silver cross hung from her neck. She lifted her head but did not actually look at me. Rather, her eyes seemed to slide obliquely over my features without touching my face.

  “Yes, very quiet. Only three guests. A couple of businessmen and a family touring from New England.” A bunch of large bananas lay in a basket on the counter. Terry took one and placed the peel on a napkin. She stuffed the banana in her mouth and the fruit went down her throat like a garbage disposal. It didn't appear that she even bothered to chew.

  “Would you like one?” she asked. “They're quite fresh.”

  “No, thank you. I just ate.” She shrugged and began peeling another.

  “The guest in room twenty four thought he saw a cockroach, but it was just a dead water bug from the pool. He was still upset so I switched him over to twenty-six.”

  “Any prostitutes?” Terry asked. “Sometimes businessmen bring women back to their rooms.” Mr. Chowdhary never mentioned prostitutes. Was this an oversight, I wondered, or did he and his daughter have differing views on the subject? “If that ever happens,” Terry continued without waiting for my response, “give them their money back and tell them to go elsewhere. Prostitutes bring trouble. Trouble brings police.”

  “How do I know,” I asked watching her nibble away the top of the second banana, “that the woman in question is a prostitute and not some bimbo with a trashy taste in clothes?”

  “The first time she comes to the Bay View Motel with a man, she's his wife. No matter she's wearing stiletto heels and tassels on her breasts.” Terry deposited the peel of the second banana on the napkin. “If she shows up the next night with someone else, she's a prostitute.”

  “I'll try to remember that.”

  “When they try to check in, I usually say, 'We don't rent to prostitutes. Go away.'”

  “Very succinct.”

  “No reason to waste words.” Terry slid her hand across the counter and began toying distractedly with the third banana, picking at the topmost portion of the peel with a thumbnail.

  “Are you going to eat that one too?”

  “Did you want it?”

  “No, It's just that I've never seen anyone eat three bananas.”

  “I wasn't going to eat it,” Terry said self-consciously and pushed the fruit away. “You've been here a while now,” she said speaking in a harsh, almost accusatory tone. “What are your plans?”

  It was the same question her father had posed, though slightly more diplomatically. “I don't know. I haven't decided what I want to do.”

  “Well, for what it’s worth,” Terry said with a faint tinge of sarcasm. “I don't know what I want to do with my life either.”

  Not that she wasn't attractive in an exotic, fleshy way, but her gruff stoicism was too much! At one point during our conversation, I caught a glimpse of the bronze, multi-limbed snake goddess over Terry's left shoulder and, for a fraction of a second, it seemed as though the motel owner's daughter and her metaphysical counterpart merged into one, all-powerful superwoman. “But you have your work here at the motel.”

  “That's not the same thing,” she replied less caustically and went back out into the warm night.

  After the New Year, Mr. Chowdhary's older daughter, Bidyut, had a baby. A month later, he came to me and said, “The christening is next Saturday. If you could work the day shift, I'll pay you time and a half.”

  “That's not necessary.”

  “It's the weekend,” he said with soft-spoken firmness, “and you would be doing me a favor.”

  I had an ulterior reason for taking the work: In addition to earning a few extra dollars, Terry might drop by. I had begun to look forward to those rare visits when she sauntered into the lobby unannounced - like some visiting, foreign dignitary - sampling the complimentary fruit and stare at me with her chocolaty brown eyes. She reminded me of a nut - not the psychiatric variety, but the edible seed. A walnut or, more specifically, a Brazil nut - hard as hell on the outside, yet deliciously meaty within. Not that I had any desire to make a play for her. Our present relationship - transparent and uncomplicated - suited me just fine. “Yes, I'll work the day shift.”

  The following Saturday, Mr. Chowdhary, dressed in a gray, sharkskin suit, a misplaced relic from the late fifties, escorted his wife and his family off to church. An hour later, they returned with a crowd of several dozen relatives. The women, many dressed in traditional Indian clothes, set up a buffet on aluminum tables around the concrete patio. It was off-season and the few guests registered at the motel had little use for the frigid pool.

  An hour passed. A coarse-looking man - extremely fat and drunk - wandered into the lobby and came directly to the front desk. Placing his drink on the counter, he smiled piggishly. “Do you know who I am?” He said with exaggerated self-importance.

  “One of the guests at the christening,” I said stupidly.

  The man howled as though it was the funniest thing imaginable. “Yes, one of the guests!” He looked at his glass and, seeing that it was empty, rushed off. A minute later, he was back with a fresh drink in either hand. “Where were we?”

  “We weren't anywhere,” I said making no effort to mask my discomfort.

  The fat man shook his double chin and managed an inhospitable grin. Smelling of body odor and sloe gin, he leaned over the counter an inch from my face. “Tell me, how much profit does this shit-hole produce in a year?” His eyes were suddenly clear, limpid.

  “Are you planning to buy the motel?” Before the words had left my lips, I realized the impropriety of the remark.

  Not that it made a difference. Again, the fat man threw his shoulders back and laughed wildly. He took a swig, draining the frothy, pink liquid almost to the bottom of the glass and smiled scornfully. “Not anytime soon.”

  Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a thick wad of money. Peeling the topmost bill off the pile, he waved a hundred dollar bill in front of my
nose. “Everyone wants to be rich, but the more they whore after mammon, the further it eludes their grasp.” The fat man staggered around the room clutching vainly at the air - his monstrous flesh heaving with oceanic force - in a parody of his own words. “They don’t understand the relationship between character and wealth, the businessman’s carnal instincts and the financial bottom line.” He spun around on his heels and almost toppled over. “You'd like to be rich, wouldn't you?”

  “Comfortable,” I replied warily.

  “Then you’ll die a pauper!” He shouted with an air of finality. “Poor as your ne’er-do-well employer!”

  The fat man held the drink six inches above his head and let the remaining drops dribble off the lip of the glass onto his protruding tongue. Wiping his mouth with the back of a hand he said, “You don't like me, do you?” The tone was more playful than angry which made the remark all the more confusing. “You're a goddamn damn bigot. You hate dark-skinned people and think you're better—”

  “Sukamar, what are you doing in there?” A large-boned woman, every bit as imposing as the drunken man, lurched into the room and began hauling him away. “Come back to the party immediately!”

  The fat man tore free of the woman just long enough to retrieve his second drink. “Yes,” he whispered in a lethal monotone, “you are a lily-white, Anglo-Saxon bigot!”

  After he was gone, I sat down and tried to collect my nerves. An hour later, the party was winding down. Most of the guests, including the drunken fat man and his wife, had left, and the women were cleaning up. Mrs. Chowdhary, dressed in a sari, entered. She was carrying a large dish. “A sampling of Indian foods for our favorite night clerk!”

  “Your only night clerk,” I noted.

  “What should we have done if you hadn't filled in today? My poor husband would have been forced to work, and the blessed event would have been ruined. We owe you a debt of gratitude!” She pressed my hand passionately. “These,” she gestured toward the center of the plate, “are pastries. You ought to save them for last.”

 

  Three weeks passed and I saw nothing of Terry. One evening shortly after eight, she entered the lobby. Removing the receiver from the phone, she flipped the ‘no vacancy’ sign on and said, “Come with me.”

  “And leave the motel unattended?”

  “What will happen if you do?” she said acidly. “The sky fall down… the universe come to an end?” The sun had gone down and only a small sliver of moon lit the ground. She lead the way to the back of the building where a pile of rubbish, building materials from a recent project, had been thrown in a heap. Terry fingered a cracked cinder block. In the murky gloom, I noted a scattering of cedar shingles, several windows with broken glass, random lengths of oak flooring and a metal shower stall.

  “What are we looking for?”

  No reply. She sifted through some framing lumber - odds and ends - and struggled to lift a slab of sheet rock. The board broke apart splattering her blouse with soggy gypsum. “Over here!” She was trying unsuccessfully to dislodge a 16-inch, split-rib cement block from the debris.

  I grabbed the 40 pound block with both hands, lifting straight up, and hurled it onto the soft grass. “What's this all about?”

  Terry climbed down from the pile and escaped into the darkness. I could hear the muffled patter of feet racing frantically back and forth across the length of the yard. She tripped and fell down, got up and hurried off in a new direction. Finally she returned with a rusted wheelbarrow. “Put the block in here and come with me.”

  She led the way around to the front of the building, past the office in the direction of the street. In the gutter near the entrance to the Bay View Motel was a brown and white tabby, its hind legs crushed. The cat's eyes were closed but its chest was heaving fitfully. Blood mixed with urine coated the pavement. Bracing her legs against the side of the wheelbarrow, Terry tried to lift the cement block but it wouldn't budge. Only now did she turn to me, her face weighed down with a terrible misery.

  “I'll do it.” Lifting the block, I held it chest high over the cat's skull. “I can't see a thing.”

  Terry put her hand on my shoulder and sighted straight down through the rectangular hole in the center of the block. “Bit more to the right,” she said. I repositioned the block. “Higher.” My arms ached; I felt sick to my stomach. “Let go!” I dropped the block and promptly threw up all over myself.

  On impact, the block split in two. Terry pulled the pieces away, dragging them back onto the sidewalk. The cat was dead. Back in the lobby I washed up as best I could, turned the “no vacancy' sign off and placed the phone back on the cradle. Half an hour later, Terry reappeared. “I put the wheelbarrow away,” she said in a dry, gravelly voice.

  “And the cat?”

  “Yes, that too.” I didn't bother to ask what she had done with the remains. “Thanks for your helpfulness.” She went away.

  Attila the Hun. I remembered what Mr. Chowdhary had said about his youngest daughter. Yes, there was something 'Hunlike' in the way she savaged the pile of building materials and rushed about the darkened yard. Would her namesake, Saint Theresa, have been up to the task? Could the eremitic Little Flower of Jesus have ended the cat's mortal anguish? When my shift ended, I went back to the spot where the animal died. The cat and the broken block were gone, the blood and urine washed away with a garden hose.

 

  One Sunday in July, I was finishing up the paperwork before going off duty. Wearing a tan dress with off-white pumps, Terry entered the lobby. A pearl comb clung to the left side of her straight, black hair. Her expression, as always, was remote, impenetrable. “My father will be down to relieve you. He is getting dressed now.”

  “No hurry.” I glanced at her briefly. Even dressed nicely, there was something coarse, dissatisfying about her. Of late, I had begun having X-rated, sexual fantasies about this outlandish Indian with her dour disposition and eating disorder. But that was all. Even if I had a crush on her - which I didn't - romance would have been out of the question. I'd been that route often enough to recognize the symptoms: the perpetual sighing and palpitations; the blurring of etheric boundaries so you no longer knew where the lover left off and the beloved began. No, it was none of that bathetic mush. “Why are you all dressed up?” I asked.

  “I'm going to church. The eight o'clock Mass.”

  “Would you like some company?”

  “I didn't know you were Catholic.”

  “After a fashion,” I hedged. Actually, I hadn't been to church in over a year but saw no need to share that minor detail.

  “Yes, I don't care.”

  “Didn't ask if you cared,” I said with mild irritation. “Only if you’d like me to join you.”

  The corners of her lips turned up in a wan smile. “As you like.”

  “But what do you like?”

  Tucking his white shirt into his pants, Mr. Chowdhary appeared in the doorway. “Yes,” Terry said, “I would like you to come with me.”

  Saint Marks was located three blocks east in the direction of the harbor. As we neared the church, Terry said, “If my father gets irritable and makes a fuss, you shouldn't take it personal.” I might as well have been walking on the opposite side of the street, the way she kept her dark eyes straight ahead. “Whenever business falls off for a day or two, he thinks it’s a dreadful omen.”

  “Like yesterday.” The previous night there had been only two lodgers and Mr. Chowdhary stormed around the lobby short-tempered and sullen.

  “The motel produces little profit but we always manage to muddle through.” Terry went up the front steps and into the church. Locating a seat near the rear, she knelt in prayer. The pearl comb caught the soft, variegated light from the stained glass windows, flinging it back in a miniature spray of colors. Lips moving silently and head bowed, she resembled an ancient Hindu goddess from the Bhagavad-Gita. Finished with her prayers, Terry crossed herself, removed her rosary beads from a small, leather pou
ch and sat back in the pew. The service moved along at a brisk pace.

  “Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us. Grant us peace.” During Communion, Terry held her hands clasped just under her chin; head bowed, she followed the line of parishioners back to the pew. Again she knelt down and became lost in prayer.

  “Thanks for coming.” We were standing outside on the sidewalk. The reverential glow of the religious zealot had evaporated. With a peremptory nod, she turned and sauntered off, her ample hips swaying energetically from side to side, in the direction of the Bay View Motel.

  In the fall, I bought a ten-speed bike and began touring the city. Each day I set out in a different direction and increased the distance traveled. Sometimes I would pedal west on 20th Street until I hit Guerrero, then head north to Market Street. From there, it was a straight run through Union Square and the financial district out to the San Francisco Bay. Or, on other occasions, I cut off at Van Ness Avenue and biked the four miles straight out to Fisherman's Wharf. At a wooden structure no bigger than an outhouse, tourists queued up all day long to buy excursion tickets - hour-long boat trips into the harbor to view the prison at Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge. My stamina was improving every day and, if I had trouble making the hills, I walked the bike up from where my legs gave out and coast down the far side.

  After one such trip, I got back to the Bay View Motel shortly before dusk and chained my bike to the metal railing outside the main office. Entering the lobby, it was clear something was wrong. A grim-faced Mr. Chowdhary sat on a stool behind the counter sorting through a folder of bills. Terry was at the far end of the counter, a magazine and small paper bag of pistachio nuts in front of her. She looked no happier than her father and neither bothered to glance up when I appeared.