Chapter 37

The death of Chaudrey shattered a heavy blow in Esau's love life. When news of her death reached him, Esau fought back the effort to cry and went into his room. He was a sad and disillusioned young man.

Fate, he realised, had played a cruel joke on them and taken Chaudrey away from. Inside his room, he began to shed tears.

He remained in his room thinking about the loss of the girl whom he loved with all his heart. His mind focused on the Chaudrey he knew.

It was obvious that her dream of becoming a banker as she had once told him would never come to pass. But come to think of it, she was a Hindu young woman who believed in reincarnation, and perhaps she would be a banker in her next reincarnation.

The Hindu god known as Vishnu or Krishna himself, as she had once told him, had been reincarnated as a large sea monster that saved the world when it was threatened by destruction and would come back in his final incarnation as Kalki riding on a white horse to destroy evil in the world.

Then he started daydreaming when he saw her pretty face smiling at him. But then he came back to his senses and realised she would no longer be with him. He was going to miss her for the rest of his life.

That evening, when he came back from his office, Alfredo knew something was wrong as he looked at his son. Seeing his son looking sad and disillusioned, he tried to find out.

"What's wrong, my son, Esau. Are you sick, or is there anything wrong?"

"I've lost a dear friend; Chaudrey," Esau, who was absent-minded, suddenly said before realising he had spoken too much.

"Who's Chaudrey?" Alfredo seemed rather surprised. Then he abruptly remembered her. "Is it not that Indian girl who almost confused you and made you perform poorly in exams?"

"She's the one!" Esau replied eagerly, expecting sympathy from his father and adding, "She committed suicide last night."

"So what if she is dead?" Alfredo asked. He never realised his son expected sympathy from him, but he added, "She's better off dead than alive."

He paused for a short while before going on, "She has only saved the situation for her family because it would have been a great shame and embarrassment to her family if on her wedding day it was discovered she was not a virgin. Her husband to be would never have forgiven her."

Esau thought his father was being rather unfair and unkind. He knew his only concern was money and wealth.

Those twin worldly desires were what he believed in as he had often told him. Proper education, so he would often tell him as a young boy, often lifted people out of poverty.

And as long as others did not help in creating wealth, Alfredo did not really bother about them. It seemed he rejoiced over Chaudrey's death.

Esau thought his old man was behaving queerly in circumstances such as the one facing him. Circumstances that needed love, pity, and understanding.

Where was an ounce of pity and love in the old man? Was he not a narcissist? Or was not even a sadist?

Esau abruptly became aware he was going a bit too far as he judged his own father. But he was beginning to have bad feelings about his own father.

"Damn fucking old man," he suddenly muttered those inaudible words when he recalled how his father had bitterly opposed his courtship and passion for Chaudrey.