Bodies in Motion by Mary Anne Mohanraj

Author:Mary Anne Mohanraj
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780061739514
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-03-31T19:00:00+00:00

BY FIVE, THE PARTY IS GOING STRONG—ALL OF THEIR CLOSE friends have arrived, and only a few more people are straggling in. Kuyila is lovely in a pale cream summer dress, with slim straps baring too much of her skin. The boys cluster around her, and she tilts back her head and laughs, delightedly, at what they say to her. What are they saying to her?

Sundar cannot wait any longer.

“Everyone—everyone, can I have your attention, please?”

His voice is not loud—it never is. But the word is passed along, and slowly the crowd turns to face him, gathering across the lawn, brown faces cheerful in the sunlight.

“I have an announcement—but first, I have a special present for my daughter.” They gather closer, drawn by the word present, wondering what it could be. Everyone loves getting presents. Kuyila comes to stand next to him, and Raji and Sushila are near as well. Sushila looks puzzled, but not worried. Why should she be? He has never given her reason to worry.

He pulls the red foil–wrapped present out from behind his back, hands it to his daughter. The crowd murmurs. Kuyila smiles and takes it. She starts peeling off the tape carefully, slowly, and Raji shouts, “Just tear it!” Kuyila continues slowly, though, slipping the foil off and then letting it fall to the fresh-mown grass. She opens the box, slides the frame out of it, unwraps the tissue paper. Kuyila looks at the picture of the handsome young man, bewildered.

Her father raises his voice now, louder than any there have ever heard it before. He wants to be sure everyone hears this.

“You’ve come to celebrate my daughter’s birthday, and I thank you! Now, please, join me in celebrating her engagement as well!”

The murmurs have grown louder, and Raji is looking furious. She knows that Kuyila has known nothing of this, but the crowd is not so certain. Surely they would have heard something of this before? Some rumor? But he is a very private man, after all, and the family has had such trouble in the past…maybe he wanted to keep it secret until it was all settled. But how nice to have the girl settled so young; how lovely! The whispers fly through the crowd; he keeps talking.

“She will not be going to school in the fall; instead, Kuyila will be traveling this summer to Ceylon, where she will marry Ashok, the son of one of my good friends, a cloth merchant in Colombo. Ashok is twenty-two, just the age I was when I married my own wife. I know he and Kuyila will be very happy—so please, join me in wishing them every joy and happiness!”

The crowd is caught up in his fervor, his excitement, and they begin to cheer, to press forward and congratulate Kuyila, shaking her hand, exclaiming over the handsomeness of the photo. The noise grows louder and louder, and he slips away in the confusion.

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