The Wrong Woman

5. Mouna

"You're going to work now, Mo?"

"Yup!" I yelled from the room behind the living. "Make sure you eat the lunch I made you today or I'm not going to make food for you ever again."

"You know that is called abuse. If I call the police, they'll lock you up."

I snickered to myself. "Oh really? I would like to see you try, Miss Mohi." I tucked my curls into a neat bun—as neat as it could get—and rushed over to my grandma with a huge smile on my face. I plopped myself beside her and planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek, giggling. "What? You're not going to call them?"

She shoved me away playfully, trying to hide the smile on her face. "Maybe I'll do it when you leave so I have no interruptions."

"The only thing you will do is watch serials. You're not fooling anyone, Mohi."

Grandma rolled her eyes and switched the channel. "Actually, I am watching something more important."

A TV anchor was seated behind her desk, deep maroon lipstick and honey streaked brown hair that framed her sculpted face.

So beautiful, I thought. And so confident. The way in which she sat and the aura she gave off from the TV was incredible! I couldn't help but watch with my mouth agape.

"Parts of India will be able to witness a very rare celestial phenomenon today," she said, her voice crisp and pleasant. "A total lunar eclipse, that is, a blood moon." The image switched from her to videos of people already seated at high points of hills or other places where they have a good, clear view of the sky. "Thousands of sky watchers have already geared up to watch the experience from 6:21 to 8:41."

She continued speaking, explaining in greater detail about the scientific side of the total lunar eclipse, but my grandma changed the channel. "The most important thing you should know is how powerful this blood moon is," she said, her voice low. Her gaze was cloudy and glazed, as if she was thinking about something else.

I whispered, "Mohi?"

"I want you to be careful."

"I'll go to work and be right back, I promise."

"No, I mean—this is a night filled with power and magic. You don't know what will cross your path."

As much as I wanted to dismiss her superstitions, the way her face hardened and her eyes darkened as she spoke, as if every word that spilled from her mouth was true, caused cold shivers to run down my spine. I could hear the tremble in my voice as I said, "Mohi, you're scaring me."

"I only want you to make sure you don't make a wish. We don't know what will happen."

"Okay." I drew her into a tight hug, burying my head in her shoulder. "I promise."

I was going to take my grandma's advice, even if it didn't fully make sense. There was something off about the way she was talking; my grandma always talked about the blood moon and its powers but now that it was here...for the first time, I would be able to see what she was talking about. A part of me wished it did have the powers to change everything.

"And if you come back in one piece, I will make my special payasam just for you."

"Mohi!" I laughed and pinched both her soft, pillowy cheeks. "If I don't come back in one piece, I'll make sure to haunt you."

I wasn't going to do anything that risked her life. And if she wanted me to be careful and not make a wish, I would do just that.

Easy!

***

The rickshaw stopped where it always did, under a tree nearby the packed street where all the shops lined up right and left, leading into the main parts of town. The night was particularly dark today, the sky so black, there were no stars to shed its light upon us.

But as I walked, people began to gasp and look up at the sky. The glow of a bright, red shadow fell over people and snapping my head up, I nearly gasped at the beautiful sight I was witnessing.

The sky was a deep, blood red, the moon so bright it was hard to look at without squinting. I thought the name 'blood moon' meant the moon would be red. Not the entire sky! It really was a rare celestial phenomenon. Everyone from different walks of life stopped to watch this pass by slowly, like a curtain being opened to show the best act to end the night.

Never had I seen anything like it. Maybe it was from all the stories grandma used to tell me but a chill of excitement made its way from the nape of my neck down to my toes that curled in my black work shoes.

Magic, I thought. How incredible would life have been if it were real. I turned around, only to bump into one of the homeless people that used the makeshift skateboard to move around. I had knocked into him so hard that he had fallen off.

"Mahesh, I'm so sorry!" I recognised him immediately. "Did I hurt you?"

"You can't hurt me any more than what I've been through," he said, snorting. He waved his hand up and down when I tried to help him back on. "Stop helping me and look at what Mother Nature can do!"

"Is there anything I can do to help, at least?"

"Give me extra snacks and I'll see."

I giggled. "Only if my boss is in a good mood. I'll see you when I get back from work."

"And what about me?" An unknown voice, trembling and gritty, resounded in my ears behind me. I turned around to see a man I had never seen before, standing before me, waiting. I couldn't see much of his face which was obscured by the black blanket he wore, wrapped all around him. The only thing I could see were his hazel eyes, bright and burning, and his exposed legs; he had no shoes and he was shaking like jelly.

"I—I'm sorry, what?" I only ever spoke to the people I knew. I only knew them because of habit; I had seen them for a very long time, even before I started working at the cafe. This man...this man was strange, and even without having a conversation with him, I could feel my body repelling. He's just a homeless man, Mouna, I told myself. Stop overthinking things!

"What can you give me?"

My shoulders relaxed a little. He just wanted some food or money. "Um, I work at a nearby cafe. I can bring you snacks. If it's money you want, I can also give you a little bit of that."

I smiled, to show him that I was at ease around him. He stepped forward and brought out a wrinkly hand, holding out a bracelet; it was made of a thick black thread with large, brown beads and small, white pearls in between each bead, tied off at the end in a double knot.

It was simple, but cute.

"In exchange for 64 rupees, I will give you this bracelet."

That didn't seem like a fair bargain. Only 64 rupees for a bracelet that he had spent his time and energy in making? "I will give you 100 rupees. The bracelet is too beautiful to be given out cheap."

The sides of his eyes crinkled, but whether he was smiling or not, I couldn't tell. "Kind hearted,"he mused. "May I put it on you?"

There were people walking past and the line of the beggars I usually saw were behind me; surely if something were to go wrong, they would all be witnesses. I was being careful, just like my grandma wanted me to. So, I said, "No, it's okay. I'll put it on myself, thank you."

"Very well." As I took the bracelet from his hand and put it on my left wrist, he muttered something. I strained to hear but all I could take from it was 'believe love conquers all'. It seemed like a very cliche line but most importantly, I didn't understand the context.

"What do you mean by that?" He didn't seem startled that I had heard. Instead, the crows feet emerged beside his eyes again.

"You will understand soon enough."

And as if the lights had been turned off and a snap of someone's fingers, the red sky had faded, revealing the blackness beneath and sprinkles of stars that were not there before.