“Good to see you, too, Mom.” Riya sighed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
Her mother shook her head. “No. It’s fine. I was thinking something and did not hear you.”
Riya kissed her mother’s cheek. It was perfunctory. She rolled up her sleeves. “I can do the rotli, but I need a shower.”
Her mother nodded. “Sure.” She did a double take. “Why so sweaty?”
“Um...well, it’s very hot, and we had a lot of outside calls today,” she lied. Wasn’t the first time she’d lied to her mom.
Her mother shrugged and went back to the shak. Riya quickly went upstairs and showered. She had kept some clothes at her parents’ house for just this reason. She was back in the kitchen in twenty minutes, her wet hair braided to the side. It was great to finally feel clean.
Riya found the big bowl they used for making the dough for the rotli at the bottom of a stack of various-sized bowls. She put in the wheat flour, salt and a touch of oil and started to make the dough with warm water, mixing by hand. It really was the only way to know if the dough was being made correctly.
“What brings you by today?” Her mother’s voice was guarded.
Riya frowned and shook her head. “Nothing, really. Just stopped in to check on you and Dad.” And she needed to yell at Dhillon and find out if he was going to tell everyone where she was working.
“You were just here.”
Riya widened her eyes. “I know. Can’t a girl come see her parents?”
Her mother frowned and tasted the cooking vegetables. “Sure. But you don’t.”
Silence fell between them. It was true. She wanted to be there for them, especially as they got older—they were her parents, after all—and she was all that they had. She just couldn’t live here anymore, so Riya stopped by once a week to check on them. However, she always managed to have an important errand to run or an appointment to get to, which more or less advertised that she stopped in on them out of a sense of duty.
A bark at the back door caught her attention. Her mother smiled and shook her head. “Someone is always looking for you.”
That someone was Lucky. For as long as Dhillon had had Lucky, the dog had always come to Riya when she needed him. When they were kids, Dhillon and Riya had convinced their parents to install doggy doors. Then they trained Lucky to go back and forth between their houses. Lucky had always managed to show up at Riya’s when she’d needed a friend. Especially after the fire.
“Lucky, come!” And sure enough, Lucky’s collar jangled as he slid through the doggy door and trotted into the kitchen. That jangle alone lifted Riya’s spirits and put a smile on her face. The total opposite of how Dhillon affected her. She was either going toe-to-toe with Dhillon or ignoring him completely. Neither was effective at tamping down her misplaced feelings for him.
She turned to find Lucky lying on the tile, clearly exhausted from the trip from Dhillon’s. Riya ignored the pang in her heart as she realized how old Lucky was getting.
She washed her hands and got on the floor to cuddle him. “You always know when I need you, don’t you, boy? Even now.” He sniffed her thoroughly and whined. She laughed. “You still smell that little puppy on me?”
Oh, shit.She shouldn’t have mentioned the little puppy. Maybe no one would notice.
“Hi, Radha Auntie!” Hetal walked in and hugged Riya’s mother. “Oh, here he is.” Hetal nodded at the dog.
“Hello, beta.” Genuine affection filled the space between Hetal and Riya’s mother. Riya hadn’t seen her mother that relaxed in a while. “All ready for that exam?” Then she looked at Riya. “What little puppy?” Nothing wrong with her mother’s hearing.
Riya waved a dismissive hand as Hetal picked a piece of potato out of the pot.
“I hope so,” Hetal managed to answer, around the piece of hot potato.
“Don’t pick.” Riya’s mother playfully smacked Hetal’s hand. Hetal giggled.
They acted like mother and daughter. She might have been jealous, but it was a pang of regret that sparked in Riya. When was the last time her mother had been that relaxed around her? When was the last time Riya had really shared her life with her mother?I should tell her.
Riya hid her feelings by concentrating on Lucky. “It’s good to see Lucky. I’ll drop him off later.” It was the way things were when Riya had lived at home. Lucky spent half his time with Riya. She missed him. And he clearly missed her.
Hetal nodded and said her goodbyes as she left.
“You know about Hetal’s exam?” Riya vented the remaining steam from the pressure cooker before opening it and mashing up the cooked lentils in preparation for the dhal.
Her mother nodded, gave the potatoes one last stir. “She sometimes comes here, and we cook together.” She pulled out a small frying pan for the vaghaar for the dhal. She poured in a few tablespoons of oil, and while it heated she gathered the mustard seeds, cinnamon stick and clove she would be tempering for the dhal.
Riya nodded. It had been her own decision to move out. She let her gaze wash over the kitchen. Everything was the same as it had always been, from the elaborate Ganesha clock her parents loved to the small Formica table pushed against the wall.
