Chapter 23: chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-ThreeMaya glared at the ancient walker her mother had pulled out of the loft. It had been washed and wiped before being placed in the corner. The bloody thing was a reminder of everything she had battled and conquered in the past. She wanted to take an axe to it. Just one problem, she didn’t have an axe. What she did have was a walker…She groaned and buried her face in her pillow. She was truly losing it. Her mother bustled into the room, a tray laden with food in her hands. “Amma, I can come to the dining room,” Maya grumbled, sitting up in the bed. “You forgot what the doctor said or what?” her mother snapped. “Your blood pressure is dangerously high and we need to keep you calm and comfortable.”“I am calm and comfortable,” Maya yelled. Her mother put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows. “I can see how calm you are.” Luckily, her father entered the room before both of them could get into a proper, screaming match. “Shall we all have breakfast together here?” He held up his own plate with two puris precariously balanced on it. Maya took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down and nodded. Her mother set the tray down and sat across from her on the bed. “Appa, can you throw that walker out?” she asked, when she finally got her temper under control.“Done,” he said, without even taking a minute to think about it. Maya smiled. Her father was truly the best. “What will happen if you fall in the bathroom or something?” her mother demanded. Maya’s heart softened at her obvious worry. “Amma, I promise to be careful. I just can’t go back to using that walker again.”She nodded, blinking furiously to stem her ever ready tears.  “Appa.” Maya took a small spoonful of lemon rice before tackling the next issue. He looked at her, expectantly. “I am getting a decent severance package from the company in lieu of notice. It will tide us over for the next couple of months. I will find a job by then.”“Or you could work with me.” All three of them looked up at the new entrant. “Kanak!” Maya beamed. “Come. Sit down. Amma has made your favourite lemon rice.”“Of course she did. Amma knew I was coming.” Kanak wrapped Maya’s mother in a bear hug and squeezed until the older woman squealed. “Hey Handsome.” Kanak wandered over to Maya’s father and batted her eyelashes at him. He batted his own back at her. “See, I got everything set up for our date,” he told her, patting the seat beside him. “He made his wife set it up for him,” Maya’s mother retorted. Laughing, Kanak sat down on the bed and served herself. “So, catch me up on the latest goss, family. What’s been happening? Who is doing what with whom?” Maya let them talk, allowing the chatter and laughter to wash over her and for those few simple moments, take her worries away. No matter which part of the world Kanak had gone to, she’d worked to maintain her relationship with Maya and build a rock solid one with her parents. It meant more to Maya than she could say. Her mother had since revised her opinion of Maya’s friends being good for nothing losers. “What did you mean?” her father asked now. “About Maya working with you?”“Arrey Sexy.” Kanak bumped shoulders with him. “You always get straight to the point. I’ve had a business plan in my head for a while now, of starting an online and offline branding and strategy firm. We’ll work primarily with corporates, the old fuddy duddies and drag them into the new age.” A ripple of interest stirred in Maya as she listened to her friend talk. These were the plans they’d made in college together, the dreams they’d discussed, the hopes that had been shattered in that car accident.“Kanak,” she said now. “I don’t have the money for the initial investment. Not now and maybe not for a really long time.”“We can use my Provident Fund,” her father interjected.“No Appa,” Kanak and Maya answered together.“I have some jewelry we can sell,” her mother said, hesitantly. “I was keeping it for Maya’s marriage but now…”“Now, I’m officially on the shelf,” Maya said, drily. “Who needs a trousseau?” Kanak laughed. “Hear me out, people. No one needs to sell anything. I’m looking to start from home, from my flat. It will be just Maya and me working off of our laptops. I have the contacts and Maya has the brains.” “You aren’t a slow coach in the brains department either,” Maya said drily. Kanak tossed her blue hair over one shoulder. “No, I’m not. But my brains tell me that I’ll be a great front for this business. You can be my back. Or rather my butt.”“I can be a pain in your butt,” Maya offered.“Oh honey,” Kanak patted her knee. “You’ve been that since the day I met you.”Maya grinned. “So, what do you say, bestie? Partners?” Oh, she wanted to say yes. So bad. But could she afford the risk? Their debts felt like a noose around her neck forever tightening slowly. “Do it, Maya,” her mother said, quietly. “Live for yourself, for once.” “And if I fail?” she asked, fear winding its coils through her heart. “Then we’ll pick ourselves up and start again,” her father answered, gently. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before.” “Excuse me?” Kanak held a hand up in the air like a student asking the teacher for permission to speak. “I do not fail. I don’t believe in it. And you, my friend, have forgotten what it means to be Maya. Because, you my Maya Papaya, are a powerhouse of talent, grit and determination and you are going to build the business into a massive success from the ground up.”“And what are you going to do?” Maya asked, her heart warming at her friend’s words.Kanak checked out her manicure and buffed her nails on her shirt. “I’m going to sit around, look pretty and spend all the money you’ll help me make.”She kissed Maya’s father on the cheek. “Want a new car, boyfriend?” “A Mercedes, please,” he answered, blushing a bright red. Maya laughed. It felt like a weight had lifted off her shoulders. A new beginning. A new life. A new her. This time, she was going to make it work.