Chapter 25 #2
“Ok, when Baba comes, in 3, 2, 1,” Iram pulled her son up on all fours and hoped he would manage to take at least one crawling step. He lifted one hand, but always flattened with the other, using both palms to scroll his way on their pristine flooring.
“Ooooh!” She made a deflated noise. “Come, Arth! Baba is coming.”
The honks of Atharva’s convoy were closer. And as if Yathaarth knew the sound of those horns, he began to bang his palms on the floor.
“Yes, yes! Go, baby. Baba is coming,” Iram grabbed him by the waist and pulled him up on all fours.
She tapped his diaper-clap rump — “Baba is here, come on, Arth, come on,” Iram massaged his forearms. He managed to step up with his right hand and coordinate with his right leg.
His left one began to flatten just as Atharva walked in.
“Dilbaro!” He called out with his face splitting into a grin. “What are you doing?”
And their son fell to his tummy, turning on his back and throwing his arms and legs up, chortling. Atharva strode in, coming on all fours over their son, and kissed his chin, then his tummy, then the space under his neck.
“He was about to crawl!” Iram sat back on her heels. “He was half there.”
“Were you?” Atharva blew a raspberry on his cheek. “You smell of…” he sniffed. “Mango cake. My mango cake!” He playfully spun him on his bum and Yathaarth was thrilled, giggling like he only did when Atharva spun him like a toy. “Tell me you didn’t steal my cake!”
Their son grinned.
“Did myani zuv give you?”
“Zuvzuv,” he repeated. Atharva’s playful gaze whirled up to her — “You gave him my mango cake, zuvzuv?”
Iram got to her feet and made a dash, not looking but knowing that he had already grabbed their son in his arms and was running behind her.
Yathaarth’s happy giggles were so loud behind her.
She gave them a real run, dashing around the dining room, going one way then the other, and finally crashing into the kitchen.
She bumped into Shiva. His peanuts fell to the ground. They all froze.
Iram stared at him. Then at the two humans behind her. Shiva dropped to the floor with eyes still on them and began to collect his peanuts.
“Umm… sorry…” Iram quietly took an about turn and padded back out, passing her two men. Atharva reached out and pulled her cheek. She scowled at him. And then, shocker — Yathaarth’s tiny hand reached for her cheek and landed on her nose. A laugh erupted from her nostrils.
“Baba’s copy cat,” she nuzzled his tiny palm.
“Zuvzuv,” he held his arms out and dived down into hers. Iram caught him — “Aah, time for dinner. That’s why zuvzuv.”
She had already kept his food ready and cooling on his high chair near the window. The view outside was dark but some fireflies were circling their garden since the last few nights. She hoped they would circle again tonight and entertain her son enough to eat.
“You want to go up and shower?” She asked Atharva as he helped her slide their son into his chair and buckle him in.
“If I shower, I will sleep. Let’s finish feeding him, eat and then I’ll go up.”
Iram sat on a chair in front of Yathaarth and picked up his carrot puree and rice slurry. He looked hungry, and a firefly circled close to their window.
“Look, look, Arth,” she pointed. It took him a moment to fixate, and once he did, she brought the first bite to his mouth. It opened, and he liked his food. This was the first time she was introducing carrot into the mix. He did not complain, eyes all for the firefly.
“What happened?” Iram asked.
“Nothing happened,” Atharva perched his backside on the side of the windowsill and crossed his arms across his chest.
“Then why are you so exhausted?”
“Because I did not sleep last night.”
She looked at him, spoon mid-air. “You went to sleep before I did.”
“I woke up in an hour and then couldn't sleep.”
Her mouth pursed.
“Atharva, what she said yesterday…”
“Is a real threat. And instead of building walls, now I am making a preemptive strike.”
“You will come down with more force on her Amrohi Associates?”
“No, his case will go on as it is. No change. I have gathered momentum on an old corruption file of hers. When I joined office, a developer from here approached me offering goodwill. We trapped him and got him to give us Awaami’s and Momina Aslam’s goodwill records instead.
I am working to get that file ready for a counterattack. ”
“But that will mean you have accepted her allegation.”
“Iram, I am not going to sit quietly and take her ramming her head into my family. I do not submit to blackmail, and right now the only way to respond to it is by counter blackmail. Bullies need to be punched in the nose.”
“What will you do? Release the file?”
“No. I’ll do what she did. Quietly let her know that I have this. But I won’t be as tactless as her in delivering the news.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her own spies will take this information to her.”
Yathaarth’s mouth opened over her spoon, his head craned.
“Sorry, sorry,” she fed him, going back to scoop some more.
“Janab’s appetite is growing.”
“It’s winter. He is eating his weight in vegetables and I love it,” she fed him another spoonful. “Atharva?”
“Hmm?”
She cleaned Yathaarth’s jaw of puree and glanced back at her husband. “This will work?”
“I am tightening the loopholes in my paperwork, I am having her know that we have dirt on her too. At best, she could go silent for a while and give me more time to dig deeper. At worst, she could start escalating this and I would immediately have access to her sources. The more quickly an opponent moves, the higher the chance they make mistakes.”
Iram nodded. She didn’t know much about these tactics and strategies and mind games. What she did know was that Atharva knew them well. Was even a pioneer in many of them. In him, she trusted.