sceptical, unaccepting. ‘Then I’m surprised you need to ask. They are just as important to me.’
Again he might have interpreted her response as positive, though expressed from a contrary stance. ‘Well, at least it is good that you have not forsaken your background … that the family is important to you.’
For some reason, that remark seemed to make her suspicious. ‘Uncle Ram? You didn’t come here to discuss race relations. Get to the point.’
She might have an occupation and a government uniform, but she would never be a diplomat. ‘Very well. We are having a very important meeting tonight. And by we, I mean the whole family.’ He looked directly into her eyes. ‘Which includes you, Anjali.’
‘Uncle Ram, I can’t. I am on duty tonight.’
‘No, no, no, no, no!’ How could she so misunderstand the meaning of the word ‘duty’. ‘It has been arranged,’ he insisted. ‘And did you not just tell me the family is important?’
Anjali could understand the significance of a family gathering to Uncle Ram, yet she also realized how futile it was to try to relate her feelings of responsibility for her brother and sister Specials, and for the human family, as pompous as it might sound to him.
‘Uncle Ram, you’re asking me to let a lot of people down. People who rely on me.’
‘Your family also rely on you. This is a matter of great importance,’ he repeated, trying to persuade her to accept his words on sheer faith for once.
‘All right,’ she conceded at last. ‘I will cancel the Specials.’
‘Praise be. That is the first sign of wisdom you have shown.’
He wished that now she would meet his wonderful surprise with innocence and not cynicism, with eagerness and not antagonism. However, she was barely showing any curiosity at all.
‘But what is so important?’
He allowed himself a gentle sigh. ‘Tonight, it is you who are going to meet someone special.’
‘Who?’
He hesitated one more time, wanting to remember forever the look in her eyes when he told her.
‘Your future husband.’
‘My what?’ she shouted, her face aghast.
Uncle Ram was distressed at her outburst and the unpredictable eruptions of her temper. What was he to do with such a spitfire?
Noreen was deep in the invoices and account ledgers when her husband came into the office, hands black with grease, headed for the small annexe where he could wash them.
‘One of your fancy ladies called.’ She raised her voice sufficiently so he could hear. ‘One Anjali Shah. Special, she said she was.’ Momentarily she lowered her voice. ‘Aren’t we all, I told her.’ Then she shouted to Loach once again. ‘Anyway, she can’t make tonight.’
He reappeared, drying his hands, his face as long as the Queen’s speech. Noreen began again in a normal tone.
‘She’s got family problems. I think I got that right. But I didn’t like to pry,’ she added. ‘One woman’s misfortune is another man’s one-night stand, as they say.’
Loach slumped down at his desk, looking glum indeed. ‘Oh very funny, Noreen, Bloody headaches is all I get. With this kind of pressure, you’d think I was the SDO and not just the SO.’
Noreen concurred with bitter sympathy. ‘Not to mention S.O.D … R.A.T … and S.H. –’
‘I get the picture,’ Loach surrendered. It wasn’t worth fighting about.
Before she could gloat in her little triumph of the moment, the outer door of the office opened, and young Kevin stumbled in, running at the mouth.
‘I tried to tell her, Mr Loach, but she wouldn’t …’
Before he could complete his explanation, Kevin was bundled aside by the mammoth hand of an enormous woman – Big Jess. She barrelled her way past him as an elephant would a wayward branch while trudging through the jungle.
‘That’s okay, Kevin,’ Loach reassured the lad, sending him off to his chores.
As the young assistant moved out of her path, Big Jess made her move on Loach, her gargantuan breasts threatening to arrive well in advance of the main body. Loach held up his thumb as if to ward off vampires in general and this oversexed succubus in particular.
‘Take it easy now, Jess. I don’t want my thumb bitten again in another wrestling match.’ Especially just when he had got over the first round.
When Big Jess laughed it seemed as if the desks and even the breeze blocks trembled. ‘I’m not here to get even.’ She glanced at Noreen, pointing to a light bruise on her jaw-line. ‘He did that. Arresting me for drunk and disorderly. I was so Brahms and Liszt I didn’t know I was chewing his thumb.’ She shrugged it off. ‘Anyway, it only took a couple o’ tricks to pay the fine I got.’ On second thought, she shook her head. ‘No, I like a man who can fight back.’
A grin started to curl the corner of her mouth. ‘Mind you, if I’d been sober …’ To illustrate her point, she pushed two fingers forward like a prong up close to his pupils. ‘… I’d’ve given him eye surgery.’
‘Fascinating,’ Noreen mused, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Big Jess thumbed at Noreen, then turned to Loach. ‘Can she take a hike?’
‘Uh … this is my wife … Noreen.’
‘Oh …’ Big Jess was a bit taken aback. ‘That’s all right then.’ She turned to Noreen with a friendly smile. ‘I’m Big Jess.’
Noreen was about to make another comment, but Big Jess had already returned her attention to Loach. ‘No … reason I’m here is I need a favour from you.’
If possible, Loach became even more uncomfortable. ‘A favour? From me?’
Big Jess was rubbing her jaw, as if contemplating theoretical physics. ‘I think you owe me one …’ Then she deflected the focus away from herself. ‘It’s not for meself. Understand? It’s for Jackie.’ She took Noreen into her confidence. ‘She’s on the game like me,’ she winked. ‘Know what I mean?’
Rather than explain, she bawled in the basic direction of the door. ‘Jackie? Get in here.’
Through the door edged a slim woman with a fragile prettiness and pale complexion. She was probably a great success in her field but right now Jackie was evidently one very scared prostitute. Protectively, Big Jess settled her in the chair beside Loach’s desk.
‘You sit there, luv … Just explain it like I said.’
Big
