Om Shanti, Babe Page 12

  ‘Go on, London girl, this is it,’ Dev said, pointing towards the work bench.

  ‘Yes, Cassia, the moment of truth,’ said Granny-ji.

  Priya laughed and gave my hand a squeeze. ‘I’m sure they will be fantastic, Cassia. You’ve worked so hard, you really deserve this.’

  I felt Nandita’s hand on my back, gently pushing me forward and I picked up the nearest package. I untied the cotton. The palm leaves came away from the beeswax easily and the scent of the perfumed oil got even more intense. I set down the candle in its coconut-shell holder on the bench again. Nandita handed me a lighted match. As I held it to the candle, I felt everyone take a deep breath and the match went out.

  ‘Oh purlease! Can you all just chill out before I have a heart attack?’ I said.

  Nandita had another match ready lit, and this time the candle wick flickered for a moment and then started to burn with a steady flame. We all stood in silence and watched as the candle filled a corner of the room with a golden glow.

  Uncle V patted me on the back and said, ‘Well done, Cassia, this is a very good show. I am going to fetch Luella and Saachi to see what you young people have done.’

  Then he left the workshop to us. Priyanka was studying the packaging for ways to make it better and Nandita was dancing in the shadow of the candle flame. I found Dev’s hand and held it tight.

  While Uncle V was fetching Lula, we lit all the candles and completely filled the workshop with golden light, dancing shadows and the smell of honey, lotus and cinnamon. The old shed looked like a palace from a fairy-story.

  Uncle V made Lula close her eyes as she came in. When she opened them she gasped and, as I explained what we had done, I saw she was crying, but in a really happy way. Then she hugged me so tight I thought my ribs would snap.

  As soon as we got back from the workshop, Lula locked herself in Saachi’s study with Dev’s spreadsheet, Priya’s drawings, my research and the telephone. Auntie Doré was top of her call list. She also took samples of the more delicate fabrics she had been working on with the new weaving workshop.

  Lula had just one chance to stop Auntie Doré heading for the estate agents and putting the shop up for sale. Before she disappeared, Lula asked us loads of questions about the candle-making, and Uncle V and Saachi triple-checked the figures. So it was all up to her now.

  ‘Go for it, Mum,’ I whispered, as she closed the study door behind her.

  While Lula was phoning Auntie Doré, Priya and Uncle V drove Dev and Nandita home and I sat in the living room with Saachi. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t relax until I found out what Auntie Doré thought. I could hear Lula’s voice through the walls, but the sounds were too muffled to make out the words. Even though I really hoped it was going well, I felt a bit sad too. If the shop stayed open we would be going home very soon.

  Would Uncle V come to London or would he stay in Kerala to get the candle production going? I wouldn’t see Priya, Dev, or Nandita again for a long time and when I came back there might be a big hotel on the cliffs and a fenced-off beach.

  ‘Cassia, you should be very proud of what you have achieved today,’ Saachi said. ‘I just wish the hotel protest was going as well as your candle project!’

  ‘Jonny Gold will be here soon to do the video,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, as an aspiring lawyer, what do you think I should say to him?’ she asked.

  ‘I’d ask him to build a smaller hotel a little further down the cliff. I’d tell him to leave the mangroves alone and share the beach with the village instead of fencing it off for his guests. He could do loads of good things, if he would just make the development greener and more in harmony with environment,’ I replied.

  ‘You are thinking very clearly about this, Cassia, well done. It doesn’t seem so very unreasonable to ask a multi-millionaire to share the village with the people who already live here, does it?’ she said, shaking her head.

  ‘He could even build a new netball court,’ I said, thinking of Nandita and her team. ‘Actually, there are a lot of things he could do if he wasn’t so selfish and greedy. Do you think he’d listen to us?’

  ‘You mean you and Priyanka?’

  ‘And Dev and Nandita, just like we planned. Maybe we could still do the dance and if he stops to listen, I could talk to him.’

  ‘It’s certainly worth a try. Let’s decide in the morning exactly what you need to say.’

  The headlights of the Green Goddess flashed across the window and I heard the engine switch off. Priya and Uncle V came in and sat down just as the study door opened and Lula walked into the living room. I studied her face for signs of Auntie Doré’s decision, but it was unreadable.

  ‘Well?’ said Uncle V.

  ‘Well what?’ said Lula.

  ‘Don’t you dare torture us!’ said Saachi, throwing a cushion across the room at Lula, who ducked just in time.

  ‘Do you mean Doré? Let me try and remember... oh yes... she said... OK! She was very interested in the new fabric range and your candle research intrigued her – it turns out bees are very on-trend right now. We have three months to sell enough of the new stock to prove it is worth stocking permanently.’

  ‘Can you do that?’ asked Saachi.

  ‘The weavers are all ready and Granny-ji says she can find enough people in the village who remember how the candle workshop used to operate, so we can go into production pretty quickly.’

  ‘That’s brilliant news, Mum!’

  ‘It’s mostly thanks to you, Cass, you and your lovely new friends. That boy Dev is very handsome, isn’t he?’

  I froze and Priya started to giggle. I saw Uncle V making arm-waving STOP signs at Lula, but she was being dense and carried on about Dev’s friendly eyes and his nice manners. I was glad she liked him and I wanted to tell her the whole story, but not here and not now.

  Uncle V had turned into a human windmill, but it was Saachi who rescued me. ‘OK, young entrepreneurs, showers and then bed! It’s been a long day and you’re still covered in bits of candle,’ she said, chasing us out of the living room.

  I stayed under the shower for ages, feeling the warm water soaking into my hair and loosening the curls. A twig fell from behind my ear and floated towards the plug hole. It was followed by a twist of cotton, and a lump of wax.

  While Priya showered, I lay on the bed with my eyes closed, letting the day play back in my head like a film. A few times, I rewound to another secret kiss with Dev in the candlelight and wondered how many more we could share before I went back to London. The shop was safe, for a while at least. Me and Uncle V had sorted things out and I actually didn’t mind if he and Lula got married and we lived in India, for some of the year anyway.

  That night I finally finished the Peacock book. In the end, just as the girl in the bookshop said, Una had got into loads of trouble and got dragged home by her dad. She thought being with Ravi would be all lovely and romantic, but it wasn’t the happy ending she’d expected and she was going back to England all alone. The whole family thing her dad wanted had crashed out big style, because he didn’t see that his girlfriend was a really rubbish stepmum.

  I felt sorry for Una. In a way she’d just copied what everyone around her was doing, keeping secrets and telling lies. She only wanted her family to love her, but they’d got all caught up in their own dramas and she’d been pushed away.

  It wasn’t like that for me. I didn’t know how it would work out with Dev, but me and Lula and Uncle V had the bits of a proper happy ending now. There was just one more thing that would make it perfect.

  A few days later, at very stupid o clock, I was woken up by what sounded like a hurricane blasting at the bedroom window. Priya was already out of bed, standing on the balcony and pointing out to sea. Her lips were moving but no sound was reaching into the room. She looked totally crazed, shouting silently with the curtains flapping wildly around her. Clearly, something major was in progress.

  I thought about pulling the sheet back over my head and ign
oring the dramarama, but then the hurricane noise was joined by someone banging on the bedroom door.

  ‘I really think you should get up, girls. Dev and Nandita are downstairs and I believe a helicopter is trying to land in the garden,’ said Lula.

  That’s when I worked out what Priya was trying to say.

  ‘OMG! He’s here! It’s today! Jonny Gold Video Day is now!’

  We threw on our dance clothes and ran downstairs. Dev and Nandita were having some breakfast and Priya joined them. I felt sick. How could anyone eat at a time like this?

  Saachi came in holding a piece of paper. ‘Are you sure you’re ready to do this, Cassia?’

  ‘I think so. Anyway, what have we got to lose?’

  ‘Well, there’s the beach, the mangroves, the netball court...’ She smiled at me and handed over the eco-hotel wish list. It was short, but very clear. I just hoped we could catch Jonny Gold’s attention for long enough to get the words out.

  As we stepped outside I realised it was going to be a lot harder than I’d imagined. After hovering over the garden and flattening all the plants, the helicopter had landed on the beach and sat surrounded by trucks full of TV cameras and tents packed with costumes and make-up. Everyone was in a hurry, though their main job seemed to be waving clipboards and yelling at one another.

  Between the house and the beach a catering truck was setting up and a crush of people waited not very patiently for breakfast. Surrounding the whole area was a fence patrolled by men in uniform with radio phones and don’t-even-think-about-it expressions.

  We walked up to a gap in the fence just as another truck was coming through.

  ‘We’ve come to see Jonny Gold,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, you and everyone else!’ said the driver. His accent sounded like he was from London, too. I wondered if any of the people who’d invaded the beach were local or if they’d all just landed for the day.

  ‘But we need to talk to him.’

  ‘Believe me, today is not the day,’ he laughed.

  ‘Please, could you just tell him we’re here?’

  The driver leaned out of his cab and pointed towards the beach. ‘You think I get close enough to his lordship to give him messages? Sorry, kids, forget about meeting Jonny Gold today and just enjoy the sunshine,’ he said and he drove away.

  I looked to where the driver had pointed. By the water’s edge, sitting in an open-sided tent set well apart from the craziness, was Jonny Gold. He was playing his guitar and staring out to sea. A rope barrier around the legs of the tent, and a woman shouting into two mobile phones, seemed to be keeping everyone away. Huge painted screens had been set up on the beach blocking out the view of village houses, so it looked like no one actually lived there.

  A track from Jonny Gold’s new album was playing through speakers attached to the trunks of the palm trees. As I listened, it changed to Om Shanti, Babe, the one Dev had used in the mix on Priya’s laptop, the one we had danced to in the workshop. The real Indian-sounding segments were missing of course, but the rhythm was the same.

  It should have been a huge chunk of good luck, but we were stuck on the wrong side of the beach with no way across. Saachi was right. The honky-tonk circus had come to town, but we didn’t have tickets.

  ‘Cassia, you know how we were going to walk up to Jonny Gold and start dancing...’

  I didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything I could say. In my head this was supposed to be the easy bit. We were his fans and I thought he’d be pleased to see us. Looking around at all the people and the equipment I realised it was bigger and more complicated than that. Jonny Gold was only a tiny piece in the money-making machine that was set up here and we didn’t count at all.

  The film set wasn’t real in the same way that the village was real. All the cameras would be gone tomorrow and leave nothing behind except Saachi’s flattened garden. It was just a big golden bubble. Jonny and his world were inside and we could only sit and watch it float around. I’d wanted to live in a bubble like that once, but I was glad I didn’t any more.

  ‘Cass...is there a plan B?’ said Priyanka.

  ‘Yeah, we learn to walk on water!’ I replied, staring at the sea.

  ‘Actually, we don’t need to walk because we have a boat, remember,’ she replied.

  I looked across at Dev. He was signing to Nandita. She didn’t look very happy. I remembered how she had nearly drowned and lost her hearing. No wonder she looked anxious.

  Dev took her hand and she followed us round the back of the house to the river. When we reached the boat, Nandita stared at it for a long time and then she stared out at the sea.

  I could tell she was trying to make herself step into the boat and I thought she was the bravest person I’d ever met. But she looked as if she was going to be sick and Dev was even worse. He knew how scared his sister was and he also knew how important she was to our plan. He looked torn in two and I thought he was going to stop her, but in the end it was Priyanka who stepped up.

  ‘You can do this without us, Cassia. You and Dev row out and I will stay here with Nandita.’

  ‘But how? What will I do?’ I said.

  ‘You’ll think of something, London girl,’ said Dev, smiling.

  We untied the boat and Dev and I dipped the oars into the water and slowly moved away from the riverbank. Priya and Nandita waved sadly as we glided off. I knew they were really disappointed at being left behind and it made me even more determined to talk to Jonny Gold.

  Soon we’d left the shelter of the mangroves and were on the open sea. We kept as close to the shore as possible without getting the boat stuck on the sand. The sound from the beach drifted over the waves and I could see Jonny Gold. From a distance, it was like everyone but him was in fast-forward. He was still strumming at his guitar, but now a camera was set up on the sand beside him.

  Through the water I could make out the seabed just below us and I felt the boat bump along the bottom, making a scratchy sound as the pebbly sand rubbed on the wood. We both pulled harder on our oars and drifted back into deeper water. Dev didn’t say anything, but I saw him smiling encouragingly at me as I hefted the heavy oar out of the water and then dunked it back in.

  My hands were starting to hurt and I stopped rowing for a minute to check how close we were to the beach. From over on the sand, I could see the camera operator was pointing at us and waving. Jonny Gold stood up, shielding his eyes against the sun as he looked over towards us.

  A motor boat had sped away from the beach and was heading our way. The woman with the mobile phones sat very upright in the passenger seat. She stood up as she got close and I saw her snap the phones closed.

  ‘OK! So here’s the deal. Jonny is totally knocked out by you crazy kids, and to say a big big thank you for being such fans, he wanted me to give you this.’ She leaned forward in the motor boat, flashed a super-white smile, and chucked something towards us. Dev caught it and passed it over to me. It was a signed CD of Jonny Gold’s latest album. He’d scribbled Om Shanti! on the cover.

  ‘Erm, thanks, but actually we really wanted to talk to him about the hotel.’

  The super-white smile disappeared. ‘Not possible today, sweetie,’ she said.

  I looked over to the beach. Jonny had his back to us. I watched as he threw a cigarette butt on to the sand. He thought we were fans, but he couldn’t even be bothered to look at us. In my head, I added up all the money I’d spent on his music and all the hours I’d wasted memorising his lyrics and dreaming about how great he was. They were big numbers for someone who definitely didn’t deserve them.

  Nandita and Priyanka were standing on the riverbank, waving, and in the distance I could see Saachi’s house. Granny-ji, Saachi, Lula and Uncle-V were standing on the balcony. The motor boat was starting to drift away from us. The woman with the phones looked at her watch and bit her lip.

  I undid the CD case and slipped Saachi’s hotel protest wish-list inside.

  ‘Could you give him this letter,
please?’ I said and threw the CD back to her. It landed in the bottom of her boat.

  ‘Don’t you want the CD?’ she said, looking surprised.

  ‘No. No, I don’t. This beach doesn’t belong to you and Jonny Gold shouldn’t build his eco-disaster hotel here,’ I said.

  The woman looked startled, but she picked up the CD case and then her boat turned away and headed back to the beach.

  ‘I don’t know if he will do as you ask, but that was very cool, London girl,’ said Dev, doing a little bow. ‘And now I think it is time we got ourselves back on to dry land.’

  The cabin crew were coming down the aisle, making sure we were all buckled up. My ears popped, and through the window I could see London looming closer. The sky was a solid mass of grey cloud threatening to drop another layer of snow on the buildings below. Goodbye, sunshine, I thought, as I watched the River Thames wiggle away from the city.

  Me and Priya had a major weep-fest at the airport, but as soon as we took off I realised I was at the beginning of a new adventure: project Cassia, legal-eagle-eco-girl.

  It was going to be a busy year. I had to get a campaign going to save the honey bee and while Priya was in London in the summer, researching fashion colleges, I would be back in Kerala with Saachi, campaigning against the hotel and learning more about the law and the environment.

  The shop would be getting a New Year make-over, thanks to Auntie Doré: she’d already started making shelf space for the candles, new fabrics, and even some organic mountain honey.

  The big wedding was planned for next Christmas, in the village. It would be good to escape London in winter again. Dad was all excited about travelling somewhere that wasn’t actually a war zone and it seemed his new romance was a famous photographer so at least the wedding snaps would be great. I thought it was pretty cool of Lula to invite them both.