Kareena

Today's my sister's birthday and I want it to be very special for her. She had just gone through a series of traumatic events, which I don't even want to talk about.

So where should I even take her too? The mall, the arcade or maybe the sauna? I write these three places down as Mikayla and Maureen blabber their own ideas. Just then, Sameer, my sister's son, runs in and spills orange juice on Maureen's shirt. She freaks out and bobs up from the chair in an instant. Her germaphobe instincts take over as she rushes toward the bathroom. She literally defines the word because she didn't come out for the next thirty minutes.

My sister, Kareena, is probably in some room crying her eyes out. Curtains down and lights out. She really needs to get out of that shell she thinks is protecting her. This is the real world. People come and go. Some stay forever while some leave forever. She has got to know that she has a whole life ahead of her. She doesn't need anybody's validation to be herself and progress in anything she does. She doesn't need to fit in any kind of social construct to be happy.

I wanted her to know that she's special. That she has a whole new life to explore. A life with her son, a life with her parents, a life with her co-workers, a life with her siblings and a life as a single mom. That's why I'm doing this with my friends on this very special day to remind her of these responsibilities she has towards people she loves.

When Maureen finally decided to return, we had settled on just having a birthday party at my house. A surprise birthday party. I wanted it to be a bit classy and glamorous but Maureen and Mikayla were adamant that we kept it simple. Well, I guess, they have a better idea.

We immediately started executing the arrangements. It took us way until mid afternoon to finish up. Everything was done except for one big detail. The cake. Oh, how could I have forgotten the cake?!

I swiped my phone from where it was hiding and immediately dialled a new caterer in town that some of my friends highly recommended. So if she has five star ratings from all these people, why not brother?

The phone rang for a few minutes till someone answered. It was a female and she had a very soft and calm voice. Oh my, I haven't heard anyone talk so softly before! The catering shop was 'Madeline Bakes' and I was speaking to the CEO herself. Wonderful. Her name was Madeline Arora. A last name I knew very well.

We talked for a while. My ideas for the cake spinning back and forth and her seemlessly answering my bugging questions that could annoy anyone. Including myself. My mind thought of gelatin cake and at the same time wanted it to look like a great piece of art, with underwater sea creatures lurking beneath. Let's just say, I wanted her to do something really sophisticated in less than two hours. Maybe that was unrealistic, cause I've never baked cake before but she agreed to do something that was mind blowing.

Okay fine by me. I cut the call. So did I forget anything else?

Apparently, no.

Fast forward to 6pm where friends are busy tasting and finishing a variety of drinks, playing games with people they haven't met before and talking and laughing in sequence. They're all waiting for the birthday girl. My sweet Kareena.

She enters with a black blindfold around her round eyes. She's not smiling, it's evident that she's forcing the smile to spread across her face. We countdown to 1 eagerly, hoping she would like our surprise. When the blindfolds are removed, her big round eyes scan the room. The first thing she sees is Sameer. He's wearing a gold shirt and black shorts with a large gold chain to conceal the sides of his neck and black sunglasses. She lets out a laugh but is interrupted by Sameer's sudden rapping.

He's prepared a special rhyme for his Mum. Telling her how special she is to him. And what he'd do for her. She holds her hands to her face, probably thinking of how cute her baby looks and how big he's grown. Her eyes let down a few tears and she squints them even further to constrict the floodgates.

I'm really glad she likes it. I just hope the cake gets here before sunset.

We placed a cardboard crown on her head and put an amulet with the words "World's Greatest Mom," engraved on the purple pendant. She touched it and smiled. A real smile. She touched her heart and kept it there for a long time.

I excused myself, heading to the kitchen and withdrew my phone from my pocket as if it was money I was removing from a diligent ATM machine. I called Madeline. She answered quickly and said that she was at the address. She was at the front door. I rushed back to the living room, wondering what the work of art might look like. Only to find my sister compulsively eating.

The cake lady was frozen, standing not too far from the front door and her hands held the cake board weakly. Her eyes were fixed on Kareena while Kareena glanced occasionally from Madeline to her food. It was obvious that their interaction had caused the unimaginable silence at a birthday party. What was going on?

Kareena kept on eating. Feasting unhealthily on burgers, sausages and sandwiches. I watched in horror and was glued to the ground for a while. I regained focus and tried to stop my sister from eating continuously but her hand just kept moving from the table to her mouth. She wasn't ready to stop. She's clearly upset and that's when I realised that Madeline's uncomfortable too. That's when I remembered.

When Kareena was going through the divorce five months ago, she compulsively ate whenever she remembered the person her husband cheated on her with. The woman he married after their divorce. Whenever she remembered the woman, she ate compulsively. So Madeline was Mohit's mistress while he was married to Kareena. And that's why she's eating compulsively.

When I was able to process the whole situation properly, Kareena was on the floor with her hands in a hallelujah position only that she wasn't able to say it. She had stuffed herself with so much food that she fainted. Sameer just stood looking at his Mum with his fruit drink hanging from his right hand. Mikayla pulls him to another room while Madeline is horrified by the scene, drops the cake on a table and digs her phone from her white apron. She dials a number with her hands shaking but Maureen begs her to leave.

The guests dispersed quickly, all of them trying to help revive Kareena. My knees only knew how to grow weak because I feared that the whole cycle would start again.

I couldn't control the tears that had been threatening to fall, wondering if my sweet Kareena would be okay. Wondering if she'll ever be herself again. A hard-working mother. A patriotic woman. A loving sister and daughter. The woman who helped 400 students gain admission into high school. The woman who loved Sameer with everything she was made of. She's become the opposite.

Someone I'm still trying to figure out. But there was hope.

She was happy at the start of the party. Even though it was for a while. She smiled a little. Something that she was learning to do again. Something that was important to everyone who loved her.

I slowly settled for the floor as a seat and held my head on my knees. Since there was hope, even though it was a little, I knew that she'll recover.

My fellow Reddy. She'll get over this, I'm sure.

Picture gotten from @freewritehouse

The picture reminded me of someone who compulsively eats when they're worried or stressed about something.