Sister Chastity pointed to the chairs and rubbed her hands in anticipation. She looked at the boy and at his father and then, in a more interested way, at the boy again. She was distracted by the stacks of paper between them. She pushed them away muttering, ‘They gave me a computer saying I’d never need to file papers again. But now, all I am doing is filing print-outs. Do you have a computer at home, Mr Mani?’
‘No,’ Adi said.
‘I am talking to your father, Adi. You must know how to behave.’
‘I am sorry, Sister, I have sinned.’
‘It’s “I am sorry, Father, I have sinned”. Genius and all that, and you don’t know simple things?’
‘I am sorry, Sister.’
‘Now what was I trying to say? Yes. Mr Mani, you don’t have a computer at home?’
‘No,’ he said.
‘St Andrew’s Church is selling old computers at unbelievable prices for its less fortunate parishioners,’ she said. ‘Just one thousand rupees for a Perinium 2.’
‘Pentium,’ the boy corrected.
‘Yes, Pentium. Adi, I am talking to your father.’
‘Nice thing the Church is doing,’ Ayyan said.
‘Isn’t it nice? Do you know where St Andrew’s Church is?’
‘No.’
Sister Chastity shook her head sadly. ‘The joys of Christian life are available to all but very few open their eyes before the Lord shuts them.’ Ayyan looked at her meekly. ‘Now, Mr Mani,’ she said, ‘I will come to the point. You are aware of the interschool science quiz we are organizing?’
‘No, Sister.’
She widened her eyes. ‘You haven’t seen the posters?’
‘No.’
‘The posters have been up on the main gate notice-board for over a fortnight now. You must always read the notice-board, Mr Mani. In three days, we will be hosting the quiz finals. Grand Finale, it is being called. Five hundred tenth-standard students from fifty schools went through the written elimination rounds. Six teams have been chosen for the finals. For the Grand Finale.’ Ayyan nodded with evident interest. ‘We were, in fact, finalizing the questions when you walked in,’ she said. ‘That’s the quiz committee waiting outside.’
‘I didn’t see anyone outside,’ Ayyan said.
‘The three teachers, Mr Mani,’ Sister Chastity said, making a face of immense patience. ‘They went out right now, didn’t they? They are the quiz committee.’
‘OK,’ Ayyan said. ‘Can parents come and watch the quiz?’
‘Parents have to come. We are having the event in our main auditorium.’ (She always said ‘main auditorium’ though the school had only one. She also said ‘main gate’ though there was only one entrance.)
‘We will be there,’ Ayyan said.
‘There is a reason why I asked you to come with Adi,’ she said softly. ‘The teams from our own school couldn’t make it to the finals. They were disqualified in the preliminary rounds. You know how fair we are. We wouldn’t do anything shady to favour our teams. We are the host school and we have graciously accepted that our teams were not good enough. But it is sad, isn’t it?’
‘It is sad.’
‘It’s very sad. But I have an idea,’ she said, now beaming. ‘I can still make a place for a special participant from our school who will not compete for the prize but for the honour.’
‘And you want Adi to be that special participant?’
‘Obviously.’
Ayyan looked thoughtful.
‘What’s the problem with that?’ she asked, looking at Adi. ‘A small brilliant kid competing against the brightest seventeen-year-olds in the city. It will be a sight. How old are you now, Adi?’
‘I am eleven. Eleven is a prime number.’
Sister Chastity imitated him fondly,’”I am eleven. Eleven is a prime number.” What an odd angel this boy is.’
‘He is just a little kid who is fooling around,’ Ayyan said feebly.
‘But he is a genius.’
‘He has stage fright.’
‘Stage fright?’
‘Yes. He becomes frightened when he has to face a lot of strangers.’
‘We will all be there to make him feel comfortable,’ she said, her face now beginning to lose its pleasantness.
‘But there is something we have to think,’ Ayyan said carefully in English. (Sometimes he spoke to her in English. For practice.)
‘You mean there is something we have to consider,’ she said severely, and looked with sympathy at the boy.
‘Yes, something we have to consider,’ Ayyan said.
‘What is it?’
‘Think: Adi is sitting on the stage. Sorry, imagine Adi is sitting on the stage. Then the questions come. Adi begins to answer those questions, it will be great.’
‘Yes. It’ll be incredible.’
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘It will be so unbelievable that people will accuse you of leaking the questions because he is from host school.’
Sister Chastity ignored the missing definite article. She saw his point. She nodded. ‘I didn’t think of it that way,’ she said.
Ayyan looked at the stacks of papers on her table. He wondered where the quiz questions were. Probably with the three teachers who were waiting outside. Or, probably right here.
‘You have a point,’ she said and exhaled. ‘OK, then. The classes are going to start now. Adi, you should get going.’
‘How many teams in the finals?’ Ayyan asked.
‘Six,’ she said.
‘Girls and boys?’
‘Yes,’ she said impatiently. ‘Mostly boys. But one team has only girls.’
There was something here, Ayyan knew. There was an opportunity. ‘The plan to expand the computer lab — any progress?’ he asked.
‘Yes, parents will be notified,’ she said, now overtly irritated.
‘Any increase in fees because of computer lab?’
‘We’ve not made any decision on that front. Now Mr Mani, if you’ll …’
One of her phones rang. ‘Hello,’ Sister Chastity said. ‘Oh dear. Where? I am coming.’ She put the phone down and rushed out. ‘A girl has fainted,’ she muttered on her way out.
The door shut behind her, but Ayyan could hear her fading footsteps. He counted them. She seemed to have gone far. He stood up and arched towards her side of the desk, and rummaged through the stacks of paper. He did not look at the door even once, but he listened for the slightest sound. He removed whole sheets of paper from of envelopes and went through them swiftly. There were bills and more bills and a lot of letters from the office of the Archbishop.
Adi looked at his father with his large keen eyes. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
‘Shhh,’ his father said.
‘What are you doing?’ Adi whispered excitedly.
Ayyan opened the drawers and looked in. There were invitations, rosaries and letters to the municipality. But nothing appeared to contain quiz questions. He found some mid-term question-papers though. He then threw a decisive look at the three land phones lying on her desk. He picked one and dialled his own mobile number. He took the call and put the mobile back in his trouser pocket. Very carefully, he placed the receiver slightly askew on its cradle.
He went back to his chair and waited for her. Adi looked at him with a bright smile. They heard the faint voice of Sister Chastity barking orders.
‘What’s wrong with girls these days?’ she said, as she entered the room. She sank into her swivel chair and said angrily, ‘A girl has fainted. Her mother says that after she has a meal she goes to the bathroom, puts her finger inside her throat and pukes out everything she has eaten. She is twelve you see. So Madam came to school having puked her breakfast at home. What happens? She falls down in the corridor. That’s what happens. Lord, what’s wrong with these girls?’