#Nayanthara's Mansion Part -- 1
"Do you plan on living in the house?" Rajarao sat across the table from Ganesh and Anushka Shetty. They were an attractive couple. She was a tall brunette with a pretty smile, wearing a skirt suit that looked off the rack. He was a tall man with some gray in his short blond beard, wearing a brown Suit. This was the first time he'd met the buyers, and he had a pang of guilt to see them all smiles and eagerness. "My wife and I ... I mean ex-wife and I planned on fixing up the place, but we didn't get very far."
"We have the same plan." Ganesh accepted a document from the closing agent and signed it. "We'll live in the house while we fix it up."
"Do you have a son?" Rajarao signed one of his own documents and pushed it away from him.
"We have three beautiful children, Mr. Rajarao." Anushka cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. "Our eldest is married and off in the world. The twins still live with us."
"Are the twins girls?" Rajarao's voice sounded thin and unsure of itself.
"A boy and a girl." Ganesh's voice was more than a little sharp. "What business is it of yours?"
"None, none." Rajarao shook his head. "This house may test your marriage."
Anushka's pretty, curving lips slumped into a frown and she put her left hand on her husband's right hand and squeezed. Her large wedding ring stood out on her delicate fingers. "Our marriage is rock solid, Mr. Rajarao. This is not the first home we've rehabbed."
"I thought my marriage was unbreakable too." He took a sip from one of the plastic water bottles on the table. "And how old is your son?" Rajarao's heart beat in his ears. He knew he was pushing it with this nice family, but he had to know.
"The twins are eighteen." Anushka squeezed Ganesh's hand a little harder. She wanted him to know she'd had about enough of this.
"Maybe ... maybe ... maybe ..." Rajarao nodded to himself. "Maybe the house will ignore him."
Everyone in the room buzzed with tension. The seller's agent looked like he'd rather be elsewhere. The closing agent kept her eyes on her papers.
"Watch the boy." Rajarao looked over at Ganesh. "Just watch your boy while you're in that house."
Ganesh turned to the closing agent. "Can we sign the rest of the paperwork in a different room? My wife and I would rather not share space with him." He jabbed his finger at Rajarao.
"Of course." The closing agent stood and ushered them out of the room.
Anushka spared a glance back at Rajarao as they left. He was staring at her butt, shaking his head, and muttering "slut" to himself. In all her years buying and selling homes, this was the most unusual closing she'd been a part of.
"It's got good bones." Ganesh looked up at their new house with a satisfied smile. The Victorian mansion had been a beauty at one point, but it had fallen into some disrepair. Nothing too worrisome. There was some rotted siding and peeling shingles. It needed paint. But lots of the original detailing remained. The two turret towers still stood proud on either side of the house. "What do you think, Anu?"
"I'm still in shock at the price." Anushka walked up next to her husband, the weeds crunching under her sneakers. She slipped her arm around his waist and squeezed. "We lucked out, honey." Anushka kissed Ganesh on the cheek and then looked back at the car. "You twins wanna see your new house?"
"Coming." Krishan shut off his phone, slipped it into his pocket, and hopped out of the car. "Wow, we're living here? It's huge." Krishan was a small teen. He pushed his longish, hair back off his forehead. "How many rooms, Mom?" Krishan couldn't look away from the house, taking in the old fish scale shingle accents and finely carved geometric shapes around the windows. In all his eighteen years, he'd never seen anything quite like it.
"There are twenty-two rooms, Krish." Anushka gave her husband another squeeze and then walked over and stood next to her son. "Seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, four living rooms, a den, a library, a kitchen, a dining room, and, of course, the grand entryway."
"That's twenty-one." Krishan looked up into his mom's warm, brown eyes. "What about the other one?"
"Well, your father and I don't know yet." Anushka smiled down at him. "There's a room next to the study that's locked. The seller says he didn't have a key."
"Oh, cool, a spooky mystery." Krishan smiled and nodded with exuberance. "Hey, Shriya," he called over his shoulder. "Come and see this."
"In a minute, dufus." Shriya still sat in the back seat of the car, texting her friends.
A pickup truck drove down the old cobbled driveway and parked next to them. Krishan's older brother, Karun, waved to Krishan with a sardonic flourish from the driver's seat. His wife, Hansika, waved and smiled at Krishan too, with a bit more authenticity. She had her blonde hair up, and she wore an old t-shirt, ready to work. Krishan felt some butterflies in his stomach the way he always did around her.
"Karun's here?" Krishan looked back up at his mom, as if he had hopes that his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"Of course, sweetie. The movers will be here soon. We need help, right?" Anushka patted Krishan on his skinny shoulder. She was mostly oblivious to Krishan's apprehension about spending time with his bully of a brother, and his sweet, beautiful wife. "I hope when you're a man, you'll be as considerate as your brother." Anushka walked back over to her husband, took his hand, and walked down the cracked concrete of the front walk. "Let's get this house opened up."
"I'm eighteen." Krishan said under his breath. "I'm a man."
"No, you're not." Karun walked up next to Krishan and punched him on the arm, hard enough for Krishan to know it wasn't playful. "You're still a runt, Krish." Karun hit him again, laughed, and walked after their parents.
Krishan stood in the weeds and rubbed his arm, watching Karun stalk off. His brother was his opposite in many ways. Karun was tall, broad-shouldered, and his muscles bulged out of his t-shirt. And he was not nearly as thoughtful as their mom thought.
"He doesn't really mean it." Hansika walked up and gave Krishan a pitying, sympathetic smile. "He's actually very considerate." She patted Krishan on the head like he was a lost puppy, and followed her husband up the walkway.
"He means it," Shriya whispered. She had finally left the car and stood a few feet from Krishan, eyeing their new house. "It really is a monstrosity, isn't it?"
"Our brother or the house?" Krishan looked at Shriya, admiring her quick, friendly smile.
"Both?" Her small, elfin features caught the morning sun as she looked up at windows in the west tower.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Krishan walked off toward the house. "Come on, Shriya, let's go pick out our rooms."
"Okay." As Shriya followed her brother, she kept her eyes up on the windows like she had spotted something interesting. But she said nothing more.
Even with help from the movers, the family were hot and sweaty by the time the family's stuff was settled. Most of the boxes and furniture were in their assigned rooms.
Anushka and Ganesh took the master bedroom on the second floor for their own.
Krishan took the second-floor bedroom with the fireplace, on the opposite end of the house.
Shriya, wanting to have some space of her own, took the circular bedroom in the east tower, above Krishan.
Karun and Hansika set up a guest bedroom for themselves across the hall from the master bedroom. The couple didn't plan on spending the night all that often, but there were bedrooms to spare. They'd sleep there that Saturday night, help with the unpacking Sunday, and then leave Sunday night. It wasn't a long drive back to their small home across town.
The house was clearly a product of its era. Only the entry way and the second-floor living room had open layouts. All the other rooms were cloistered and compartmentalized. All around them, there was rich wood paneling and bountiful carving and inlay. The Victorian builders loved to pour on an excess of detail and a mansion like this had certainly spared no expense when the house was built in 1886.
The family ate delivered pizza together in the oak-paneled dining room when their work was done. After that, Krishan excused himself to take a shower. He grabbed a towel from one of his boxes and found the bathroom across the hall from his new bedroom. It had an old clawfoot tub with a shower curtain hanging from a rickety curved rod. He sighed to himself, but it would have to do.
Downstairs, Anushka washed dishes and thought about how they'd probably need to start with remodeling the kitchen. She could really use a dishwasher. Suddenly a chill passed over her and she shivered. She felt Ganesh step up behind her and give her butt a pat. "Hands off, Ganesh. Save it for our new bedroom."
"What?" Ganesh called in from the dining room where he was clearing the table with Hansika's help.
Anushka's pulse quickened and she turned, but no one was in the kitchen with her. She turned off the sink and put her hands on her hips. That was odd. She could have sworn somebody gave her butt a little smack. Well, she was tired. "Nothing, honey," she called back to her husband. And now that she thought about it, she was dirty. So very dirty. Without another word, she walked out of the kitchen, down the hall, and upstairs.
The thought occurred to Anushka that she should use the master bath and it might be good to grab a change of clothes and a towel. But instead, she walked right to the bathroom across from Krishan's new bedroom. She opened the door and slipped in. She could hear Krishan softly singing to himself as he scrubbed himself. Anushka's heart thumped in her chest. She left the door open behind her and walked up to the shower curtain. For some reason, she needed to make sure Krishan cleaned off properly. It was her motherly duty after all.
"Hit me baby one more time --" Krishan sung to himself. The shower curtain flung open and Krishan gave a high-pitched shriek. He turned to see his mother standing there with a distant look in her eyes. "Shit, Mom, what are you doing?"
The shriek snapped her out of it. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Krish. I didn't know anyone was in here." She looked him up and down. His pale, thin teenage body was slick with water. She couldn't help but notice his penis. It seemed he had not inherited his father's hefty seven inches. That was too bad for her little man. "I ... um ... thought this shower was empty."
"Like, you didn't hear me?" Krishan caught his mom looking at his junk, and he quickly put both hands over his crotch. He knew he was small and the look of pity in his mom's eyes confirmed it. This was mortifying. "Get out, Mom."