"Is anybody hungry?" Priyanka walked in, grinning with four brown packs of food in her hands.
Oh great, she's here with goody bags. Mitali beamed her way to her sister, grabbing all four packs at once.
"Nobody knows how hungry I am right now." She placed the packs on the table and went to the kitchen to get some plates. "Ah- Calamari and mayo." Her eyes lit up, ready to dig in, but then, one hand stopped her.
"You seriously forgot your position in this house." Purab snatched one pack. "Learn to wait for your seniors to pick first."
Mitali called out to her mom in the backyard, "Mom? Priyanka brought something for dinner and Purab is being stingy."
Something for dinner? Urumi rushed in like the return of flash. Purab and Mitali didn't wait as they dig into their plates.
"Priya, where did you get the money to buy all these?" She need to ask her daughter very well. She's not ready for round two in prison yard.
"Well," Priyanka took one pack and gave it to Urumi. "I had excess profits from today's sales at the petrol station, so I used them to buy us dinner."
"To buy us dinner?" Urumi mumbled as she accepted the pack from her and settled on the couch across the others. "I thought your colleagues called you for some leftovers at the hotel."
"That will be…." She thought for a while, "Weekend." She snapped her fingers, remembering. "So what's up with the caffeine? Taken to the mill yet?" She asked, digging into her plate.
With a mouth full of food, Mitali commented. "Damn this calamari tastes good. It's been a long time since I last ate something like this."
"Better go get a job so we can be eating something healthy like this everyday." Purab murmured.
"Get a job? What happened to you? Can't you go job hunting starting from tomorrow so we can claim everything we used to have before? Lazybone."
Priyanka laughed. Her two siblings can be really dramatic at the same time funny. Urumi shook her head helplessly at her kids, talking while eating like tattletales.
"We only have twelve bags, we can't take them to the mill for blending now. They'll become three bags after grinding and that might be shortage minus the money we used to blend them." Urumi explained.
"You're right, mother." Priyanka agreed. "Let's wait until the bags turns twenty, then we'll cargo everything to the mill, right?"
"Yeah."
"So…. There's nothing in the house or we didn't cook."
"We ran out of cooking gas." Purab walked to the water dispenser to get a glass.
"Why didn't you guys call my –" Oh, she obviously forgot she doesn't have a phone. "I mean, I'll go to the bank tomorrow to get some money to buy us gas."
"Excuse me," Mitali belch, covering her mouth with her hand as she stood up to pack the empty plates to the kitchen. "It came out unexpectedly."
"You seriously have issues not to mention." Purab waved a hand over his nose. "Gross."
"How is it going with work, lately?" Urumi asked the moment Purab and Mitali were out of sight. "Hard times?"
"Not really, mother." She shrugged. "You know it's not up to a month yet since I start working part time as a geospatial analyst. I was told they pay huge and am likely to set up new foundation for us when I gets my first pay."
"You've contributed a lot to this family already, sweetheart." Urumi shook her head. "Leave the rest to your siblings."
To her siblings? Her brows rose as she tilts her neck backwards. "Maan, those two are not even ready to buckle up yet. Can't you see it yourself? We'll die of hunger if we wait for them."
No, she's not depending on anyone. "Am not saying we should wait for them, darling."
Priyanka picked up her shoes and stood up. "Mom, I'm not lazy. I can work five shifts a day, I, Priyanka Abhishek can do it and I don't give a shit bout breakdowns. The coffee farm is progressing little by little, we can't feed only from there. There has to be another source, that's why am working."
"But it's too stressful for you."
"Of course it is, mother." She smiled but Urumi could read the pains in her eyes. "As far as it provides our daily meals, I have zero problems. So leave it to me to handle, okay?"
Urumi nodded with a weak smile. It pains her so much to see how workaholic her baby girl has become. It pains her to see how much she over labors herself everyday. Work, work, work, work. No play. No rest. She occupied all her day offs with petty jobs. If she's not in the hotel kitchen assisting the cooks, she'll be in a petrol station selling fuel or she'll be in the office working tooth and nail on the desktop.