The church of McCluskieganj, uncared for so long, had suddenly brightened and become cheerful once again. The reason: Captain Mendonca was finally getting married to Judy.
Although McCluskieganj was very happy, there was no dearth of sarcasm—‘a seventy-year-old man is marrying a fifty-year-old woman’. Not to be left behind, Khusia Pahan remarked, ‘Whoever goes and gets married in Poos, the beginning of winter! Winter weddings always turn wintry.’
But the old groom was beaming regardless, as much as any young groom would. Captain Clement Mendonca’s son had chided his father over his ridiculous venture and so had Judy’s elder son, Ashley.
Despite a few discordant notes, still there was festivity all around. Judy smiled at herself in the mirror as if to say, ‘What an old bride’. And when Jennifer offered to dress her for the wedding, she asked, ‘How will you adorn an old woman like me?’ To this, Jennifer said, ‘But today you’re a new woman!’
As Judy lay in bed on the morning of her wedding, thinking of her past, her first marriage, her mother and so on, there was a knock on the door. Opening it she found Captain Mendonca, who clasped her cheeks with his cold hands and said, ‘I thought I should start this memorable day by wishing you good morning!’ Judy who had never heard him hum before was surprised to hear him sing, ‘I love you for a thousand things, no matter what the world may say about me … But most of all I love you because you are you.’ Judy was speechless. She liked him for his sunburnt looks, his strength and manliness and, above all, his eyes that had the depth of a calm, blue sea. He had spent forty years on ship and he was not an Anglo-Indian. He was a native of Goa and, though he had opportunities aplenty to settle abroad, he did not, because he knew that in a foreign land, he would never be fully acceptable. ‘Your country and land are a different proposition,’ he used to say. His father and grandfather had a large cashew plantation in Goa. His father wanted him to become a doctor, but Clement was otherwise inclined. He found the sea fascinating. When his father saw that he was adamant, he just turned him out of the house. They were obviously a very hot-headed family, because Clement was happy to leave and join the navy.
While on ship, he had docked in Calcutta, and there he met a lovely girl called Teresa, whom he married. He asked Teresa to write about their marriage to his father, but even that did not cut ice. Later when they had their son Glad, Teresa wrote to her father-in-law again, and this time the old man visited them in Calcutta and brought with him his family heirloom of gold for his grandson. So a rapprochement of some sort was made. Though estranged from his son, he was very happy to meet his grandson. Later ironically, Glad too became a captain in the navy.
In the years that followed, Captain Mendonca, along with his wife and son, once visited Gumla in the Chhota Nagpur area. He liked it very much, and some friends advised him to look up McCluskieganj as well. He did so and fell in love with the place, its arboreal ambience, its caring people. Glad went crazy with a catapult made from the slim, forked branch of a guava tree, which incidentally is considered best for making catapults. This had been made by a local tribal. These catapults could be so deadly as to bring down birds and small animals with ease. Even air guns would pale before them. The Mendonca family had stayed with one Mrs Duggen as paying guests during this trip. The latter had noticed that the captain and his family had rather liked her cottage and McCluskieganj. When they were leaving, she took the captain’s Calcutta address and said, ‘How will it be if in the coming years, this house became yours?’ Captain Mendonca had laughed it off.
However, a few months later, he, whose ship was still anchored in Calcutta, received a letter from Mrs Duggen saying that she was planning to leave for Australia and would be selling her cottage; should the captain be interested, he could buy it off her. She gave him the address of the hotel where she was staying. So it came to pass that a deal was struck and Captain Mendonca became the new owner of Mrs Duggen’s house. Mrs Duggen went off to Australia and married a second time, but this marriage, like the first, ended in the death of her second husband as well. She returned to McCluskieganj and, at Captain Mendonca’s insistence, spent her last years in what was her own home earlier. Captain Mendonca used to visit the place occasionally. However, a few years before retirement, his life was totally devastated by the death of his wife. His son Glad, who was in the navy, was now married and lived in his family house in Goa. Captain Mendonca, despite his son and daughter-in-law’s desire that he should live with them, decided otherwise. He wrote off the property in Goa in favour of his son, and told him that he had always valued his independence. As a result, he ultimately went and settled in McCluskieganj.
The two families whom Captain Mendonca was particularly close to were Mrs Thripthorpe’s and Mr Holland’s. He looked after Mrs Thripthorpe whenever she fell sick, which was often enough. Taking her to Ranchi for treatment, paying for her medical expenses, all these he did very lovingly. Mrs Thripthorpe was extremely fond of him and had expressed a desire before both her daughter Judy and him that she would die in peace if the two got married.
Captain Mendonca was not at all averse to the idea, but Judy had her reservations. Her concern was chiefly her growing sons. Yet, slowly with time, Judy’s stand softened, particularly after the death of her mother, and so when the last time Clement Mendonca brought up the subject again, she relented and the decision was clinched over a cup of tea.
As a result of this alliance, McCluskieganj was getting ready with confetti and rice for Captain Mendonca and Judy’s holy matrimony. After much deliberation, Mr Mendez laughed and thought, what shall I give these oldies as a present? A pair of cauliflowers maybe?, he smirked. Mr Gibson has decided to ask Parvati to deck Munni with artistic designs so that the couple could mount the she-elephant and be taken to the church. Mr Miller had got a silver jewellery set for Judy and a beautiful tie for Clement Mendonca. Dennis had bought a gold necklace for Judy and a suit-piece for the groom. Mrs Tomalin got a pair of beautiful gold-dial watches for the two and said, ‘If only Mrs Thripthorpe had been alive today—how happy we would have been.’