’ The old man got quiet for a bit. ‘Don’t really remember a lot about Ma, she died of the fever when I was ten. What I remember most was she alw...ys smelled of fresh baked bread and apple butter, and she always had the time to give me a hug and a kiss. After she passed it was just me and Jolly tryin to make a living on the damned ranch. His real name was Jerrod Rollins but everyone called him Jolly because he was always smilin, laughin, and playin jokes on you. He never laughed and seldom smiled. Juwanna would bitch me out in the morning, but I was in a hurry tonight. One of her bottles of cream now had enough red food coloring added to it that it looked like blood. Unfortunately, I had spilled a little in the sink while I was mixing it. Then I poured it back into the bottle, grabbed a few more things, and hurried back. I hoped to finish my “interrogations” in time to clean up my mess before Juwanna found it, but I doubted it.“Let me start with the big man,” I told Sylvia once I was. And I thought that after marriage, things would be better.”Usha fought back a tear and continued, ”And yet things have not improved after even six months. Vivek has never come to Bangalore to meet me. He is my husband, and yet we only talk on the phone and fight. Why is he ignoring me. I want to feel loved. Is that too much to ask from your spouse?”I was taken aback. I did not know that Vivek had never visited his wife. I did not snoop into such details as I had felt it would be rude and. Several of them were smiling and nodding. How could this be? Hard working people like himself struggled and idiots flourished. He had wasted his life studying computers. He never went to a party, never went out drinking and had never even known the pleasure of a woman. In this moment of weakness he found himself desiring what he never thought he would. He wanted to be stupid he wanted to let go of everything he had learned. He wanted to be like everyone else. But how? A group of unruly drunk.