Episode Fifteen: Off to India

With all the changes in our lives, with fathers going and coming, you would think nothing can surprise me.

Then the day comes when Dad has a big announcement. I don’t remember how I hear the news, but it’s stunning.

Dad and Mary are going to live in India. Where is that on the globe? They haven’t taught India in my class.

By this time, Mom and John are married, and even though Dad keeps his emotional distance from us, I am crushed.

It gets worse.

For some reason, Dad and Mary harbor a preference for Tyler—go figure—and they want to take him with them to India for a year. My mother finally agrees but insists that they also take Jake so there will be an ally in the house for his brother. Eddie, now in college, is to go over for the summer. The trips feature the grand tour of Europe coming and going.

Out of six children, I am the only one who is not included in this adventure.

I want desperately to go, and don’t see why I can’t travel with Eddie and go for the summer. When I ask my mother, she says they know how to handle boys but not girls.

If I were to ask Mary, I’m pretty sure she’d say that my mother wouldn’t let me go.

Mary’s mother commits suicide on hearing the news. She walks from the house on MacArthur Blvd. past the reservoir to Key Bridge at the foot of Georgetown. She goes to the middle of the bridge, climbs over the railing and steps away from life. The quickly moving water parts to receive her, then closes as if she’s never been there. The pain of abandonment—and all the rest—is gone. Her body is not found for several days. It is many miles downstream. My father identifies her and brings her back for burial. The less said about her condition, the better.

For some reason, I think they were going to take Mary’s mother with them to India but hadn’t told her yet. I’ll never know if that is true.

The day finally comes when everyone but Eddie and I are leaving from the Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, opened in 1962. The flight leaves late at night. Mom, John, Jake, Tyler, and I drive over the Potomac from Cabin John and find the Dulles Access Road. It’s not long before it feels like we’re in an endless black tunnel.

The road is surrounded by fields and there are no lights, except those of one or two distant houses, nor are there any office buildings anywhere, not like today. Periodically, we see a glow of light in the distance and we lean forward, thinking it’s our first glimpse of the famously beautiful airport. Instead, two times we come around a curve to find a lone, lighted billboard.

When we finally do arrive, the airport is in chaos. There are many different people going to many different countries. Eventually, we get the boys’ luggage to the right place and find Dad, Mary, Mitchell, and David. We stand in an awkward cluster, buffeted by people surging around us in their search for the proper gates. Now that we’re here, I can’t wait for everyone to leave.

Their first stop will be Paris.

Finally, the plane begins to board. I get a quick squeeze from Dad and my brothers, and then they are gone. No emotions are visible, except perhaps mine.

We make our way back to Cabin John. The house is silent save for the barking of the dogs.

In 1960, India has a population of 450.5 million. New Delhi, where they will be living, has 2.3 million souls. That same year, Washington, D.C. has 763,956 residents, one-third the size of Delhi. The sheer number of people, the colors, the smells must be incredible.

Dad and Mary take an apartment in the American section of the city. It must be quickly apparent that on an American salary they can live like kings. There’s a cook, sweepers, bearers, a gardener, and a tailor who comes to the house to measure everyone for India-friendly clothes.

When Dad and Mary are back in Arlington, Mary tells a story of being invited to the ambassador’s residence for an outdoor brunch to meet the other wives. As she arrives, she notices men in the garden, beating the earth. This continues throughout the event and as she is leaving, Mary asks the hostess what they are doing.

“Oh, my dear. They are beating back the poisonous snakes so we could have a lovely outdoor meal!”