The Reading List(26)
‘He’ll love it. You said loads of cool things to me about it.’
Aleisha felt her face go warm, feeling as if she’d been put on the spot. Besides know-it-all Kyle and Dev, her brother was the only other person she knew who understood books. ‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah. But I’m not gonna lie, when I saw you fast asleep with it in your hands, I literally thought it had bored you to sleep.’
Aleisha rolled her eyes at him, and punched him lightly on the arm, ‘Shut up. I can actually concentrate on things. Remember, I’m the one who gets the good grades.’
‘What have you been waiting for then?’
‘You!’ Aleisha grabbed her bag and ran out.
‘It’s like a scene from Love, Actually or something,’ Aidan shouted down the road, while Leilah’s voice travelled outside the front door. ‘Aidan, love, please come help me with this!’
Aleisha returned his comment with a middle finger.
THE READING LIST
INDIRA
2017
INDIRA WAS LATE FOR today’s satsaang because Dial-a-Ride had mixed up her booking. When she arrived at the mandir, she was flustered and panicked. She knew that Naina was leading the satsaang today, though she hadn’t been able to for a very long time because of her treatment, and she’d promised Naina she’d be there. She wanted to see her, to support her. She prayed for Naina every day. They weren’t particularly close friends, Indira wasn’t particularly close friends with anyone, but Naina was there for everyone, and Indira firmly believed in repaying those favours when people needed it most.
Of all the days to be late, it had to be today, didn’t it?
Indira sat on the chairs by the shoe racks, and slipped off her chappal, strapped tightly with Velcro. She left her socks on, though her doctor recommended she tread carefully. ‘If you have to, walk barefoot, as it’s much better for you, Ms Patel. Much less slippy.’ Indira never liked listening to the doctor anyway.
She placed her shoes carefully in a plastic bag and selected her favourite shoe shelf. Number 89, in Shoe Rack D. It was a ritual. Sometimes when there was a school trip, the rack would be taken, but everyone else knew that was Indira’s spot.
She checked the shelf for other shoes – nothing in sight but a crumpled bit of paper pushed towards the back. Indira pulled it out, and, because she was a curious type, she unfolded it to see if she might be able to return it to the original owner, or the litterer. (Who would dare litter in her shoe spot?!)
Just in case you need it:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Rebecca
The Kite Runner
Life of Pi
Pride and Prejudice
Little Women
Beloved
A Suitable Boy
Indira furrowed her brow. What was this? Some kind of list, written in neat English handwriting she didn’t recognize. With this as the only evidence, it’d be impossible to name and shame the litterer.
Her eyes flew to the clock. It was already five past two, and she hadn’t got to the hall yet! She knew she should put the piece of paper in the bin, be the responsible one, but it was a bit of a walk away and in completely the wrong direction. To save herself time, and because there was some niggling thought at the back of her mind that ‘Just in case you need it’ was a message to someone, maybe even a message to her, she folded it up neatly and popped it into her mandir plastic bag with Swami Bapa’s face staring up at her, safe and sound.
She spotted Naina’s husband Mukesh peering through one of the windows of the wooden doors, which separated the main hallway from the hall itself.
‘Eh, what are you looking at? This is ladies only! Shoo!’ Indira joked.
‘Kemcho, Indiraben. I’m just watching, making sure she is okay. I promised I would stay.’ His voice was shaking slightly, his eyes were red, tired.
‘You’ll do your back in peering like that!’
‘Indiraben, you understand. Look,’ he gestured into the hall and Indira’s gaze followed, her elbows resting on her mandir-branded Zimmer frame. ‘I must look after her.’
Naina looked so different. Her hair, usually jet black and plaited, was today covered completely by an old sari that didn’t match the rest of her outfit. That was very unlike Naina, but Indira didn’t say anything to Mukesh. He was watching his wife so intently, as though, if he were to look away, she might disappear entirely.
Naina’s face was shrunken, but her expression was the same as always – vibrant, animated. Indira could sense a heaviness in Naina’s eyelids, even from here, but her arms were gesticulating in time with the music and her mouth was open wide: she was putting all her energy into the song. Perhaps this song was giving her life right back. The women, seated in chairs or on the floor, were all clapping in time, their saris and Punjabi dresses a sea of colour.
If it wasn’t for Naina’s shrunken stature, a stoop in her shoulders that Indira had never noticed before, her slender face, the scarf over her head, Indira would have never believed that Naina had cancer. But there were all those things, clear to see, and Indira wondered why God had chosen her. Why Naina? Naina had a family. Loved ones. Indira – Indira was as healthy as anything, and she barely had a soul left to love her.
‘I must go in,’ Indira said to Mukesh, who nodded, his mouth turned downward. He held the door open for her as she wheeled herself in.