The Reading List(61)
Then, through the silence, Aidan’s car pulled up, music playing more softly than usual through his stereo, and he called out through the window: ‘Get in, you two.’
No matter how much she’d been dreading this evening, her heart was a hollow pit. She’d wanted to be the carefree teenager who was a binge-drinking liability for once. Instead, she’d been the sensible one, doing the right thing, looking after others. Nothing had changed.
Chapter 20
MUKESH
BEEP. ‘HI PAPA, IT’S Rohini, thank you so much for looking after Priya.’ ‘Yes, thank you, Dada!’ ‘She said she had a really great time in London with you. I hope you were careful. For your sake, more than anything.’
BEEP. ‘Hi Dad, it’s Vritti. Sorry for ringing earlier than usual – I’ve just got off the phone to Rohini. Would you like to come round next week for lunch or something? I can pick you up so you don’t need to get the train. Would really love to see you!’
BEEP. ‘Hi Mr P, it’s Aleisha. Sorry for calling, it’s so quiet at the library here today, so I thought I’d check in on how you were getting on with Life of Pi. I’ve got another book for you when you’re ready. Anyway, I’ll maybe call again later.’
Call again later? Mukesh felt an unexpected panic rise to his throat. He hadn’t spoken to Aleisha on the phone before. What would they talk about? He hadn’t checked his messages this morning because Nilakshi had popped round early to spend the day with him, so Aleisha was bound to call any moment now and he’d barely prepared!
‘Who was that on the answer machine?’ Nilakshi asked from the living room, sitting in her usual spot. (Yes, she had a usual spot now …) Her eyes were trained on a Hindi soap opera on Zee TV.
‘Oh,’ Mukesh said. ‘Just – erm – my librarian.’ He wondered if that was the right way to describe her.
‘Ah! That nice girl,’ she said, not taking her eyes off the television for a minute. ‘You’ve told me so much about her – she sounds like she’s read a ton of books. Naina would have loved that job, wouldn’t she?’
‘She would,’ Mukesh said, his legs shaking a little as he settled himself back down in his chair. He just had a few pages left of Life of Pi so he put on his noise-cancelling headphones (Nilakshi had brought them for him; they were her husband’s) to block out the deafeningly loud music and chatter from the Zee TV programme, and dived straight back in. Zee TV was now the most-watched TV channel in his house – he was strangely pleased about it. It had replaced Netflix and the refrain of David Attenborough on the National Geographic channel.
As he turned the final page of the book, leaving Pi and his unbelievable story behind, he kept his headphones on, hoping for a lasting moment of silence so he could gather his thoughts, not wanting the book to end but needing to know what Pi’s journey meant – was it real, was it imagined? This story had clutched him in the heart and mind – it had been a long, arduous journey for Pi, but an awe-inspiring, revelatory one for Mukesh.
Then, he spotted Nilakshi out of the corner of his eye, breaking his pondering. She was shuffling off the sofa and heading into the hallway.
A moment later, she was back, mouthing something at him, but he couldn’t hear a word she was saying. She was waving the phone in front of his face.
‘What is it?’ Mukesh said, pulling the headphones to rest around his neck.
‘For you! The librarian!’
‘Ah,’ Mukesh said, his heart rate picking up once more. Nilakshi had answered his phone, but what if it had been one of his daughters? He grabbed the receiver, held his hand over the mouthpiece, and moved quickly out of the room and into his bedroom next door.
‘Hello?’ he said.
‘Mr Patel! Mr P! Sorry, I hope I’m not disturbing you at home. It’s as rammed as Manderley here today. I like the silence but time’s dragging a bit. Who was that anyway?’
‘Who was who?’
‘The woman who answered the phone.’
Mukesh took a deep breath for a moment. ‘My … erm … I have a … it was my daughter, she sometimes answers the phone for me. I was reading, you see.’
‘Life of Pi? Have you finished yet?’
‘Just now!’ Mukesh said, pleased she didn’t pry further. He could feel the guilt creeping over him. Guilt about the lie; guilt about why he was lying too.
He imagined Aleisha sitting at her desk, watching over the library. He wondered who was there today. Was the other elderly gentleman there, the one who liked to help himself to a cup of machine-made coffee and sit by the window, with a newspaper on his lap? Or maybe Chris, delving into another crime thriller? Or perhaps it was the book club – he’d never actually seen the book-clubbers, so far, but he imagined what they might be like – big glasses, huge carrier bags full of books, neat clothes.
‘So what did you think?’
‘Hmm?’ Mukesh said, his mind still on the library.
‘Of the book!’
‘Oh, yes, silly me! It’s wonderful,’ Mukesh said. ‘It’s unbelieveable – I can’t imagine it could ever really happen. How Pi lost everything on a sunken ship yet survived on a lifeboat with tigers and monkeys and hyenas for two hundred days!’