Karthik Delivers by Sheela Chari

Author:Sheela Chari
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

“No groceries to buy!” Dad repeats angrily. He drops the flyer back on the ground. Mom would be furious. She’s big on recycling.

“Maybe we should put up flyers, too,” I say. It’s been empty in the store. I’m sure he’s noticed, and it seems like we have to do something. I feel a twinge of worry mixed with something else . . . guilt. I’ve been so distracted by the play and rehearsing that I haven’t been thinking about the store. I’m even forgetting a few things when I pack the deliveries. Yesterday I forgot Mrs. Rodrigues’s mangos. When I got to her place, she looked inside the empty bag and started laughing. But it’s not just that. I’m forgetting my lists, too. Like the forty-fifth flavor of ice cream at Carmine’s? I can’t remember! The lines from the play are taking up all the room in my brain.

My dad is still glaring. “We don’t need a flyer. We’ve been here for ten years. Everyone knows who we are.”

I try to think of something to make him feel better. “Everyone needs groceries, Dad.”

“That’s right. How can you make anything in five minutes? It’s a lie. It must be a sales ploy.”

A minute later, we pass by House of Chaat, which seems, sales ploy or not, full of customers. In fact, some of them are our own customers, people who used to shop at our store. We pretend not to notice them. We pretend we have more important things to talk about, like hard work, or winning the lottery, or who’s going to win the next World Cup in cricket.

Meanwhile, Dad’s prediction seems to be coming true—the restaurant is drawing away our customers. The ones who want to eat things packed in Styrofoam, who don’t want to cook unless it’s done in five minutes, who might possibly not believe in hard work or the universe, or any of the other things my dad has held dear for so long. And Juhi’s family? They’re the Sharks or the Jets, or I don’t know what. But one thing’s for sure, they’re the enemy.

“I knew about this,” I whisper under my breath so my dad doesn’t hear. The line is the only thing that makes me feel like the world is waiting for me.

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