Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani

Author:Kavita Daswani [Daswani, Kavita]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, People & Places, United States, Other, Social Issues, Adolescence, New Experience
ISBN: 0061673110
Google: -DZ-rksN92sC
Amazon: B00C01RJZQ
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: 2012-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

AS I WALKED THROUGH THE DOOR after school, my father was just ending a phone conversation with Dr. Gupta. He had scheduled another appointment. The doctor wanted to see how my mother was responding to the new medication.

“She thinks your mother needs therapy,” my father said, rubbing his forehead. It was hard for him to get the words out. In his mind they symbolized family dysfunction, some great failure on his part to make his wife happy.

“Will she go?” I asked. The house was otherwise quiet. Sangita was with Amy at a swim meet.

“It will take a lot of convincing. It’s hard enough to get her to see Dr. Gupta.”

A few days later, I accompanied them back to the doctor’s office. After half an hour, my father came out.

“There is nothing physically wrong with her, thank the Lord. The results of all her tests are normal.” There had been a CBC, a thyroid function check, something else to determine the health of the kidneys and liver, tests to determine calcium and magnesium deficiencies. My mother had always been a strong, healthy woman. I hated that she was being treated like an invalid, that I knew the difference between Zoloft and Lexapro.

“So what then, Papa?” I asked.

“It’s all in her head,” he said a little uncharitably.

My mother stayed with the doctor for another twenty minutes or so. When she came out, she looked a little more relaxed. She sat down next to me, and my father went back in to speak with the doctor. When he was done, we all walked in silence to the car.

My mother fell asleep in the car on the way home. We had stopped at a red light. My father turned toward me, casting a quick eye toward my mother in the back to make sure she was fully asleep.

“Dr. Gupta has had some experience with these things,” my father said. “She runs a support group for women from the subcontinent who have different problems. Marriage issues. Abuse. Whatever. It is more common than you know. They meet once every two weeks, there in her office. Women from our country. Women like your mother. The doctor thinks that maybe Asha will feel a kinship with some of the other women who come there. Perhaps someone who knows what she is going through. She thinks there is a good chance there will be progress.”

I thought for a moment about what my father was saying. In the end, maybe my mother needed a bit of what I’d found recently: a place to fit in, with people she could relate to. It wouldn’t hurt to try.

The light turned green. We sped home.

Charlie and I stood outside the library after our study hour, our sixth together.

“You’ve really helped me,” he said. “You explained it in a way I could understand.” The sun’s rays glinted off the silver studs on a black wrist cuff he always wore, and his usually gel-spiked hair looked tamer today.

“So I’m good,” he said. “I mean, I don’t want to take up any more of your time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.