Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins

Author:Mitali Perkins [Perkins, Mitali]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-375-89187-8
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

LATE-AFTERNOON SUNLIGHT WAS FLOODING THE ROOF, WARMING Asha’s skin. She drank in the solitude and calm and stretched her legs out, pretending she was one of the lizards basking in the last sunshine. Inside, these tik- tiki darted into dark corners at the first sign of a human being. Up here, though, they didn’t seem to mind her company.

It was September, and Calcutta was on the brink of cooler harvest days and festivals; the monsoon would be leaving before she did. It was perfect cricket weather; maybe Raj wanted to practice in the garden until it got dark. Where was he, anyway? Probably lying low to avoid another lecture about his poor study habits. Or maybe he was keeping an eye out for that girl who paraded past the house every day, hips swishing under her salwar kameez as though she knew Raj was watching.

The cousins could use a practice session of cards, too, even though they were getting better at twenty- nine. The other night, Asha and Raj had actually won a round against his parents for the first time. The whole family, including Uncle and Auntie, had cheered loudly-except Ma, who stayed cloistered in her tiny room. Afterward, as Sita and Suma pummeled Asha with pillows and then ran squealing through the house, Asha had felt a strange sensation of timelessness, as though she’d been living in this ancestral home forever. Their time in Delhi, with Kavita, Bishop Academy, and Baba, which had ended months earlier, felt like a dream.

Asha turned to scrutinize Jay’s house. He’d been missing for three weeks, the shutters of his window closed tightly, and she hadn’t glimpsed him inside or outside the house. She hadn’t gathered the courage to ask anybody about him, either, although she’d been tempted to offer the sweeper who worked for both of their houses a rupee in exchange for information.

As though the intensity of her desire had summoned him, the window across the way flew open. Jay’s face, haggard and sporting a beard, grinned at her as though he’d just seen her the day before. “Osh!” he called triumphantly. “I’m done!”

“Shhh. Someone will hear you. Where have you been?”

“Here. Inside. Painting. And I’m finished.”

“You’ve been painting all this time? I thought you’d gone somewhere.”

“I’ve been living down in the servants’ quarters finishing up the portrait. I didn’t want to be distracted, Osh. I knew if you were out here, I’d want to talk to you instead of paint, so I made myself move to the other side of the house.”

“You could have told me.”

“I’m sorry, I should have, but I was in the thick of it then. Possessed by the painting. I wasn’t thinking of anything else.”

“Not even me?” She spoke the words without thinking about how brash they might sound.

He smiled. “Not even you. I’ve sent it off posthaste to a gallery in Delhi.”

“ What? I didn’t even get a peek, Jay.”

“How could you, Osh? You’d have had to come over here, and you know that’s impossible.”

“You could have held it up to the window.

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