The Pathless Sky by Chaitali Sen

Author:Chaitali Sen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 2015-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

In Alexandria, the foliage was varied and everywhere in late summer there were window boxes overflowing with flowers. John lived in an elegant building on a boulevard lined with imported ginkgo trees, their branches lush with prehistoric, fan-shaped leaves unlike any leaves Mariam had seen before. They went on many walks through artful neighborhoods, and in the evenings they went up to his rooftop to look over the city of white domes and silver spires, miles of domes and spires until they faded into the sky. John pointed in a different direction each night, teaching her the geography of the city. To the south, on a clear day, they could see the river that tore the city in half and the jeweled bridges that mended it.

She met his parents and sisters at their house in Cypress Gardens. All she could say was that she had spent a weekend with them and survived. She survived his father’s kindness and his mother’s reserved manners, survived his older sister Sonya who was so enthralled with her ten-month-old son she hardly noticed Mariam, and she survived the baby, Nathan, whom John devoured every time he came near. Nathan was a fat and sweet baby and Mariam didn’t dare pay him too much attention. She even survived John’s sister Theresa, who was ten years younger, only seventeen, just starting her final year of high school. She was the most heartbroken by John’s sudden marriage, as if she had thought she was going to marry him herself.

When the weekend was finished and they were finally home, Mariam didn’t know what to say about his family. She missed her own mother and the restful tedium that comes from an unquestioned sense of belonging. As she wearily got ready for bed, John said, “Don’t let them intimidate you.” It was true, she had been intimidated, and she’d spent the whole weekend in a panic, terrified of him leaving her side.

“I’ll do better next time,” she promised.

“You did fine. That’s not what I meant.”

“I’ll get used to them.”

“And they’ll get used to you,” he said. “They’ll love you.”

She knew his family was unhappy about the marriage, but she also got the idea that it wasn’t completely unexpected for John to go away and come back with a wife. There were things about him they could not predict or understand, and they adored him for it.

Her next trial was a department party hosted by Nehemia and his wife, who lived in an apartment in the Jewish Quarter, one of the oldest parts of the city. The taxi got lost in the maze of dark streets and narrow cobblestone alleys barely wide enough for a car. Almost an hour late, they stopped in front of a stone building with a large mahogany door. The area was faintly lit with gas lamps and sconces. John tapped an iron doorknocker and the door was heaved open by an elderly doorman.

Mariam squinted into the deep yellow light saturating the mirrored lobby. They climbed a

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