The sound of language: a novel by Amulya Malladi

Author:Amulya Malladi
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780345483164
Publisher: New York : Ballantine Books, c2008.
Published: 2008-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

The entire paragraph made little sense to Raihana; not only was the Danish difficult, but the whole bee dancing business was confusing. Christina had explained with diagrams the previous week and now Raihana felt she knew all there was to know about the subject.

"What does she mean about dancing bees?" Maria asked.

Gunnar grinned, obviously proud of his pupil. "Bees talk to one another by dancing," he told Maria. "Anna wrote quite a lot about it in her book. Maybe when Raihana is done with it, you can read it."

It was the first time he had said Raihana's name aloud and Raihana's eyes shot up. For the longest time she thought he didn't know her name and the fact was she still thought of him as the Danish man, not Gunnar.

Maria didn't answer her father-in-law and watched Raihana with curiosity as Raihana looked for the second queen bee in the tenth colony.

Raihana was startled at how much she had learned in the past few weeks. Maybe she could get a job as a beekeeper? Could she find such a job? She would ask Christina the next time she saw her in school.

It was almost time for her to leave when Johanna and Brian woke up. Raihana couldn't imagine how these two little angels had come out of that suspicious, angry woman.

"Jeg hedder Brian," the blond, blue-eyed boy said. "Hvad hedder du?"

"Raihana," she said and kneeled down in front of him.

"You are the Muslim girl, you are darker than us," Johanna said and cleared her throat because her mother shushed her. "I wish I had skin like yours," she added and then giggled.

At the end of the day, right before Raihana was about to go home, Maria stopped her. They were alone outside, and Raihana was holding on to her bicycle for dear life.

"I am sorry about Anna's book," she said.

Raihana didn't say anything.

"I miss my mother-in-law and that's why I was so angry," she added. "You can keep the book."

Raihana didn't thank her. She knew the book wasn't Maria's to give.

"Why don't you wear a scarf like other Muslim women?" Maria asked.

This question Raihana did understand. Many people had asked her that. Some of them had been curious; others, like Maria, were suspicious.

"Why you ask?"

"Because I want to know," Maria said.

"How matter it? I same woman under scarf or hair," Raihana said.

Maria seemed staggered by that response. The two women looked at each other for a moment and then Raihana left, smiling at her victory.

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.