Saira Zariwala Is Afraid by Shabnam Minwalla

Author:Shabnam Minwalla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: Harper Children's
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Tuesday night

The gloomy thoughts and phantoms scattered in the living room, with its warm colours and Los Lobos singing about love and the Tenampa river.

Háblame Río de Tenampa

Cántame canciones de valor

I hummed along while my mother talked about Tarik. ‘He’s actually gone for a party with Aditi,’ she crowed. ‘That girl is good for him. He hasn’t worn a single torn T-shirt in six whole days.’

En este rincón del cielo

Dejo mi cariño y amor

Torn T-shirts were a big topic in the Zariwala household. Almost as big as the villainies of Mrs Ranade and her sugar-salt-Rin-soap borrowing nurse.

After dinner, my father proposed that we watch Sherlock together. I microwaved a bag of popcorn and my mother assembled a dessert with the odds and ends in the fridge – chikki, salted almonds and vanilla ice cream. ‘After all, it is the first day of the holidays,’ she said. ‘Even if we aren’t travelling.’

I got into bed a couple of hours later and was sliding into a soft, velvety sleep when I remembered my promise to Priya Maami. I’d told her that I would send her Akaash’s messages. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’ I thought, but the promise sat heavy on my chest. So finally, I switched on the light, crawled out of bed and grabbed my phone from my desk. Quickly, I scrolled through my messages and began forwarding the relevant ones to Priya Maami.

A reminder from Body Beautiful Gym. Then a message from HDFC Bank and another from a dentist’s clinic about a missed appointment. I also forwarded the SkySpace reminder about the delayed website payment. Then, just when I thought I was done, I happened upon an ancient SMS. It had come ages ago, in those days when Akaash and his affairs held little interest for me.

The message said:

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