We rolled into Poona about an hour later. We still had to cross most of the city before we reached Koregaon Park, where Sushmita’s house was located. That was the rather hip part of town, with gorgeous bungalows, cafés, and restaurants. The rain had stopped, and there were lots of people about. I noticed several Westerners in robes and sandals perusing the roadside stands for souvenirs.

“Who are those gore in the maroon robes?” I asked as we cruised east along North Main Road.

“Followers of Rajneesh,” she said.

“Is that the ashram I’ve heard about? The free love?”

“Of course a naughty boy like you knows about the Poona Ashram.”

“I try to be well informed. You don’t approve of the meditation center? Super-consciousness?”

“That place makes us look like randy heathens, dropping our robes at the first invitation to fornicate with foreigners.”

“I’d pegged you for more progressive than that,” I teased, well aware that I was a foreigner who’d fornicated with her. I willed myself not to think of Willy, also a foreigner who’d …

“I’m a Hindu,” she said. “Perhaps not a good one. But I don’t believe orgies are some kind of spiritual tourism.”

She turned right into one of the lanes off North Main and continued past several ancient banyan trees, whose characteristic prop roots grew down to the ground from above. Through the window, I watched the sleepy city pass by: grand old homes, surrounded by stone walls.

Then, without any warning, Sushmita pulled up to the gate of a large bungalow, sitting on green grass behind a high stone wall. She sounded the horn.

“This is it,” she said. “Stay calm and remember what a poor excuse for a tire man you are.”

“Sush, wait,” I said. She looked over at me as a man in a brown uniform and cap rushed toward us from within the compound. He saluted smartly, then wrestled open the gate.

“Yes, Danny?”

“Never mind,” I said, afraid to tell her how I felt about her.

She must have understood my turmoil, because she reached for my hand, well out of sight from the guard. He held one half of the open gate as he waited for us to enter. She gave me a little squeeze, let go, then shifted into first and released the clutch. The Mercedes inched forward into the compound, and the guard closed the gate behind us.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Willy strode out of the house to greet us, his large teeth shining from his broad smile.

“Thank goodness,” he said. “I was afraid you’d had an accident in the ghats. We were expecting you last night.”

He kissed Sushmita on the cheek and reached out to shake my hand warmly.

“We had a puncture at the bottom of the ghats,” said Sushmita. “It was pouring rain.”

“I changed the tire,” I blurted out. “That is, we changed it together.”