“No, I mean come in,” I said, waving them toward me. I think they were still a little unsure about how to be around me, but I’d never felt so sure about wanting to be around them. Something had shifted—I still hadn’t told them about the bruising, but I’d agreed to see Dr. Hoang more frequently and was working through things with her first. And though Priam and Vicki were still mostly overwhelming and basically the opposite to my natural way of being, I could see how much they loved my parents and me. How they were my family—a way to be with my parents even though they were both gone.

I was seated on my bed, computer on my lap. Priam and Vicki sat on the end of the bed, shared a brief glance, then faced me.

Looks serious, I thought, and closed my laptop. “What’s up?” I asked.

Vicki started. “Daya, we—Priam and I—were thinking of visiting your parents today. It’s been a while, and we wanted to ask you if you’d like to come along.”

“We’ll understand if you don’t feel up to it, though, of course,” Priam added, his hand darting out toward me. His eyes flicked toward Vicki’s, worried.

My heart sank into my stomach, heavy with a mixture of feelings. I hadn’t been to my parents’ graves yet, except for the funeral. And even then, I’d been there only in body, not really in mind or spirit. That old feeling of guilt crept up, alongside uncertainty about how it would feel to visit them now. But on top of those feelings was a deep yearning to see them and a warmth for these two people in front of me who knew how much I missed both my parents, because they missed them too.

“I think… I want to go.”

Priam and Vicki had, apparently, formed a little ritual of their own when they visited my parents’ graves. Priam would play the mandolin and they would both sing a few songs.

My first thought was that rolling over in his grave didn’t even begin to cover what my dad was probably doing as they played, but then I remembered how much I hadn’t known about both my mum and dad until Vicki and Priam told me, and I decided to believe that Thatha was singing along or playing the piano wherever he was.