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Back Hunger of the Pine
Chapters (42)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. PART ONE MONODY
  4. CHAPTER 1
  5. CHAPTER 2
  6. CHAPTER 3
  7. CHAPTER 4
  8. CHAPTER 5
  9. CHAPTER 6
  10. CHAPTER 7
  11. CHAPTER 8
  12. CHAPTER 9
  13. PART TWO FUGUE CONCERTO
  14. CHAPTER 10
  15. CHAPTER 11
  16. CHAPTER 12
  17. CHAPTER 13
  18. CHAPTER 14
  19. CHAPTER 15
  20. CHAPTER 16
  21. CHAPTER 17
  22. CHAPTER 18
  23. PART THREE SONATA APPASSIONATA
  24. CHAPTER 19
  25. CHAPTER 20
  26. CHAPTER 21
  27. CHAPTER 22
  28. CHAPTER 23
  29. CHAPTER 24
  30. CHAPTER 25
  31. CHAPTER 26
  32. CHAPTER 27
  33. PART FOUR CODA
  34. CHAPTER 28
  35. CHAPTER 29
  36. CHAPTER 30
  37. CHAPTER 31
  38. CHAPTER 32
  39. CHAPTER 33
  40. CHAPTER 34
  41. CHAPTER 35
  42. CHAPTER 36

Taylor, who usually had an easy time sleeping despite any kind of disruption, could barely sleep that night from excitement. He tossed and turned, unable to stop his mind from running down the corridors of what good things might happen because of his sudden positive twist of fate. Aria, on the other hand, was not kept awake by the same ambition. She fell asleep with her hands cramped tight around the reassuring shape of the beaver statue that Robert had given her. The sudden threat of being left behind by Taylor had caused her to want a home now more than ever.

PART THREE SONATA APPASSIONATA

PART THREE

SONATA
APPASSIONATA

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 19

The way the light filtered into the giant hallway made the marble flooring look like it was covered in glass. The gloss of it hurt Omkar’s eyes as he walked down the hall. Students sat around the round tables that were scattered to either side, their heavy textbooks stacked beside them. No one looked particularly excited. Each student seemed to be absorbed in the drudgery of what they had to get done in order to attain their chosen degree.

Omkar joined them. He sat down at a table with two other students. Only one of them looked up to acknowledge his presence. He thumbed through the polished pages of a calculus textbook until he found the pages that corresponded to the professor’s daily assignment and began resolving equations with his mechanical pencil.

Omkar was in his second year at college. He had chosen to major in civil engineering. Even though he didn’t know it yet, his choice of major had been determined the year he was born.

Omkar wasn’t always an only child. He used to have two older siblings. His parents had not been planning to have another child and so Omkar had been totally unexpected. They had a son, Ajit, who was 20, and a daughter, Shashi, who was 16. Ajit had recently moved from where they lived in Chandigarh to Bhuj in the state of Gujarat to work for a textile export company. As fate would have it, Shashi had gone to visit Ajit, accompanied by her aunt, for Republic Day. But that day, an earthquake hit that turned out to be one of the deadliest earthquakes in the history of India. The earthquake destroyed 400,000 homes. Twenty thousand people died that day. Omkar’s brother, sister and aunt were among them.