Every day Yamini, Janki, Sarina, and I ate lunch together. Even though Sarina became friends with Yamini, Janki, and a couple of other girls more quickly than anyone I’d known, I was her closest friend.

Soon after school opened, the monsoon season arrived and washed away the dirt and filth from everything—our windowsills, the road signs and signals, the buses, the leaves on the trees—and dumped it all on the streets, where it tried to flow into the backed-up rain gutters.

It was at the end of June, three weeks after school had started, when Sarina invited me to her house. I was excited and curious to meet her parents, but I was also nervous. What if her father, the judge, asked me a question I couldn’t answer? If he was as smart as Sarina, then he’d be plenty smart for me. I didn’t want to make a bad impression.

One Saturday, after our half day of school, I went home with Sarina. She lived on a side street off Marine Drive, by the ocean. Unlike the dark interior courtyard of our apartment building, her courtyard was open, with tall palm trees and potted flowers. A guard in a khaki uniform and matching cap sat on a wooden stool at the gate. He stood up and opened the gate for us.

The elevator man took us to the fifth floor. When a servant opened the door, the light coming from the big lobby jolted me. The blue of the Arabian Sea was deep, mysterious, and inviting. My heart pounded. I had no idea that Sarina lived in such a fine place. She never gave me any hint, but knowing that her father was on the high court, I should have guessed as much.

“Mummy, come and meet Jeeta,” Sarina said, poking her head into the hallway.

When Sarina’s mummy, dressed in a papaya-colored sari, came out, I got another shock. Her skin was the color of cloves, even darker than mine.

“Come in, come in,” she said, putting her arm around me. “Sarina’s told me so much about you. I’ve wanted to meet you since the first day of school.”

I had no idea what to say to her, and stood there stupidly digging my toes into the lime green and coffee-colored silk rug.

“It’s almost one-thirry. You two must be hungry. Go wash up and then we’ll eat.”

The sink was right by the dining table, and as I lathered my hands with soap, I tried to gather myself together. The judge was not home. That helped.