Every night we put mattresses on the floor and spread white cotton sheets on top. There were two mattresses for Mummy, Mohini, and me; and Mohini and I rotated sleeping in the middle. Since Nimita couldn’t see well at night, she got her own mattress and a nice corner to sleep in. Chiraj and Vivek slept on two single beds. After Nimita got married, Mummy slept in Nimita’s corner and Mohini and I got our own mattresses, which made Mohini and me happy. No more sleeping on the crack!

“Let’s go out on the balcony,” Sarina said.

I followed.

From the balcony I could almost touch one of the palm trees. Looking up, I saw small coconuts hanging down like a bunch of green balloons. The sun sieved through the fingers of the palm fronds. Sarina’s room didn’t face the ocean, but from the left side of the balcony I could see a sliver of it. It didn’t matter. The breeze fluttered the scent of the ocean to us.

“Only yesterday, after the first rain of the monsoon, did we turn off the air-conditioning. It feels good to open up all the windows and doors and smell the earth, doesn’t it?”

“We don’t have AC,” I said, holding the horizon with my eyes.

She put her hand on my shoulder. “In Mumbai you really don’t need it anyway. It never gets that hot here. For a few years, we were in New Delhi and it got so hot there that I wished I were a water buffalo sitting in a muddy pond. If you ever live there, make sure you have one.”

“A pond or a buffalo?”

She laughed. “No. I meant an air conditioner.”

“Oh!” I said. “We’re not rich. We only have one apartment in Mumbai. I could never imagine having a place in two cities. You know, I’ve never lived anywhere but Mumbai and I don’t think I ever will.”

“Why not? We’re not rich either. We get this apartment to live in because Pappa is a judge. In Delhi we also had a nice place to live, but we didn’t own that place either. In fact, Pappa jokes that someday before he retires we’ll have to find a place of our own to live in. Mummy and Pappa say that they never imagined they’d live in such a fancy place. So you see, you never know. You might live in Delhi or somewhere else.”

“You mean, get married to someone who’s not from Mumbai?”

“Get married! I wasn’t thinking about that. What if you go somewhere to study or work?”

I stared at her.