While she dialed I looked through her album one more time. All those places, filled with flowers and sunshine, looked like they belonged only in paintings.

“We just missed him. Isn’t that terrible?” she said, hanging up the phone.

That day I had met Sarina’s mummy, and that was enough. I had no idea what her cousin was like, but I was relieved we had missed him.

When I got home, I wanted to tell Mummy all about Sarina, but I couldn’t. It was a big day at the temple and Mummy wanted to be there. While Mohini and I made dinner that evening, I talked about my afternoon with Sarina.

“I wish we had a cook like hers, then we wouldn’t have to work in the kitchen,” Mohini said.

“Cooking isn’t so bad. I wish we could travel like her.”

“What’s wrong with Mumbai?”

“Oh, Mohini, you should’ve seen the pictures of her other family in America. It looked so different from anything we could ever imagine. A bird called a cardinal was the color of red oleander, and the grass looked like someone had spread a green sari on the ground. And her two sisters had hair the color of a lion’s mane.”

“Her sisters? I wouldn’t want to call some strange girls my sisters, would you? That’s not her real family. Are they from her caste or Gujarati or even Indian? How could she make them her sisters?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled.

That night I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept turning from my left side to my right side and then back to my left. I turned over on my stomach until I had a stomachache. Then I flipped on my back, staring at the whirling dark blades of the fan until I was going round and round with it.

I closed my eyes and thought about Sarina and Mrs. Judge. I liked both of them a lot. They lived so differently than we did, not just with the big apartment and all that, but in their thinking and in their actions. I searched my memory, but failed to remember Mummy ever taking time to talk to one of my friends. How could a friend of mine have anything important to say to her? Mrs. Judge wasn’t just friendly. I saw kindness in her eyes and concern in her voice when she heard about Nimita. I knew that as soon as she heard of any cure for Nimita and Vivek’s eye condition she would tell me.

And Sarina! She believed in me. She thought I could go far away to study or work or travel. I liked the way she made me feel. It was as if I had powers—powers to do what I wanted to do, be what I wanted to be.

seven