My heart tore when he looked away. “Oh, no. It . . . It’s just that if Mummy finds out about us and stops me from visiting . . . please understand.” My throat was all dry and I could barely finish the sentence.

“Of course,” he said, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer. I put my head on his shoulder.

For a short time the fear that had prowled through my head abated.

After lunch, while we were strolling, we gathered and washed tiny green mangoes that had fallen from the tree. We ate them after dipping them in salt and red pepper that Sarina had brought. Some were so sour they turned my mouth inside out.

“Here’s the parrot’s nest,” Neel said, when we were under the canopy of a tree. I looked up in the branches but didn’t see a nest anywhere.

“Where?”

“It’s right there,” Sarina said, pointing.

I looked way up to the top and still couldn’t see a thing.

Neel took my face in his hands and moved it down. “It’s right on the trunk. See the hole there?”

I saw the nest—and I felt his hands on my cheeks for the rest of the day.

twelve

IN THE HEAT OF APRIL and May, Matheran was crowded, but not in early February. While Mohini was gone, I wondered if she was getting to know Anoop better. I wondered if she was happy with him, if she had any regrets about marrying him so quickly.

When they returned I wanted to talk to her, but there was no time since Anoop was leaving in three days and stayed as attached to Mohini as if he were one end of her sari.

I wanted to enjoy a few more days with her, talk to her, and maybe tell her about Neel, so I was glad Mohini’s visa hadn’t come and she couldn’t go with Anoop right away.

The day after Anoop left for America, Mohini and I were alone in the house listening to a tape that Anoop had given her. We tried to listen to the words, but all we could hear was loud music.

“I don’t understand a word of it,” Mohini said, turning the tape off.

From one of our neighbors’ radios, Lata’s voice floated, “Koo hoo, koo hoo, bole koyal-ia?” When the song was over, I said, “Tell me all about Anoop.”

She glanced at me. There was something in her eyes that made me shiver. It was the same look she had when Mummy had shouted at us when we were little and we huddled together trying to comfort each other.

“What?” I asked, squeezing her hand.