You lean back on the front glass wall of the lobby. Tahera begins pacing the length of the shelter, her jilbab swirling. But you have nothing to offer her, you know only what you need from her.

“Ammi, why do you say such things? Is my presence here no help to you? And am I not helping Seema already?”

“Promise me you’ll continue to help her after I’m gone.”

“Why do you only think about Seema, Ammi? You never think about me.”

One side of Tahera’s hijab and jilbab is wet from the sudden downpour curtaining the canopy, but she’s oblivious to it, merely dashing away the drops of water dripping down her face. The rain has become as vehement as in Chennai during the monsoons. You remember how Tahera would run up to the rooftop to catch the first shower every year, despite your admonitions, returning drenched and shivering but elated. You would wait with a towel and, if you’d made some that day, a hot glass of the peppery rasam she liked.

“Tahera, you know that’s not true. I think about you all the time. I worry about Seema—” If there is a question, it’s only which daughter you have failed more.

Fiaz’s car pulls up and he jumps out. “You’re getting wet, Aunty. Please get in.” He looks at you both, perplexed. Tahera’s standing at the other end of the steps, her face papery pale in the dark silhouette of her attire. “Tahera, you’re shivering. Why didn’t you wait inside?”

53

Fiaz texts that her mother and sister are with him in the car. Seema assumes this is to give her time alone with Leigh, who reports that she finally understands Seema’s reluctance to introduce her to her family.

“They’re both so intense. Like they have tempests bottled up inside them. Your mother was literally shaking after seeing the baby pictures. But I’m glad to have met them. And I’m so happy to see baby Ishraaq curled up inside you.”

Leigh’s previous resentment seems to have evaporated, and Seema is relieved. “Thank you, for being here today. The pelvic exam would have been an ordeal.”

Should she say it now? I can’t imagine going through the delivery without you! She wants them both there, Leigh and Tahera.

She pivots instead to the dinner party, thankful that her mother had insisted on it. “Just you and Fiaz. I thought, you know, a good opportunity—”

“No Divya?”

“Divya? No! Why?”

Leigh shrugs, and although they continue to hold hands as they leave the clinic, and even manage to steal a few kisses in the elevator, some of Leigh’s earlier restraint has returned.

There’s a light drizzle outside, and Fiaz offers to drop Leigh off at her office, so Leigh squeezes into the back of the car with Nafeesa and Tahera. Both mother and sister appear withdrawn, Tahera especially, staring out at the rain through the window, barely acknowledging the others, while their mother sits rigid, as if to not impose on Leigh either in space or in spirit. Even Fiaz is curiously quiet.