The dogs are lying on the patio around us, bellies full, bodies stretched out like mats. ‘The dogmatics,’ I say, laughing. ‘Look at them. The good life.’

Kavitha’s face is lean and tanned. The lines around her eyes look more pronounced, but there is something fresher about her. ‘The sea air has done you good,’ I say. ‘You look rejuvenated.’

‘I feel close to her here,’ she says.

‘To Ma?’

‘She was the most stubborn person I knew. We met at a yoga centre in Madras. Did you know that? She decided I would be her friend. She had that command with people. I don’t know how she lost that. It’s as though she got thwarted a few times and she just gave up. But being here in this place, I understand that she never truly gave up. She was just tired. It was your mother’s idea to move to Kodai. Your father was so unhappy. He was talking of taking a job in Africa, of going back to Egypt where he had worked before. Your mother was terrified it would mean cutting all ties with Lucy. We stayed up one night talking about it and she kept saying, “It will be like being in exile. I can’t allow him to do that to us.”’

‘She got her way.’

‘She frequently did.’

After dinner we go upstairs and lie on the bed together. A small bat flies around in a frenzy until it finds its way out through the terrace doors. Kavitha lies on her side, facing me. She wears a robe tied loosely at the waist. A pedestal fan in the corner of the room moves its head slowly from side to side. I bring the sheets up to my chin. ‘It’s easy to grow tired,’ I say. ‘It’s easy to give up.’

I wake intermittently, drink sips of water, tread over to the bathroom in the dark.

‘You’re flopping around like a sole fillet,’ Kavitha complains. ‘What time is it anyway?’

‘Sorry. It must be the jet lag. I’m completely awake. I’ll go read in the other room.’

I leave her and walk down the corridor to Lucia’s bedroom. There is a smell of her. I can’t say what it is – something powdery and musty. The room has been closed for a while. I open the side window. The stuffed toys arranged in a pyramid glare at me in the dark. I should burn those things.