‘This is the first time you’re seeing each other since … well, since she was born. She only knows you as a voice on the phone and the person who is in more photos in our house than anyone else.’

Dhara laughed. ‘Thank you, Acca. Thank you for doing that. And for bringing her.’

‘You know you don’t have to say that. Dhara, I … I love her. I love you. I feel I should thank you more for what she brings to our life. But … you must tell me if you … if you … when you want her back. You have the right to ask for her.’ Priya tensed and looked down as she said this, a tremor in her voice.

‘Thank you, Acca, but nothing has changed for me. This is a holiday—I want you to take her back to Siva and Vivek at the end of it, and not because she doesn’t like the way I make her rice balls. You have as much right as me to keep her, and Colombo is still no place for her.’ She turned away so that Priya wouldn’t have to hide her relief.

That night they lay on Priya’s old bed, each on either side of the sleeping child. Dhara watched the easy rise and fall of her daughter’s small chest. She saw her tug her earlobe. She saw her roll over and reach for Priya, who, in her sleep, held her tightly; the little girl’s leg thrown over her mother’s hip, her hand finding its way under Priya’s cotton pyjama top to rest on her mother’s warm belly. They were so entwined.

Dhara had imagined her reunion from the day Smrithi had left Colombo. The reunion was never just her and Smrithi. It was always her, Smrithi and Priya. Life had never really been without Priya, and now she could not imagine a life without Smrithi. They were all so entwined. She moved closer to her daughter and her sister, and gently put her arm over both of them.

Vavuniya, Jaffna Province 1980

She was on a rural placement with Ahilan to the District Hospital there. In a fortnight they would return to Colombo. With other doctors, they were sending supplies to the boys in Jaffna, where small camps were growing and hiding in the jungle. Colombo General was the biggest hospital in the country—she and her friends could skim supplies without being noticed.

Ahilan carefully tied the blindfold over her eyes. She could feel his breath on her hair as his fingers fumbled with the cloth. She heard him step away and reached out.

‘No, Ahilan, please …’ Dhara tasted beedi and a thick tongue in her mouth. No one was touching her.

‘Please take it off!’ she raised her hands towards the blindfold, but Ahilan caught her.