Govinda coughed up water. His eyes burned. His stomach felt bloated. He felt tired. The servants fussed over him. They had covered him with blankets. Rani dried him. Ashok took him home and put him to bed.

The next morning when Govinda woke he stretched and looked around his room. Nothing seemed disturbed. He remembered the night before as though it was a dream and he called out to his mother and father; no one came. He called again. This time his father came to him. He seemed to have been crying.

‘Poor child,’ he said, and hugged Govinda.

‘What is the matter?’ cried Govinda.

‘Something terrible has happened!’

Govinda stared at him. His father looked pale, terrified and very alone. He was holding Gitanjali’s gold earrings.

‘Your mother jumped into the river when you fell in last night and she drowned,’ his father told him. ‘I found her earrings in her handbag.’

Govinda felt a pain in his chest. His throat contracted and he could not speak.

‘Was it my fault?’ he finally asked.

Sunil Seth held him tightly and cried. He reached around his head and brought him closer and kissed him deeply, as if trying to extract his pain.

‘I’d like to help,’ Govinda whispered.

His father’s arms encircled him with such intensity that Govinda could not breathe.

The Good Son

The Good Son

They arrived early at the airport. His father allowed for extra time to make it through the checks because it was the first trip he had made on an aeroplane.

‘The aim is to arrive at least three hours before an international flight,’ his father said.

They checked in at the airline desk. His father had their passports ready to present to the agent who looked up their reservation. He asked for a window seat for Govinda and placed their bags on the scale next to the desk for weighing, and they were tagged and placed on a conveyor to be taken to the hold. They were given their boarding passes.

Govinda followed his father through security and a trail of safety and warning signs. At the security checkpoint, a guard asked them to show their identification and boarding passes. The guard looked at these. He stared silently and asked Sunil Seth to take off his shoes and jacket. The guard placed his hands on his body. He looked to see if he was hiding anything and found nothing, so he asked him to step aside.

Govinda was told to step forward, and then the guard frisked him; he thought it felt strange. The man waved them through a metal detector, and they approached the boarding gate.

‘It is not time to board. Find a seat until I call you for boarding,’ an official said.