“My Amir. I loved him. I loved your grandfather,” Deepa said. “Thank you for finding Laila. Poor Laila, to lose her brother so young. Please tell her I’m sorry, that I … that I wish things had been different.”

“You can tell her yourself. Let me give you her number.”

Deepa grabbed a pen and paper, took it down. She would call Laila first thing in the morning. It would be so good to hear her voice, to find out about her life. Laila had never departed Deepa’s heart. And then Deepa would finally reach out to Gertrude, too, just as she promised. It was time.

Deepa set the phone down, made her way back to the sofa, opened a drawer in the coffee table. She removed an album with pictures of Vijay as a baby and child, had paged through it every single evening since his death. There was Vijay, lying on her chest soon after she gave birth to him, Nora holding infant Vijay in her lap, Vijay petting a cat in the courtyard, toddler Vijay and John sitting together on a bench, holding hands.

Her son looked so much like Amir. She wished he could have known him.

Exhaustion overcame her. She adjusted a pillow, leaned back, clutched the album to her chest. She stared at the ceiling, at the way the light entered the window, drew beams like arrows pointing, where? She didn’t know. Her shoulders relaxed deeper into the cushion. Her breath took its time filling her chest cavity, expelled itself deliberately. Her eyelids twitched, lowered.

A grayness swirls in her mind. Hues emerge, like watercolors, forming a scene both unfamiliar and familiar. She is young again, strolling through the markets in Delhi. Her hair hangs loose, windswept. Amir walks alongside her cradling newborn Vijay in his arms. His smile is bright and wide. Vijay peers up at him as if he can read his father’s thoughts, as if he’s known his father for a long time, in some other life. Amir brings his son closer to his face, whispers in his ear, tells him a secret, something only a father would tell a son. Deepa rests her head on Amir’s shoulder, feels his warm breath on her forehead. They gaze together at the face of their darling boy.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Agra

August 15, 2017