“Deepa, do not talk about your father that way. He cares, very deeply, for others. This is what makes him such a good doctor.” She looked down at her lap. “Besides, Delhi is our home.” It was a statement that lacked any conviction.

“Delhi is not the same home it was,” Deepa said.

During Deepa’s quarantine, she could feel her bones calcifying from lack of movement, her lungs thirsting for more time in the fresh air. Meanwhile tension filled the streets outside of their home. Every honk of a vehicle startled Deepa. Every raised voice sent a chill down her spine. Most nights, Bala slept on the floor of the kitchen so she wouldn’t have to walk back to her own home in the dark, just two kilometers away.

A pair of Papa-ji’s reading spectacles sat on the bedside table. A thin crack ran the length of one of the lenses. He didn’t have time to get it fixed, to do much of anything anymore. Last night, she found him leaning against the back of the sofa, his lips slightly parted. He’d fallen asleep. He was too exhausted to make a rational decision about anything.

Deepa could reason with him. She could do this tonight, when he returned from work, after her mother had gone to bed. She would convince him they should leave Delhi. She knew she could find a way to make him understand.

She rose, kissed her mother on the cheek. “I’m going to go finish my assignments, Mummy-ji. You rest.”

“Wait,” her mother said. She pulled her toward her. “I have something else I need to tell you.”

Deepa searched her mother’s face. “What is it?”

Her mother stroked the side of her cheek. “Tomorrow afternoon, Deepa, we’re sending you by train down to Bangalore to stay with John and Nora. Bala will go with you.”

Deepa stepped away so quickly she stumbled into the dresser. “No, Mummy-ji! You can’t send me away!”

“You will be back before you know it. It’s just temporary. They’re so looking forward to having you.”

“Mummy-ji,” Deepa pleaded. “I don’t want to go. Not without you and Papa-ji!”

“You’ll enjoy it,” her mother said, as if she were coaxing Deepa to try a new food.

Deepa’s eyes burned. Her parents were casting her off. “Please. If it’s dangerous enough for me and Bala to be sent away, it’s too dangerous for you and Papa-ji to stay.”

Her mother locked eyes on her. She straightened. Deepa knew she had lost the argument before the words came out of her mouth.