Chapter 42
MUKESH
MUKESH OPENED THE DOOR and a grin split his face in two when he saw her. ‘Aleisha! Did I invite you? I am so sorry, I forgot. I haven’t cooked any food or anything, I am still so full from the buffet! Do you want to come tomorrow instead? Priya is going to be here – she would like to see you again, I am sure.’ He started to look around his house, analysing whether it was guest-friendly. ‘Or are you here for The Highway Code?’
‘No, no, don’t worry, Mr P, we weren’t meant to have dinner today. I’m just here, err … I’ve got something, I think it’s for you.’
She held up A Suitable Boy.
‘Oh no! Aleisha, I know I am a much better reader than before, but honestly, that is too, too big for me right now. It will send me to sleep.’
‘First of all, Mr P, what I’ve read is amazing so far. I think you’ll like it, and by the time you finish it, Priya will probably be old enough to read it too.’ Aleisha laughed. ‘Here,’ she turned to the back of the book, revealing an envelope. She pulled it out and passed it to him. ‘I found this. I think it’s for you. But before you read it, you should probably know …’ She gulped, suddenly nervous. ‘You see, I found this list … A list of books. It’s what we’ve been reading together.’
‘You wrote the books down? You are such a good librarian, Aleisha, the full service. How lovely,’ he said.
‘No, Mr P. They’re someone else’s book recommendations. I’ve been a bit of a cheat. You know how I said I didn’t know anything about books?’
‘Yes, you are a modest girl.’
‘No, Mr P. I really know nothing, or … well I knew nothing. But I found this list, the day you came in. And I thought … I don’t know. I thought if I read them and they were all right, I could recommend them to you.’
He looked down at the envelope again. ‘Mukesh.’ He said his own name as though he had never heard it before.
‘I think it’s from—’
‘Naina,’ he cut in. ‘It’s her handwriting.’
‘The list. I think it was Naina’s.’
She passed the list to him too. His hands were shaking. ‘And that letter, that letter is for you.’
Mukesh looked up at Aleisha as though for the first time, as though taking in her face inch by inch, the envelope in one hand, the list in the other. Aleisha smiled, tapped her friend on the shoulder, and walked away.
As she crossed the road, she saw a young man standing ahead of her, leaning against a wall. For the briefest moment, she thought it was Aidan, his face turned into a smile – especially for her.
THE READING LIST
NAINA
2017
NAINA HAD DROPPED THE last list off; it was sitting under the copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. She hoped Chris might read it – it was completely different to the crime thrillers he usually read, but she thought something new might help him. He was hurting now. But books, they had the power to heal.
The library books were stacked on her bedside table. Her final library reading list. They were all her favourite books, the books she had grown up with, the books that had found her at the right time, that had given her comfort when she needed it, had given her an escape, an opportunity to live beyond her life, an opportunity to love more powerfully, a chance to open up and let people in. And now she had read them all once more, for the very last time.
Priya had been the one to suggest she leave a reading list behind. ‘Ba, one day I’d like a list of your favourite books. You are the best book person I know.’ She’d said it just in passing, as children often do, but the idea had stayed with Naina. She knew she was leaving – but she wanted to give something back. To Wembley. To the people who loved her. And the books had given her so much. Well, it was time to pass them on. She hoped that the lists would find their way into willing hands and hearts – in the supermarket, at the bus stop, in the library, at the yoga studio, in the community garden – and brighten them, even if just for a moment. With Indira’s list, she knew she couldn’t just give it to her directly – Indira was proud, she would laugh at the idea, discard it as soon as she was alone. It was maybe a silly idea leaving it in Indira’s shoe rack, all crumpled up. But she was trusting fate to do the work for her. She hoped Indira would find her way to the books, maybe even to the library.
Now there was just one list left to give. And she knew who this one belonged to: Mukesh. He had never been a reader, but she hoped, after she left, he might start to wonder what all the fuss had been about for her. She didn’t want him to be lonely, and he had a tendency to cut himself off from the outside world when he was sad. This way, she thought, if he did that, he might find some company elsewhere. Within the pages. He might find something to inspire him to meet new people, try new things, he might find some words of wisdom too.