‘I always used to think that when I was a young man, when I first moved here,’ he took a deep breath. The book had made him think of it, how out of place he felt in Wembley when he first arrived, how everyone looked at him and his family differently for a while, for ever. ‘I moved here from Kenya, you see. With my wife and our little girls. We wanted to start a brand-new life here – we had family here, always talking about all the opportunities, the jobs. But when I got here, it just felt lonely. I wondered why people were so unkind to me. I thought to myself, why didn’t they know who I was, that I was just like them? No matter what I did, what I said, no one even tried to understand me. Some of our neighbours were really lovely – but other than that, everyone else saw us as just different from them, impossible to understand. So they didn’t even try.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mukesh shook his head, trying to banish his thoughts. ‘This isn’t anything to do with the book. What am I babbling on about? My wife always told me I was a babbler.’
‘No, no, you’re not babbling. I think you’re right,’ Aleisha said, smiling kindly. ‘No one can ever really understand what other people have gone through. But people should try.’
For a moment, it was hard for Mukesh to align the grumpy person he had met a week or so ago with the young lady sitting in front of him today. He wondered whether, if he’d walked around in her skin that day, he might have understood her behaviour a little better.
‘So when I read this book … er, ages ago,’ she hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting around the room. She reminded him of his youngest, Deepali, who did the same thing whenever she was nervous, or fibbing. ‘Ages ago now … well, it makes you feel things. I’ve got a big brother, and we’re really different to Scout and Jem, but like reading about them as kids made me think of me and Aidan as children. Being silly. Seeing the neighbour as like a figure of fun and stuff. I’m sure we did stupid stuff like that when I was young, like the whole world was a big game to us.’
‘It’s true! I liked them both. I liked the story very, very much.’ Mukesh nodded emphatically. ‘I like Atticus a lot too! He was a very clever man.’
‘He was so good!’ Aleisha lit up. ‘I just … all the court-case stuff with Tom Robinson, like it was so emotional and mega-tense, but I loved it. I’m applying to do law at uni—’
‘Law?’ Mukesh gasped, his face lighting right up. ‘You are very, very clever! No wonder you are such a big reader.’
Aleisha laughed uneasily. She shrugged her shoulders, immediately shy again. ‘Not that clever, I just work hard.’
‘Well Atticus is a very good lawyer, but you, you’ll be even better!’ Mukesh clapped his hands together and they laughed at one another.
Their chatter petered out to silence, an edge of awkwardness creeping in. ‘Well, thank you for all your help,’ Mukesh said again. ‘I liked that one, so what do you recommend next? You said you could tell me which one!’
The girl paused. He noticed her hands crunching into one another, one finger twisting round and round the other.
‘Erm, maybe you might like Rebecca – it’s by Daphne du Maurier.’
‘Whatever you recommend I am sure I will like!’
She hopped up from her chair and headed to the shelves – she found the copy immediately. He thought it was very clever, how Aleisha knew where every book in the library was placed. She took it over to her desk, and Mr Patel clambered out of his very comfy armchair to meet her there.
‘My wife loved to read,’ he said, filling the silence, as she tapped in the code.
‘What did she like?’
‘I don’t really know. She always had a book with her. I never knew what. She died, you see. A couple of years ago. I … she was the reader. I have never really read much, until now.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ her voice just louder than a whisper. She looked at him, gave him room to continue.
‘She was my wife, I should have paid attention to the books she liked. I liked to watch her read, but never asked her what was happening in her books. I feel silly starting to read story books at my age.’
‘It’s never too late to read stories.’
‘Stories feel so weird. Like seeing someone else’s life that you are not meant to. Being nosy!’
Aleisha scanned his library card in. ‘I’m sure your wife would be so impressed with how quicky you read To Kill a Mockingbird!’