‘This is delicious, Dada,’ Priya said. ‘But I think I would have liked it even better if the filling was in the pancake and not next to a pancake mound. And also, if you were sitting with us while we ate it!’
‘I am your waiter and your chef.’
‘Papa, this is lovely. Well done you. The sambal is particularly brilliant. It tastes quite different to Mummy’s though.’
‘Do you remember what Mummy’s tasted like?’
‘How could I forget? Yours is pretty good though. Better than mine.’
He sort of wanted to tell her that he cheated a tiny bit, but it was a secret he would take with him to his grave. It was okay to do that kind of thing now. He didn’t have so long to wait.
After dinner, Mukesh expected Priya to take herself off to her favourite reading spot after clearing her plate away, but instead she came back to the table and sat down.
‘The mockingbird – you know when Atticus says it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, does he mean it is a sin to kill innocence or innocent people?’ Priya asked.
‘Erm …’ Mukesh felt his heart pound – he hadn’t actually spoken to Aleisha about this. ‘I think so.’ He said it softly, as though saying it too loudly would expose his uncertainty.
‘That makes sense! Because soooo many innocent people are hurt, or treated wrongly, in this!’ Priya’s face was defiant. ‘It made me so angry!’
‘Ha, Priya. You are absolutely right.’
‘Tom Robinson,’ Priya declared, and Mukesh nodded, his face solemn. ‘Boo Radley.’ Mukesh nodded again. ‘Dill and Jem! It’s brilliant, Dada,’ she said, still clutching the book. ‘I wish we could both talk to Ba about it too. I wonder if she had read it!’
As Priya continued to effuse about the book, Mukesh realized that Priya had paid a lot more attention to the minor characters, whereas he’d been more swept up in the main part of the story. It reminded him of Aleisha. Youngsters were very observant.
‘I think you can read whatever you want to into anything. That is the point of books,’ Mukesh said hesistantly, hoping he was channelling a little of the Atticus Finch wisdom.
And Priya nodded. ‘Dada, you’re to-tally right! Ba used to say that too, but these books are more complicated than the ones we used to read together.’
‘She did? Ba was very wise.’
Rohini watched them as she scrolled on her phone, typed out some emails. She smiled.
Mukesh beamed back at her. This was everything he’d wanted. Here his granddaughter was, no longer locked in her own thoughts, in her own little world. He remembered Naina and Priya giggling away at a character, their quirks. He’d never understood. Now he knew that Scout, Atticus and Jem were as real to Priya, and to him, as her own family. Now, he understood.
Chapter 29
ALEISHA
SHE WALKED BESIDE HER dad, her 5-year-old hand held loosely in his. She could feel the rough tips of his fingers with her soft ones. She held on tight as she felt the soles of her trainers slipping ever so slightly on the sand-covered decking. They were walking towards the sea. She couldn’t see it yet, she just trusted that that’s where they were going.
They were walking through forest. She could see nothing but trees. Tall trees, thin trunks, and long, spiky green leaves. Fir trees, her dad told her. She was in a fir forest. She could hear birds and some dogs barking in the distance, though it sounded as though they might be right beside her. She kept turning round to check. Her dad told her to stop moving, he would lose his footing.
Aleisha didn’t want her dad to lose his footing. She didn’t want him to fall over. Then she would be all alone, without anyone in the world, without any way to get home. Her mother had taken Aidan to Cromer. He was adamant he didn’t want to go to the beach, especially a beach with nothing much on it; he just wanted some food, maybe even an arcade. He wanted to see the pier. His friends had been the summer before and he wanted to be able to say he had seen it too.
Today, it was just Aleisha and Dean. As she felt her small hand in her father’s larger one, she squeezed just a little too hard. She had no idea what to expect. She couldn’t see very far ahead, but she noticed a glimmer of light breaking through the trees ahead of her. And then she was there, standing on the line that separated forest from beach. Land from sea. Life from what she felt might be heaven.
She looked around. All she could see now was milky, golden sand. Grasses. So tall, maybe even taller than her, reaching up and touching the sky in some places. The sand on the dunes looked warm, the light hitting the beach in patches, leaving everything else in darkness.