thought you were worried about his safety, but you’re just letting him walk around like that? What if someone throws a tire on him?” She dismissed his concerns and Chika stalked off, simmering impotently.
Kavita slid the top photo aside to look at the next. Juju covered her face with her hands, resting her elbows on her knees. She didn’t want to watch what was going to happen. Osita looked toward the window, at the sun entering through the perforations of the lace curtains. Somto and Olunne watched Kavita, nervousness a veil over their faces, and Elizabeth picked under her nails, trying to look indifferent.
When Kavita gasped, it was like a soft blow reverberating throughout the room. She dropped the other photos in her lap and grasped the second one with both hands, staring at it. Juju had arranged them herself, so she knew which photo Kavita was holding. It was of Vivek the first time he’d worn a dress. Juju had put it near the top because he looked so happy in it; she thought that might make it a little easier for Kavita to see, that her heart might be softened because he looked so happy. She had pulled the dress from one of Maja’s old suitcases, where Maja kept all the clothes she couldn’t fit into anymore, along with old memories of her twenties and some photographs of old boyfriends. The dress was cinched at the waist with an A-line skirt, white and navy blue stripes running from neck to hem, short crisp sleeves, darts in the chest.
Vivek had nothing to fill out those darts, but he hadn’t cared. He was spinning in the photograph, so the skirt of the dress was just a blur, like splashed water, and his hair was vague in the air. But Juju had managed to get his face in focus, and his mouth was wide open, laughing completely, his eyes squeezed shut. She had put lipstick on him, a bold red framing his teeth, and he had drawn on his eyeliner, dark on the lower lid and then a thicker line on the upper, so his eyes seemed lost in black borders.
Kavita’s hands began to shake as she stared at the picture. “What is this?” she whispered, her eyes darting up to Juju’s face and then to the others. The rest of them were looking down or away, anywhere but at her. Only Juju would meet her eyes, which were blurred with tears. “What is this?” Kavita repeated, her voice unsteady. “Why is he dressed like this?”
Juju was wracked with nerves, but she couldn’t look away from Vivek’s mother, not even long enough to draw courage from the others in the room. “He liked to dress that way,” she ventured timidly. “He didn’t want you to know—he didn’t want you or Uncle Chika to worry about him.”
“He liked to wear dresses?” Kavita dropped the photograph and picked up the rest, shock building in her face as she shuffled through them: Vivek in dresses of all kinds, sleeveless ones, short tight ones, loud printed ones, his lips painted red or pink or just glossed till they shone, his eyes always lined, sometimes with a bright splash of eyeshadow.
“My God,” she said. “He was dressing like a woman?”
“He said he was dressing like himself,” Somto interjected, her face resolute. “It made him happy, Aunty Kavita.”
Kavita looked up slowly at them. “And all of you knew about this?” They dropped their eyes. “Even you, Osita?” Her voice was frail with betrayal when she addressed him, but Osita looked at her directly, unafraid.
“He wanted it to be kept private, so we kept it private, Aunty.”
“He was sick! And you people all knew this was going on, and it didn’t occur to any of you to tell me or his father? We could have helped him!”
“He didn’t need help,” muttered Elizabeth. Olunne kicked her in the ankle.
“Excuse me?” said Kavita.
“I said he didn’t need help.” Elizabeth’s eyes were fixed and stubborn. “This made him happy, Aunty! He would have been worse without it. It was the only reason he was okay. So, no, we didn’t tell anybody. He was our friend.”
Kavita shook her head in disbelief. “No, I refuse. It must have been you girls! You dressed him up—you took advantage of him! You knew he was sick!”
Elizabeth and Somto looked like they were about to explode, but Juju stepped in gently. “It’s not like that, Aunty. Vivek said it was just a part of who he