she and the newly repaired Jaguar cruised out of town again. The treasurer had taken a week to send the check to the bank, believing that the strange old lady was delusional. He, like the mayor, had wanted to give her a head start so nobody would find her if the bank pressed charges.
If Rishi hadn’t told Janya this story in excruciating detail, she would have learned it now from the plaque beside the center’s front door.
Inside, the building still smelled new. The walls were painted in creamy pastels. Dusty rose for one hallway fanning away from the reception area, aqua for the one on the opposite side. The reception area was flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows, and the walls surrounding these were a buttery-yellow. Once school let out, children and teenagers would be everywhere, but today there were only a few people in sight. A woman with a toddler on her hip reading notices on the bulletin board. A man signing a list to one side of the long entryway counter. The woman seated behind it, who was as plain and starched as one of the nuns who had taught Janya as a girl, smiled a welcome.
“If you know where you’re going, ignore me,” she told Janya. “But if I can help, let me know.”
Janya felt encouraged. “I came to see what classes you offer.”
The woman smiled again. “Do you know what you’re interested in? We have a few that are still open. Some exercise classes, basic computer skills, conversational Spanish, choosing books for children…”
“Exercise classes?” If Janya was going to come here, she wanted more incentive than a new language—she already spoke three fluently, and could read and be understood in two more. And she had no need of children’s books.
“We have a volleyball league that still needs a few people.”
Janya shook her head.
“Yoga.”
She shook again.
“Belly dancing?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Dance aerobics.”
Janya inclined her head in question. “What is that?”
“Dancing to routines that get you in shape. Our teacher’s great. I can guarantee you’d love it. I do the evening class.”
Despite herself, Janya was interested. She loved to dance, was an unabashed fan of Bollywood extravaganzas, and as a girl had often cavorted and sung to routines she and her cousin Padmini invented and sometimes filmed with Padmini’s video camera.
That unfortunate reminder of home sobered her immediately. But the receptionist didn’t notice. She had stopped noticing anything else the moment Janya smiled.
The woman got to her feet and came around the desk, checking her watch. “Come with me. They’re about halfway through. You can drop in for the rest of the session at no charge. Then you can sign up or just drop in for four dollars a shot whenever you feel like it.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t—”
“Sure you can. You don’t have to stay a minute longer than you want. You can just watch and see if you like it.”
Janya didn’t want to make a fuss and refuse, not when the woman was so kind. “Thank you very much.”
As they walked down the pink hallway, the receptionist outlined an extensive program. “And then we have all the pool activities. Water aerobics, and lessons for beginners all the way up to lifesaving.”
Janya felt particularly strange here. The woman acted as if she belonged, as if it was a normal thing to check out a class she might want to attend. She wanted to explain that this was not her country, that she didn’t belong in Florida or here in this center, that she would not feel comfortable dancing with people she didn’t know. But they were in the doorway to the gymnasium, and then inside a portion of it walled off by a folding screen, before she could find a way to leave.
A group of about a dozen women were throwing their arms around and sliding their feet to music the Americans called “country.” No one paid attention when the door opened except the instructor in the front, a well-proportioned woman in her thirties in pants that were tight and shiny, and a knit shirt held up by tiny straps.
“Feel free to watch or join in,” the receptionist told her, voice lowered just enough that Janya could still hear it over the loud music. “But if you don’t like this one, we’ll find you something else. Let me know.” She patted Janya on the shoulder and slipped back out the door.
Janya wondered if there was a back exit to the building so she could sneak out without disappointing anybody.
At that