Fifteen Lanes - S.J. Laidlaw Page 0,31

to see thirty.

“I don’t want you begging,” Ma said. “I don’t send you to school to have you end up a beggar.”

I wanted to ask why she did send me to school. What was her plan for me? Did she have one? “I’ll only sleep with Parvati. That’s all.”

She sighed and sank down on the edge of Lali-didi’s bed. Lali-didi practically left behind her own skin in her haste to scuttle away.

“I don’t like Parvati. She’s a bad influence.”

I suppressed a smile. As if anyone could be a bad influence in our neighborhood. What did she think I might learn from Parvati that I didn’t already know?

“She doesn’t even go to school,” Ma continued.

“That’s not Parvati’s choice,” I said indignantly, though Parvati always pretended she was glad she didn’t have to go to school. “Her ma won’t pay for the uniform and books.”

“You’ll need to be back first thing to wash the dishes. You know what Pran will do if he wakes up and finds the dishes haven’t been cleared up.”

I nodded, though no one ever knew what Pran would do.

I stood outside our building that evening, discussing sleeping options with Parvati. Although it was late, I still had Shami strapped to my back. He had a cough that made it hard for him to sleep lying flat. Sticky yellow goo collected in his lungs so he woke up gasping for breath. It was another reason I didn’t mind sleeping outside. Keeping him quiet and breathing at the same time was becoming an impossible task. He would breathe easier if I could keep him upright.

“I told Hussein there would only be two of us,” said Parvati for at least the third time. “Why can’t you leave Shami with your ma? Aamaal can watch him.”

I looked across the street to where a fight was brewing between two men outside a bar. We needed to get moving. It wasn’t safe for us to be hanging around this time of night.

“We can sleep under the bridge,” I said.

Parvati often worked with the beggars who’d built a shanty community under the railway bridge near Grant Road Station. It wasn’t far from Kamathipura. We could make it there on foot in thirty minutes. I’d suggested it earlier but Parvati refused. I couldn’t figure out why. I thought the beggars were her friends.

Parvati put her hands on her hips and gave me a look, like I was being unreasonable. Maybe she wanted to show off her “boyfriend,” Hussein, who sold T-shirts outside Central Station. He claimed he owned the stall where he worked and we could sleep under the table when he shut down for the night. I had my doubts on both counts. He was too young to own a stall, and I didn’t want to risk being discovered by his boss and chased away in the middle of the night. If it had been closer I might have agreed to try it out, but it was more than an hour’s walk.

“Why would he let us sleep there for nothing?” The boy’s ulterior motive was the other thing worrying me. We couldn’t afford to pay him, not in cash anyway, and I didn’t want to contemplate what other form of payment he might expect.

Parvati shrugged. “He said he loves me. He gave me this T-shirt and he didn’t ask for anything.” She puffed out her chest in case I’d failed to notice she was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with I’m a Princess in gold lettering. She was also wearing new blue jeans. It was the first time I’d seen her out of traditional clothes. The difference was startling, as if she were one of those girls who advertised toothpaste on television, with a life as perfect as her teeth.

“Did he give you the jeans too?”

“No, I bought them myself.” She looked way too smug.

I suspected she’d stolen them. I just hoped she’d been smart enough not to steal from a stall near the T-shirt shop. The vendor was bound to notice if she sashayed past wearing them. Parvati scared me sometimes. She was much too bold for a girl. It would get her into trouble one day.

Two men walked by and gave us a speculative look. Even after they were beyond us, they turned back for a last gawk. Parvati winked at me.

“Those clothes reveal too much,” I said, grateful Ma had already been inside with a customer when Parvati showed up.

“You’re just jealous.” Parvati arched her back and squeezed her arms on either side