Fifteen Lanes - S.J. Laidlaw Page 0,73

am not child,” said Adit.

“You think because you are a bully you are a man?” asked Noor in English, perhaps to put him at a disadvantage.

“I am telling Pran-ji where is Lali go.”

“You tell Pran and you will be sorry, Adit.” Noor spoke calmly and added a few words in Hindi; threats, I suspected.

Adit puffed out his chest but his eye twitched. I wasn’t sure if it was nerves or a permanent condition. He spoke back to her in Hindi, throwing in a few English swearwords having to do with the female anatomy. She waited until he ran out of steam, replied curtly in Hindi and turned to me.

“My house is a little more down the street. We cannot go inside at this time but I will show you.” She continued walking and I followed.

“Who’s Lali?” I asked.

“Lali ran away from our house.”

“Does Adit want to harm her?”

“He says he knows where she is. Probably he is lying.”

Aamaal was still holding my hand, which by now was sweaty and not just with heat. I glanced down at her. She stared back with round eyes.

“What if he’s telling the truth?”

“We must hope he is not,” said Noor.

Noor stopped and pointed across the road. It wasn’t clear which building she was pointing at. They were all narrow and tightly packed, sharing walls, like ramshackle row houses from a bygone era. Most were fronted by shops or workshops, though they were all so drab and cluttered it was difficult to figure out what many of them were selling.

“Which one’s yours?”

“The entrance beside the car-fixing shop.”

I looked skeptically across the road. There was a guy on the street with some kind of loud power tool that he was using on metal. None of the various pieces of metal strewed in haphazard piles nearby looked as though they’d come out of a car, but it was the only thing in sight that might have fit her description. It did have a darkened, open doorway to the left of it. It also had bars extending out from the second-floor windows like cages. There was a woman sitting in one of them looking out over the street.

“It’s like she’s in a cage.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud and immediately wished I could take it back. What if Noor mistook my meaning?

“Yes.”

“Why doesn’t she come out?”

“Some women are not allowed outside.”

“They aren’t allowed outside … ever?”

“Lali was not allowed out.”

“How old was Lali?”

“Older than me, younger than you.”

I gasped.

“Do you have a phone, Noor?”

“I have Parvati’s phone but I am not using it. I am keeping it safe for her.”

“But you could use it, if you had an emergency, if you needed me?”

Noor looked at me strangely. “Needed you?”

I didn’t know how to explain my fear. Perhaps it was the young boy’s aggressiveness, or the horror of a world where young girls were locked away, only to be taken out to be played with like toys from a cupboard. Noor had explained that her mother had chosen not to force her into prostitution, but for how long? She’d also said that her mother believed there was nothing wrong with sex work, that it was even expected for the women in their community.

“Do you know Parvati’s number? If you give it to me, I’ll put it in my phone and then ring you. Then you can save my number.”

“It is very kind of you but I am not needing help, Grace.”

“Then do it for me, so I don’t worry.”

She reluctantly gave me Parvati’s number. I rang it immediately.

“When you turn on her phone, you’ll see my number as a missed call.” I hoped I wasn’t insulting her by explaining that.

She leaned over and hugged me with her one free arm. I was so startled by the gesture I welled up. It was ridiculous to be so emotional. I really didn’t know what had come over me lately. Since my public shaming, I seemed to choke up at the slightest provocation. It was no wonder Noor doubted I could help her. I was barely coping with my own life, and my problems were nothing compared to hers. But in that moment I vowed to myself that if she ever was in trouble, I wouldn’t fail her.

Grace

Over the next couple of days I almost put Madison’s comments out of my head. While Noor and I hadn’t talked about Madison, other than my brief rundown of Madison taking the fall for Kelsey, seeing Noor’s life had put my own