Fifteen Lanes - S.J. Laidlaw Page 0,98

Ma’s funeral, though it was nothing to speak of. She was given a pauper’s cremation when her body was found in an alley barely a month after she got out of jail. She’d spent two nights locked up. The only people who did less time were Pran and Binti-Ma’am, who had mysteriously disappeared not an hour before the raid. Prita-Auntie was sentenced to three years for helping train underage girls. Deepa-Auntie spent several days in jail while it was decided whether she was in the country illegally. When she was finally released, Nishikar-Sir was waiting to install her in another brothel. It might have seemed like good fortune that Ma didn’t meet that fate, but she had nowhere to go. With our home closed and her own health failing she lived on the street.

Some days I think Ma died of a broken heart. With her livelihood and children gone she had no way to survive and nothing left to fight for. Other days I remember the woman who endured endless nights of pain and humiliation to look after me and send me to a fee-paying school. Ma rarely praised me and never once said she loved me. She always insisted my destiny was both bleak and inevitable. Yet she kept my medals hidden in the hem of her skirt and fought anyone who tried to limit my dreams. Perhaps she died because her heart had filled to capacity. She knew the battle was over and she had won.

Karuna-Auntie came back into our lives by accident. She was doing volunteer checkups at the HIV home and discovered Shami. She recognized him, though he didn’t remember her. I’d dragged him to so many doctors, and it had been over a year since he’d seen her. Only when she reminded him of their shared passion for manga an’ napple did he figure it out. It didn’t take long for her to get the details on all of us.

She appeared at our rescue home one afternoon, standing in the doorway of the musty room that doubled as a bedroom and lounge for thirty girls. I knew her immediately, though I didn’t acknowledge her. I waited to see why she had come. The disappointment would have been too much if it had been a random coincidence.

The ache of missing Shami had become unbearable. I was close to the desperation of those girls I’d read about years earlier who’d broken their legs trying to escape their rescue home. Had it not been for Aamaal, I would have tried it. I remembered Karuna-Auntie’s compassion and prayed she was there to help us.

Her eyes lit up the second they fell on me and she walked straight over.

“Hello, Noor.” She plopped down onto my mattress on the floor. “Do you remember me?”

Aamaal, who was never more than a few feet from me the entire time we lived in protective custody, looked up from the schoolwork I’d assigned her.

“Yes,” I said.

My eagerness must have registered on my face. She looked pleased. In addition to being separated from my beloved brother, we hadn’t been allowed out of the home to go to school. Prison could not have been more punitive.

“You never came back to see me. I always hoped you would.”

“You would have taken my brother away.” I didn’t state the obvious—that I’d since brought that misfortune upon myself.

“I saw Shami yesterday.”

I sat up straighter.

“How is he?” demanded Aamaal, closing her book. “How did you get to see him? Can you take us?”

I didn’t speak. Aamaal had asked every question in my own heart.

“I thought perhaps we could discuss a more permanent solution.”

My breath caught in my throat.

“I live with my brother’s family and my mother. My mother and brother are both doctors. My brother has a wife and two children. Thankfully she’s not a doctor. That would be a bit tiresome, wouldn’t it?”

She paused, but when we didn’t respond she continued. “We’re a crowded household but we’re happy. I think you would like my nieces, Noor. The eldest is studying her standard twelve. The younger is in standard eight. You’re in standard ten now, aren’t you?”

I blushed when I remembered the lie I’d told her.

“Standard nine,” I mumbled.

“So what do you say?” Her penetrating eyes were full of kindness, just as before.

I was confused. What was she asking?

“Would you and Aamaal like to come live with us?”

Her offer was beyond my wildest hopes. “What about Shami?”

“Oh, he’s already agreed,” she said breezily.

Aamaal jumped up. “Yes, YES, YES!”

“Wait a minute, Aamaal,”