Read Online The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani - Free Book Online Page B

with marble tops and wooden legs are randomly placed throughout the café.
    “A car crushed our father three years ago,” continues Sumdi. “Just outside that Irani bakery.”
    If the father died three years ago, how can that be Amma’s child? But Chamdi does not ask this question aloud. “I’m sorry” is all he says.
    “What to do? There’s nothing we can do,” says Sumdi. “Our mother went mad after he died. And we have to look after her now. What to do?”
    Chamdi feels awkward. Is he supposed to come up with an answer to Sumdi’s question?
    “You can help us,” says Sumdi at last.
    “Me?”
    “We have a plan,” says Sumdi.
    “What plan?”
    “To steal.”
    The thought of stealing appalls Chamdi. He has never stolen in his life. Not once. Even though he knew where Mrs. Sadiq kept the special cream biscuits at the orphanage, he did not take any except when they were offered to him.
    “I’m not going to steal.”
    “Coward,” says Guddi.
    “Don’t worry,” says Sumdi. “It’s a clever plan. Listen. Amma is very sick. If we don’t take her to a doctor she will be finished. If something happens to her, who will look after the child?”
    “Nothing will happen to her,” says Guddi fiercely. “I will not let anything happen to Amma.”
    “You understand?” asks Sumdi. “We want to steal money to take her to the doctor and then we want to get out of this place.”
    “Forever,” says Guddi.
    “Where will you go?” asks Chamdi.
    “To our village,” says Guddi. “We have a village. So will you help us or no?”
    She looks at Chamdi with her big brown eyes, and he is reminded of the kindness that he saw in them last night. But that kindness was so brief, he is confused.
    “Why are you silent?” asks Sumdi. “If I could run, I would not ask for your help. Look at me, how can I run? If I run they will catch me and beat me till my skin peels off.”
    “But I can’t run fast,” says Chamdi.
    “All this time you kept boasting that you could run fast,” says Guddi. “So either you are a liar or you can run fast.”
    Chamdi knows he can run fast. When he was little, he heard a story from
Chandamama
about a boy who screamed so hard that he lost his voice, and then a djinn appeared and told the boy that if he ran fast enough he might be able to catch the voice. So Chamdi used to try doing this in the courtyard of the orphanage until he realized that it was impossible. But at least the story had made him fast on his feet.
    “Please help us,” begs Sumdi.
    Guddi is about to speak, but at that moment the child in Amma’s arms begins to cry. Amma moves back and forth, speaking—loudly this time—but she emits only strange painful sounds.The child’s cries mixed with the mother’s slow wails make Chamdi uncomfortable. Sumdi rubs his temples as if a pain has developed there, and Guddi tries her best to calm the baby.
    Chamdi cannot stop himself from staring at Amma. Her eyes roll upwards as though she is trying to look at the sky without raising her head. He believes that Amma hates the sound of car horns because it was a car that killed her husband. Maybe each time she hears a car horn, she feels something terrible is going to happen and it frightens her. He wishes Amma would say a word or two that might make her sound human, but all she does is howl.
    Chamdi tells himself that he does not care if his father is poor, if he cleans toilets like Raman at the orphanage. All he wants is for his father to be in one piece. But there is one more thing. His father must remember that he has a son, unlike Amma, who has forgotten hers.
    The sun has come out now and Chamdi stares at Amma’s scalp. The parts where the hair has fallen out, or has been pulled out, are pink. He imagines her hands pulling out strands in clumps,doing all this work that her brain is not even aware of. He grimaces at the thought of this, then feels Guddi’s gaze upon him. In the distance, he sees Sumdi perched on the three