His hand tensed in hers. She let it go, sat back, and crossed her arms. They had been friends, Sam and Neha, and he was likely shocked. He might feel betrayed or angry with Meena for not telling him sooner.
He ran his hand through his hair. “Is that what she wrote?”
“Not in so many words,” Meena said. “She isn’t one to spell things out. She goes on tangents, speaks in circles, implies. I’ve reread them. It’s the most obvious connection, even though I didn’t want to admit it.”
“She didn’t come out and say so, though.”
“I’m a smart person. I put it together. She left me this apartment. She wrote notes to help me get to know her. It all fits,” Meena said. “I was adopted, Sam. My parents were white, I didn’t look like them. I didn’t know what my ethnicity was, but I knew I wasn’t theirs. And a place like this doesn’t just go to a stranger. Didn’t Sabina say each apartment gets passed down to the next generation?”
Sam took her hand again. “Listen.”
She pulled out of his grasp. “I’m sorry I didn’t share all of this with you before. I have a hard time talking about my past and my parents.” She toyed with the rim of her cup. “They used to tell me I was a gift.”
“Meena.”
“Hey, it’s fine,” Meena said. “I was surprised to know all of this, but it’s also good, you know. A solid piece of information about my genetic background. And I can be part of a culture, a country. I’m beginning to develop a taste for chai and paratha, though I will have to work on my tolerance for spice.”
“It’s not that,” Sam objected.
“I know I should have told you sooner,” she interrupted him. “Except, well, I had one foot out the door for a while, and then I didn’t know how.”
“You needed to trust me,” Sam said. “I get that.”
“Wally,” Tanvi’s voice rang out. “Where’s your papa?”
“We need to finish this conversation.” Sam stood.
Meena nodded.
“Oh, here you two are.” Tanvi showed herself into the room. “Sam, I made your favorite. I was craving fried food, and Sam loves batata vada, so I brought you some. Now you can share with Meena.”
“You wanted it because your body is still trying to soak up all the alcohol,” Sam said.
“Our Sam is such a good boy.” Tanvi cupped his face. “His aunties are always doing things he doesn’t approve of. I remember a few drunken stumbles from you in your twenties. If you joined us, you would have remembered when you were fun.”
“I would be too busy trying to keep you out of trouble.” Sam wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“This one.” Tanvi leaned into him. “Maybe you can loosen him up, Meena.”
The overt matchmaking was embarrassing. “I need to go.” Meena stood. “Check my emails. Finish some things.”
“Meena, wait,” Sam said.
“Later.” She rushed out. She’d shared enough, told him everything. But she didn’t want to get into any of it with Tanvi or the aunties. It had been a long day, and she was still hungover. Meena needed to lie down and sleep for another day. Maybe two. Then she’d think about how much to share with the aunties and what any of this meant.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
There is a tree in the back garden, a red dogwood. It’s at the far corner of the fence. My grandfather planted it. In the spring the twigs are green, the blooms white. In the fall the tree turns bright red from twig to leaf. It is spectacular. My ashes will be in the earth beneath the tree.
She’d found the stationery paper folded up in a freaking cookie jar in the shape of a dinosaur jammed in the back corner of the pantry. All she’d wanted was to make a pie because sometimes baking helped her think. Whenever she was challenged by a story, an angle, a source, she could take a walk. If she had a gnarly problem to figure out, she’d bake. For Meena, baking was an example of something difficult that eventually produced something great. While reaching for the flour, she’d knocked a ceramic container over. The small dinosaur-shaped jar had shattered, and in the middle of the wreckage, a note had appeared.
“Meena?”
Sam. “In the kitchen.”
“Uh, what happened? Did you hurt yourself?”
She squeezed the piece of paper in her hand. “I’m trying to bake.”
“And is sitting on the floor with flour on your pants part of your process?”
“Ha ha.” Meena stood and wiped off her black yoga pants.
“I thought you mentioned that you were using the laundry,” Sam said.
“You’re on a bad-joke roll today.”
“I’m in a good mood,” Sam said. “I just finished a grueling project. Forty-eight straight hours. Then ten hours of sleep. I was heading out to grab dinner and thought you could join me.”
So that was why she hadn’t seen him since Saturday. She’d worried that he might have been upset about her revelations. Or that Neha had kept this secret from him. She’d seen him with Wally here and there on short walks but hadn’t had the nerve to pop her head out or wave to him.
“Congratulations,” Meena said.
“There’s a Thai place nearby, it’s not bad.”
“That doesn’t sound like a solid recommendation.”
“I haven’t been to Thailand, and you probably have, so it’s fine for me, but maybe not up to your standards, so not bad.”
“I could eat. Give me a few minutes to clean up,” Meena said. “Put my face on.”
“When did you take it off?”
Meena tilted her head. “Did you get like a bad-joke-a-day calendar or something?”
He laughed. “I have dozens more. Just you wait.”
“I guess I’ll suffer through it for a good plate of som tum.”