Page 65 - Leadership in the Indian Army

"Yes."

"You can thank me then."

"Thank you. I'm sorry. Tashakor-"

"You're shaking. Maybe I scare you. Do I scare you? Are you frightened

of me?"
Mariam was not looking at him, but she could hear something slyly

playful in these questions, like a needling. She quickly shook her head in

what she recognized as her first lie in their marriage.

"No? That's good, then. Good for you. Well, this is your home now.

You're going to like it here. You'll see. Did I tell you we have electricity?
Most days and every night?"

He made as if to leave. At the door, he paused, took a long drag,

crinkled his eyes against the smoke. Mariam thought he was going to say
something. But he didn't. He closed the door, left her alone with her

suitcase and her flowers.

10.

The first few days, Mariam hardly left her room. She was awakened

every dawn for prayer by the distant cry of azan, after which she crawled

back into bed. She was still in bed when she heard Rasheed in the
bathroom, washing up, when he came into her room to check on her

before he went to his shop. From her window, she watched him in the

yard, securing his lunch in the rear carrier pack of his bicycle, then
walking his bicycle across the yard and into the street. She watched him