Page 83 - And the Mountains Echoed (novel)

on. Sometimes Mr. Wahdati would grunt something, and his mother would turn

to me.
“You. What did he say?” She always addressed me in this manner, her words
sharp and angular.
Because I was at his side more or less all day, I had slowly come to unlock
the enigma of his speech. I would lean in close, and what sounded to others like
unintelligible groans and mumbles I would recognize as a request for water, for
the bedpan, an appeal to be turned over. I had become his de facto interpreter.
“Your son says he would like to sleep.”

The old woman would sigh and say that it was just as well, she ought to be
going anyway. She would lean down and kiss his brow and promise to come
back soon. Once I had walked her out to the front gates, where her own
chauffeur awaited her, I would return to Mr. Wahdati’s room and sit on a stool
next to his bed and we would relish the silence together. Sometimes his eyes
caught mine, and he would shake his head and grin crookedly.
Because the work I had been hired for was so limited now—I drove only to
get groceries once or twice a week, and I had to cook for only two people—I

saw little sense in paying the other servants for work that I could perform. I
expressed this to Mr. Wahdati, and he motioned with his hand. I leaned in.
“You’ll wear yourself out.”
“No, Sahib. I’m happy to do it.”
He asked me if I was sure, and I told him I was.
His eyes watered and his fingers closed weakly around my wrist. He had been

the most stoic man I had ever known, but since the stroke the most trivial things
made him agitated, anxious, tearful.
“Nabi, listen to me.”
“Yes, Sahib.”
“Pay yourself any salary you like.”

I told him we had no need to talk about that.
“You know where I keep the money.”
“Get your rest, Sahib.”
“I don’t care how much.”

I said I was thinking of making shorwa soup for lunch. “How does that
sound, shorwa? I would like some myself, come to think of it.”
I put an end to the evening gatherings with the other workers. I no longer
cared what they thought of me; I would not have them come to Mr. Wahdati’s
house and amuse themselves at his expense. I had the considerable pleasure of