No Time for Goodbyes Read Free Page A

with a new camera that he made.’
    â€˜He made a camera?’ I ask.
    Reena sits down next to me and nods in excitement. ‘It’s amazing. We don’t even have to wait for the pictures to develop. It comes out instantly.’
    â€˜Like a Polaroid camera?’ I ask.
    â€˜Yes,’ Vidya explains patiently. ‘But Manoj’s grandfather made some changes to the camera he bought. And we all thought he was crazy because he paid so much for it in the first place for someone to bring it for him from America!’
    I listen to this in silence. Manoj’s grandfather has customised a Polaroid camera. He took their picture barely sometime back. So where’s he?
    â€˜Where’s he? Can I meet him?’ I ask, wondering if I can ask him what’s happening.
    Suma shakes her head. ‘He doesn’t like to talk much to people. Only photograph them. He went back to their house and he won’t like it if we go there.’
    â€˜Where’s the picture? Can I see it?’ I ask with a certain amount of trepidation.
    â€˜Sure! Here it is!’ Suma says, picking up the photo from a table nearby and handing it to me.
    My breath catches in my throat as I see the picture I saw just some minutes ago. But why has everything changed after that?
    So this is Manoj, I think, as I stare at an older boy with a mischievous smile and a dimple in his cheek. He looks as though he’s on the verge of sharing a big secret.
    â€˜Manoj and his grandfather left as soon as we took this photo,’ Suma says taking the photo from my hand. She looks at it again and frowns.
    â€˜What’s this?’ she asks Reena and Vidya who crowd around her. I feel my heart beating faster.
    â€˜What?’ I ask and bend towards the photo. Near the edge of the photo is the shadow of a figure and Suma shakes her head.
    â€˜This wasn’t there when we first saw this photo!’ she says to her sisters. I sit back, feeling all sorts of alarm go through me. I’ve noticed that the shadowy figure is wearing jeans. Just like me.

Four
    W HAT WAS THE FIRST floor in my home is now the ground floor. I know this because I can see the road outside the window from the girls’ room. They have forgotten the photo and are busy doing random stuff. I watch them with interest as it’s nothing like how my sister and I spend our time in the room. For one, there are no laptops, no iPods and no books strewn about.
    Suma is sitting in a corner where the light is plenty and she’s embroidering something. (Thank god, mom hasn’t tried to force this hobby of hers onto me!). Reena is flipping through a film magazine and I know that she’s only looking at pictures. It makes me curious about which year this is but I can’t ask that right away.
    Vidya has asked me if she can read the Harry Potter book and I give it to her willingly although I tell her that it’s part 4 of a series of 7 books. It won’t make sense to her but she doesn’t seem to care.
    I don’t know why they expect me to sit quietly in this room. Is this how they spend all their evenings? I sigh loudly and Suma looks up, shaking her head.
    â€˜Manoj should have been back by now. Why hasn’t he come to meet you? Or maybe he doesn’t know that you’re already here, right?’ she gets up excited.
    â€˜Of course! Why don’t you call him and ask him to come?’ Reena asks, looking up from her magazine. Call? That means they have a phone? I’m tempted to call my mother on her cell phone from this landline but I doubt anything will come of it. Even if I do get through, what will I tell her? Help! I’m stuck in your past?
    All four of us leave the room and head towards the living room where the phone is kept. I’ve stopped mentally comparing the space with what it has become today so I just follow them, wondering what will happen when Manoj sees me. Also, this whole pen-pal thing is so