The World Unseen Read Online Free PDF Page B

at Miriam briefly, with eyes filled with embarrassment, and then he had shouted to his brother to be quiet, he was here, and what kind of a way was this to behave? The room was silenced, and her new sister-in-law had turned at once to look at Miriam, and at the same time she had smiled, a sly smile of triumph directed at her silenced husband. He was incensed, and had shouted at her again, “So you think this is funny? Now you laugh at me?” Miriam had watched appalled from beneath lowered lids as he continued to shout, with a voice that kept catching, that nobody would ever laugh at him, he wouldn’t allow it, there was nothing funny, nothing to laugh about, did she understand? And it was then Miriam had heard it first, that long, low laughter, maniacal and strange, issuing from a back room somewhere, with impeccable timing, in the middle of Sadru’s warning speech.
     
    It was her first introduction to Omar’s elder sister, Jehan, the one whose inherent mental slowness had been partnered with a kind of madness after a bout of syphilis some years before. The word ‘syphilis’ was whispered with a significant nod by Farah, but the word and all its associations were alien to Miriam; she thought perhaps it was a peculiarly African disease, though she could not grasp how it was contracted, and she prayed privately that she would never catch it.
     
    Holding Jehan between them, Miriam and Farah left the children with a neighbour, and then walked the several blocks to the café, beneath purple-blossomed laburnum trees and past the leaning rows of houses, from whose windows a few people waved at them as they passed. Jehan waved back with much windmilling of her arms, chattering all the while, and Farah walked a few paces ahead of them, itching with irritation.
     
    When they entered the café, they were supremely self-conscious, but few people seemed to show any particular interest in their arrival. Jacob Williams waited behind the counter for a few moments while the three women arranged themselves in one of the booths that ran along the walls. Then he walked slowly over to the table, one leg a little stiff from the arthritis that was slowly invading his body, and nodding politely, he placed down three menus.
     
    “We have mutton stew today, and fresh keoksisters ,” he said.
     
    Jehan clapped her hands in approval. “ Koeksisters , koeksisters , koeksisters ,” she said.
     
    “Shhh!” said Farah.
     
    “What are koeksisters ?” stumbled Miriam, half to Jacob, half to her bhabhi .
     
    “Here, try for yourself,” said a voice by her side, and she looked up to see a long fork held before her. A small golden fried doughnut sprinkled with coconut was impaled upon it, and Amina Harjan held the other end.
     
    “See if you like it,” she suggested again, and shyly, Miriam took the koeksister from the fork. Breaking it in two, she passed one piece to Jehan and placed the other in her mouth. The warm, sweet doughnut tasted ripely of yeast and melted away in Miriam’s mouth.
     
    “Do you like it?” asked Amina, smiling
     
    “It’s delicious,” said Miriam.
     
    “We’ll have some,” said Farah.
     
    “ KOEKSISTERS !” screamed Jehan, and Miriam blushed crimson.
     
    Everyone in the cafe, it seemed, had turned to look at their table. In the sudden silence, Jehan shouted out again, an unintelligible word this time, and from the table behind them came a snort of laughter, a derisive, mocking sound. Amina looked around, and stood watching the occupants of the table for a long moment. When she finally asked Miriam and Farah what else they might like to eat, she was still watching, and she turned away only to nod briefly to Jacob. He nodded back, and by the time Amina had walked back to the kitchen with the new lunch order, he had given those customers their bill, taken part of their money, and the people were leaving. That they had not yet finished their lunch seemed to be irrelevant, and Miriam marvelled at the