‘Lavi, get out of the front seat and let your aunt sit there,’ Kamala said as she pulled out of the garage. The girl stayed where she was, strapping herself in.
‘It doesn’t matter, Kamala, I’ll be fine in the back,’ Tara said, climbing in.
Lavi turned the volume to the fullest, and kept flipping stations.
‘Why do I have to come on this stupid river cruise? Why can’t I just stay home?’
‘Be quiet, Lavi, please,’ Kamala said, pressing the garage door shut with the remote. She put the car in reverse, and was about to drive off when the door went up again. Ranjan was standing at the door to the house, signalling them to stop.
Kamala lowered her window. ‘What?’ she said.
‘I have a dinner meeting at six o’clock so you guys better be back by then. You’ll have to feed Rahul anyway.’
‘Fine.’
In the rearview mirror, Tara could see Kamala’s face. Her sister met her eyes for a second and looked away.
‘You know, this is really not so important,’ Tara said. ‘I’m sure I’ll come to Louisville some other time, when you can, you know, show me the sights. Why don’t we just stick around at home?’
Lavi looked at her mother.
‘No. We’ve decided, so let’s just do it.’ Kamala called a number. ‘Three tickets for the two o’clock cruise please, name K for Kentucky, U for United States, R for…’
They drove out of the subdivision and turned on to River Road. There were marshy fields on the right, away from the river, probably flood plains. Between the road and the river were old houses and what seemed to be paddocks with white palings, and on both sides, country estates from some earlier period with their own docks and boats. All along the road ran a biker’s path on which rode a cyclist or two from time to time. On the river, tugboats patiently pushed barges. When they had driven a fair distance on the road, it turned so sharply that it felt as if they had crossed the river over into Indiana. Several bridges spanned the Ohio. On one, a freight train was lazily pulling itself across. For a second, it looked like its length stretched from end to end of the bridge.
They parked under the road at Spaghetti Junction, and walked past a place called Joe’s Crab Shack to where the Belle of Louisville was docked, looking for all the world like something out of Tom Sawyer. The white steamboat with its friendly red-and-white paddlewheel was the oldest steamboat still in use, so a sign read. There were a few minutes left before the queue would form to get on the Belle, so they went down one level from the road to the river. It was grey-brown, seething with fish and pollution as it flowed south in one broad arc, giving up subtly pungent odours into the icy air coming at them in waves. Tara pulled the furry pink jacket Kamala had loaned her close, pushed her hands deep into the pockets. With a pang she remembered Eliza Harris, crossing the Ohio on ice floes with her small son, desperate for freedom.
A raucous tune that sounded like it was coming out of an organ from the Belle’s calliope cut through the air. Lavi looked like she had smelt something bad, put her hands over her ears, and climbed back up towards the road. Tara felt exhilarated by the cold, by the merry steam music.
Kamala smiled at her. ‘Good we came,’ she said.
The line began to form. She quickly went to join it, with Kamala following her and a sullen Lavi making up the rear, now shut off from the world by her iPod and the mobile phone she was energetically texting on with both hands, like a monkey cracking open a nut.
The uniformed man at the boarding point glanced through their bags. ‘Off you go,’ he said, waving them in. There were more uniformed men waiting in a line on the bottom deck. A flight of stairs led them up into the boat. They went up to the top deck where chairs were arranged all around the sides. The old white lady playing the calliope nodded and smiled at them.
She went round to what she presumed was the front of the boat and sat down. The other two joined her.
‘Mom,’ Lavi said, suddenly pulling off her iPod, ‘how long does this thing last?’
‘An hour, dear.’
‘Mom!’ she said. ‘What are we going to do here for an hour? I wish you’d let me stay home!’ She glared at them both, jammed her earphones on, and turned her back on them.
‘Lavi,’ her mother said.
‘Let her be, Kamala,’ Tara said, feeling vaguely guilty, embarrassed and irritated. She should have kept her mouth shut when Kamala asked her if there was anything she wanted to do before she left. She had remembered reading about the Belle and thought it might be fun to do a Mark Twain-type thing. She hadn’t really thought Kamala would insist on bringing Lavanya along. She wished the girl would go sit somewhere else so she did not have to see her scowling. She decided to ignore her, and looked out at the river.
A barge carrying coal went by. Two jet skis racing each other went the other way. She could see the captain standing at the bridge above them, waiting for the last passengers to board. The Belle hissed like an outsized cat. Steam poured out of the top of the smoke stacks. Some of it escaped from below. The paddle wheel trod water, and at exactly two o’clock, the Belle began moving away bit by bit from the dock into the middle of the river. A narrator’s voice could be heard faintly from the deck below but was defeated by the sound of the steam. She stopped trying to understand what was being said, and decided to focus on the river.
Kamala looked at her. ‘Enjoy yourself. I’m going to take a nap.’ She pulled her cap over her eyes, and slid further into her seat.
Lavi was still showing her back to them. Tara looked at the river. It was nice to be on her own. The Belle travelled north, back the way they had come. A Metro Police boat crossed it. On the right, they passed the modest city skyline. She could see a huge poster of Muhammad Ali, the Louisville Lip.
She would be glad to get home. The only unfinished business – if, indeed, business was ever finished – seemed to be there.
Kamala woke up as the Belle turned back at Three-Mile Island. Lavi was still looking the other way, headphones on.
‘I never asked. How did it go with Rahul and the herbal guy?’ Tara said. She stared at the weaving patterns of the wake.
Kamala stretched a bit, looked at her watch. ‘Well, he freaked out when they did the oil-dripping-on-the-head thingy, and he doesn’t like being touched, so they had to hold him down, it was kind of crazy,’ she said. ‘But he seems a lot calmer.’
‘You know, they did something similar for Adi’s nephew at home, he has ADHD,’ Tara said. ‘It did seem to help.’
‘ADHD, AD freaking HD!’ Kamala said. ‘That’s not a real problem. This is. This is autism, for heaven’s sake, not some stupid made-up disorder, treated by fringe doctors wanting to make money! God, I can’t believe how gullible you people are.’
‘Don’t yell at her, Mom,’ Lavi said, swinging around. ‘Other people have issues too, you know! We’re not the centre of the goddamn world!’
Good Lord, not another scene.
Kamala paused. ‘I can speak to my sister any way I want,’ she said.
‘No, you can’t, Mom,’ Lavi said. ‘That’s the whole point.’ She turned her back to them, adjusted her headphones. They could hear the thump of bass. She was going to be deaf by the time she got to their age.
Lavi pulled off her headphones. ‘And what do you mean, “you people”? You mean Indians? You’re Indian yourself, Mom!’
‘So?’
‘So don’t talk to her like that!’ Lavi jammed her headphones back on. ‘I hope you can see that she’s done you a freaking favour, coming here!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘What do you think I mean!’ Lavi said, pulling off her headphones again. ‘You don’t think she’s got her own life, her own things to do? What’s so great about us that she has to give up her life to come here?’
‘That’s fine, Lavi,’ Tara said. ‘I didn’t mind.’
People a few chairs down were looking at them.
‘Well, she’s my sister, she came because I needed help, because I asked her,’ Kamala said.
‘Yeah? And would you go to India for three weeks if Tara needed you?’
Her mother hesitated.
‘No, you wouldn’t! Because you’re too freaking important, leading your important freaking life here! Here’s a newsflash, Mom: nobody gives a shit! You should be happy you even have a sister who cares!’ Lavi put on her headphones and turned away.
The Belle was almost back to where it had started from.
‘She’s right,’ Kamala said. She stared out over the water. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be,’ Tara said.
‘I really do appreciate that you came.’
‘I know.’
DANISHA
It explodes.