Linksshifter II

A Path Between The Waves - ~~~

Maybe it was the late workout, or eating like three rotli and a large plate of potato curry even after that finishing up her homework and waiting up another hour for Naresh to mail her back before she went to bed, but Sonali did not sleep well, waking up to the early sun and a tangle of half-remembered dreams, the sense of black water and cold currents flowing over her ears, a brighter yellow sun filtered through a strange spectrum and the smell of sand. Sonali always had trouble remembering her dreams, but this was different, and stranger, and worse: like if she could remember what she'd been dreaming about, something would resolve itself – like she'd understand something she needed to understand, but just wasn't seeing. She rolled up, clutching the trilobite on its chain – she'd forgotten to take it off, just fallen asleep in her trackie because that wasn't a problem, and after yesterday it wasn't like she needed to keep it clean or anything.

Whatever it was, Sonali wasn't getting back to sleep. She reached over for her phone – no reply, Naresh probably wasn't even awake yet, even two hours further east – and set it back down with a clunk. There was no use sitting around here waiting for him, and without the club, she didn't have an excuse to just disappear on a non school day. There was really nothing for it but to go downstairs, but if she could help her mum out a little with breakfast, maybe baba would start to get the message that all that time playing football hadn't actually made her useless at everything else.

Down in the kitchen, though, Sonali had to reconsider that a little: she wasn't useless-useless in the kitchen, but there wasn't a lot that she could trust herself to put together correctly that she could serve other people for breakfast. But they had some extra bananas that were starting to turn, and malpuas were easy enough. Sonali started the ghee to fry them in the bottom of a pan, letting it come up slow, as she drew the water for porridge and then peeled the bananas to mash them in with the flour.

The ghee was just starting to pop, the batter in the bowl in Sonali's hands nearly all smooth all the way through, when she noticed some movement behind her, at the kitchen door. "Woah! Sona! What are you doing?"

She turned around, cocking an eyebrow as she dropped the first spoonful of batter into the pan with a hiss. Ajay was standing in the middle of the door dumbstruck – was it really so weird that she was helping out around the house? – with Anjali behind him, peering around the frame. "I'm making breakfast, what's it look like? If you want some, go ahead and sit down; the first ones'll be up in a couple minutes."

"What's for breakfast, Sonali?" Anji had stepped in around the corner of the frame and was standing straight up, hands folded in front of her, reserved and respectful.

"Malpuas and there'll be porridge in a bit; if you want I guess you can make toast too, there's bread enough left." Sonali was watching the fritters in the oil, making sure they stayed under to cook, but didn't go and burn.

"That's it? But it's Saturday."

"But nothing – for once in forever I wake up early and make yous breakfast and you give me stick about it? Gies peace, Anji, you know better than that." Sonali took a deep breath and reminded herself that the twins were only ten, and they didn't mean anything by it. "There's batter for khaman in the fridge as well, but mum will be cross with me if I go and mess about with that; maybe we'll have that later."

"Can we help?" Ajay was up on his tiptoes, braced on the counter, trying to look past Sonali to the pan on the stove.

"You can help by setting the table – you're still too young to mess about with hot oil." She pushed him back, softly but firmly, with a hip check, and turned over one of the malpuas with a fork, pushing it back down under the ghee.