The phone rings through her pillow, jolting Sparrow awake. Four AM, and Imran finally calls. She keeps her voice low, but it’s still trembling. “What’s up?”
“We’re negotiating. The speculator is haggling over the price, but Magda believes she can reel him in.” Imran sounds like he’s been up too long and needs to crash.
She wants to get excited. “But how can that work? How can he get away with selling me to you, but Sotheby’s can’t?”
“Because the deal is disguised as an insurance policy against you running away.”
“I run and he gets money?”
“The price he paid and more. Brilliant, don’t you think?”
“Yes.” It’s an elegant solution--so clear and simple--how can anything possibly go wrong? Dad and the speculator get their money. Imran gets Sparrow.
“I can’t believe it. And your mother’s good with this?”
“My mother does not believe girls should be sold into marriage against their will.”
His words sound so distant, so theoretical. Sparrow wishes he’d said, “She wants me to be happy,” or “My mother will love you,” but maybe she’s reading too much into it. If Mum’s spending millions of dollars on Sparrow, she has to approve.
“Magda sent me the meeting site. I don’t think I’ll have trouble getting there.”
“It’s close by?”
“Close enough.”
“Tomorrow night this will all be over.”
There’s so much she wants to tell him. About Dad selling her to buy himself a wife her age. About her friend Yates getting beaten up and jailed at the protest. But it’s too early and there isn’t time.
Once they’re together, they’ll have lots of time.
“I can’t wait to see you, and to get the hell out of here,” Sparrow says.
“You can go anywhere in the world. Where do you want to go first?”
“I don’t know. Tokyo, maybe. Mumbai, definitely so I can savor a perfect cup of chai.”
Imran is quiet. “I love you, Natasha.”
“And I love you, Hawkeye.”
“I need to go.”
“OK, call you later,” she whispers, but he’s hung up. Sparrow has the strangest feeling of finality--like the experiment’s over and he’s disassembling the equipment.
She lies in bed and dissects exactly what he said, but can’t find any one thing he said that points to an end for them.
Finally, she gives up and falls back asleep.
YOU ARE READING
Sparrow's Story - A Girl Defiant
Teen FictionBoston, Harvard, but most of all, Imran. That’s what Sparrow wants. Imran is physics and poetry, deep brown eyes and a smile that makes her heart race. And he’s the only guy she’s ever met who loves her brilliant mind as much as her beauty. They’ve...
