The God of Small Things - Get a Free Blog

erths green. The floor green. The chains green. Darkgreen
Lightgreen.
To Stop Train Pull Chain , it said in green.
Ot pots niart llup niahc , Estha thought in green.
Through the window bars, Ammu held his hand.
“Keep your ticket carefully,” Ammu‟s mouth said. Ammu‟s
trying-not-to-cry mouth. “They‟ll come and check.”
Estha nodded down at Ammu‟s face tilted up to the train
window. At Rahel, small and smudged with station dirt. All three
of them bonded by the certain, separate knowledge that they had
loved a man to death.
That wasn‟t in the papers.
It took the twins years to understand Ammu‟s part in what
had happened. At Sophie Mol‟s funeral and in the days before
Estha was Returned, they saw her swollen eyes, and with the
self-centeredness of children, held themselves wholly culpable for
her grief.
“Eat the sandwiches before they get soggy,” Ammu said.
“And don‟t forget to write.”
She scanned the finger-nails of the little hand she held, and
slid a black sickle of dirt from under the thumb-nail.
“And look after my sweetheart for me. Until I come and get
him.”
“When, Ammu? When will you come for him?”
“Soon.”
“But when? When eggzackly?”
“Soon, sweetheart. As soon as I can.”
“Month-after-next? Ammu?” Deliberately making it a long
time away so that Ammu would say Before that, Estha. Be
practical. What about your studies?
“As soon as I get a job. As soon as I can go away from here