Mother And Son

When I first heard what had happened, I didn't really understand. I was lying on the sofa in the living room watching television. The phone rang and then soon after my aunt came in and stood beside me. My aunt was short and had white hair. 'Birju has had an accident,' she said. My aunt was probably five feet tall and had a wrinkled face but she had dentures that gave her oddly young teeth. 'Birju's been taken to the hospital. I have to go to the hospital.' She said this and looked worried. I didn't know what my aunt meant. Perhaps Birju had had to go to the hospital to get an injection.

My cousin Naveen was in the house. He was twenty-two and he had a round face and a shy smile that often made him look like he wanted to please. He came and sat beside me on the sofa. At first we kept the television off because it seemed bad manners to watch TV when something serious might have happened. Then we got bored and turned the TV on again.