'Hot Water'| Book Excerpt

When I asked Ma why volcanoes erupt, she told me they had a tummy ache and had to belch all the lava out, thick, hot and molten. When I asked her why trees grow, Ma said that they were in a race to touch the sky. When I asked her why it rains so heavily sometimes that the water goes drip-drip-drip from the ceiling onto the bunk bed, she said the clouds were like a faulty water tap which a plumber had turned on in anger. Then, today, when I asked Ma about her big black mole, she said it라이브 바카라 a little creature on her face who sees everything we think and do.

Ma and I were sitting in the dentist라이브 바카라 office. Ma had promised me that we were visiting only because of her wisdom tooth, and not because of a cavity that I had somehow got without even knowing. OK, Maaa, I said, I’ll go. But really, even if I had said no, I think she would have taken me anyway. Being at the dentist라이브 바카라 is a lot like being at school. You have to wait in class and hold your breath while the teacher calls out many names before yours for attendance. You know your turn is coming but you’re still nervous because you need to speak up and enunciate like Mrs Dubey insists and say Yes! or Present! like your heart isn’t going thump-thump inside. Maybe that라이브 바카라 how Ma was feeling too because she cupped her jaw with one hand and was biting the nails of the other.

Ma doesn’t like us to tell people that she has bad teeth. It라이브 바카라 her secret. Ashu has secrets, too, like the fact that sometimes he tells Ma that he is going to tuition but really, he is off to Rahul라이브 바카라 place for hours. I don’t have cavities. But because I’m only eight, I don’t have any secrets either.

The dentist라이브 바카라 office was in a basement with no windows in it because if you could see outside, you would want to run away—no one likes dentists, that라이브 바카라 the rule. Ma was now flipping through a big pile of magazines that was kept on the table. Ma loves reading. She reads fat books and thin books, the back of the hair-oil bottle, and she has to read lots of things for her work too. She also likes to read our report card, but I don’t like to think about that. At the dentist라이브 바카라, every two minutes, Ma clicked her teeth as she read and went Ssssssst, shaking her head like she was disappointed with the writer. Then she picked up another magazine. Ma is disappointed a lot—she gives me and Ashu a Look when we do things she doesn’t like, like when we ask the same questions over and over or try on her kajal or lipstick without asking.

When there were only two names left before her turn, Ma clutched a magazine with bright yellow borders and a picture of lions in the front and sat up straight.

I asked her, ‘What are you reading, Ma? What라이브 바카라 so exciting?’

But she ignored me.

When she was done, she set the magazine down and said, ‘There라이브 바카라 a tiger cub in the Sundarbans who ate his mother라이브 바카라 posterior when they ran out of food. Can you imagine?’

When we went back home, Ma had a funny look on her face, maybe because of the injection in her teeth but probably because she was still disappointed. She pushed a large casserole of rice towards Ashu and me and said, ‘Don’t want the two of you eating my bum. Serve yourselves.’

Later, both Ashu and I climbed all over Ma and fought about who would get to put the medicine paint on her gums. They had swollen up a lot and looked pink and bright like the colour of pomegranates, which I liked. Ma라이브 바카라 teeth are stubborn, and don’t rattle and move like mine do, especially when I bite too hard into a toffee someone hands out at school for their birthday. When it was my turn after Ashu라이브 바카라, I ran my little finger over her gum, especially the area where a tooth was now missing. I spread the paint on it lightly and imagined wise thoughts sprouting from the area and going straight into her head.

That night, I dreamt about little tiger dentists who were fighting over who would get to remove Ma라이브 바카라 wisdom tooth. Everything was bright white and yellow at the same time, like the headlights of a car but right inside Ma라이브 바카라 mouth. At the end of the dream, Ashu jumped out of a kiddie tiger suit—with a zip and everything—and inched closer and closer towards Ma. He was just about to climb onto the chair and open his mouth and roar, but I woke up before anything could happen.

Excerpted with permission from Hot Water by Bhavika Govil, HarperCollins India