Rahel, as an adult, finds her childhood treasures hidden in the same place she left them years before. Estha silently watches her, thinking of trains. Amongst the treasures she finds their old school notebooks, where the twins did their first lessons. In Estha's notebook, he wrote a happy little story about his mother's birthday. They gave Ammu a diary as a present, and then they lay on the bed talking and had a little feast. It was such a happy scene Estha had written about.
Rahel sadly recalls the last time she saw her mother. Rahel was eleven at the time and already being expelled from school. No longer living in Ayemenem because Chacko said she had destroyed enough already, Ammu was weak and sick with asthma. She couldn't keep a.....
