Summary

Sera wakes on the morning she is to take Maya for an abortion. At the time she was asked to accompany Maya she had felt flattered. Now she is irritated because she feels like this is more than she wanted to do when she agreed to pay for Maya’s schooling. Then she reminds herself that she is helping Maya for Bhima.

Her arm begins to ache. She knows the pain is in her head because the injury happened years ago. Yet, she wonders if the body has its own kind of memory. She thinks maybe there are no phantom pains, just the ones caused by the body remembering past trauma. She wonders if the same is true for kindnesses.

Sera recalls the incident in which her arm was injured. She and Feroz had moved out of Banu’s house. Feroz had...