Folio Two, Page Twenty-Three (svegra mos rokron tal-biet)

I omitted Senet when listing the components, but he has not yet appeared.

We must continue to waste our time in the cramped cupboard as he enters our house through the front door and tips his head to the stone gate guardian just inside the door. Someone greets him. He sees the commotion in the household and asks what the problem is. One of the servants says, “Nitannyi’s bastard kid has locked herself in the knocker,” and he can understand the thick colloquial Narahji well enough to find the stairs to the second floor and offer his assistance.

Outside the door, he pauses for a moment, looking at my aunt and cousin in a cool manner. Neither woman notices him. He clears his throat. Nikis slaps Anumë again. Finally, Senet says, “May I be of any assistance?”

That is the first sentence I heard from him, and the above is my approximation of what must have happened to make every piece fall into place.

Squatting in the cupboard made my knees feel sharp, but the quick throbbing in my wrists and chest began only when Senet, a stranger, spoke. I thought, That must be one of my mother’s colleagues. As he continued to speak with my aunt and cousin — his formal Narahji was perfect — I focused on his voice’s hopping cadence and commanding volume. It reminded me of a movie hero.

Soon, he went silent. I heard him kneel close to the cabinet and knock against the door three times. “Aneti, don’t be scared. We’ll clean you up and take you downstairs, would you like that?” He used my formal name, so I knew he was proper.

I said, “Who are you?”

“Senet,” he said, “of the Karatha. I came to pay my respects to your family, and I cannot possibly do that without seeing your lovely face.”

I relaxed a bit and pressed my hand against the door. “Have you come to take me out?”

“If you like,” he said. “We don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want to, but I know that a lot of people downstairs would love to meet you. Just think about it — an unknown daughter of the most important woman of our time.”

He spoke like my mother had on television: all politics and flattery — not due to deference, but because the veiled threats implied by the compliments could not be spoken aloud without instigating something. On the playground at school, I had always imitated the style to prevent bullies from nagging me about things. They always went after the scrawny, weak children in my class, but after a few fights I’d put them in their places.

Senet whispered something. The locks whirred and clicked. I heard the deadbolt fall back. No one moved to take me out.

My hands touched the cabinet door. “Make Anumë go away,” I whispered. “I won’t come out until she’s gone.”

“All right. Is one of you Anumë?”

“Yes, I am.”

“She says that she won’t come out until you leave, and I would rather not aggravate the scene that you both seem to have made this evening. Perhaps cleaning yourself up would be the best use of time?”

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