“Give me a house tour,” says a friend through the screen
(we are supposed to be working)
It’s 6:00 AM during what is, technically,
The last finals week of our degrees.
We’d only been home for two months, then.
My laptop is a clunky, heavy thing.
But I’m supposed to be working –
So I heft it up.
Here is our dining table. Here is our prayer room –
(“that’s a fucking temple,” says my screen)
Here is our living room – say hi, Amma –
Here is our - (“is this a media lounge?”)
Yeah. Basically.
It goes on and on.
He says, “This is thrice the size of my house.”
(he lives in Mumbai)
But he’s right – the house is absurdly huge –
The possibility of staying in it through the summer
makes my stomach twist.
Outside, the rain starts anew.
“Can you hear that?” I say into my mic, and
He has me pick the laptop up again and carry it to the window.
Show me! Take me!
He can’t see a thing, but we pretend anyway.
Sahana Hegde is a graduate of Ashoka University, where she majored in psychology and minored in creative writing. She lives in Bangalore, India, where she is currently a Research, Education, and Training Associate at BrainSightAI. She has previously written reviews of novels and short story collections at Scroll.in.