Page 63 of Isn't It Obvious?
“I think I have to take her to Eugene this weekend,” Suresh says, poking his head out from the kitchen.
“Why?”
“No natural history museum in Portland. Can we talk after bedtime?”
“Sure,” Ravi says, the unease in his stomach calcifying. He joins Mia on the couch, reaching for the remote to press pause.
“Dada,” she whines.
“How many of these have you watched?” he asks.
She holds up one finger, just as Suresh calls, “Three!”
“Alright, this is the last one. We can play Connect Four for the rest of the time until dinner.”
She crosses her arms. “I don’t want to play Connect Four. I want to be a curator!”
Ravi bites back his laugh. “You can be. You just have a lot of school to do first.”
“I’m very smart. I’ll do it fast,” she says.
“But not before dinner,” he counters.
“I don’t want to play Connect Four,” she insists, frowning.
“How about we play nail salon?”
Her smile spreads, toothy and wide. “Really?” Ravi nods, and Mia’s off, the video about—he checks the screen—Christ, the coevolution of viruses with humans all but forgotten.
She paints each of his fingernails (and much of his fingers, too) a different color, swatting his hand every time he moves.They eat their stew chicken and dal and rice, Suresh chatting about his day at work and Mia about hers at preschool, and then Ravi is on dishes while Suresh handles bedtime.
All the while, Ravi can’t shake his worry. Maybe it’s Dad. He had a heart attack a few years ago, but he’s been okay since. His doctors said he was healthy. But Mom would’ve called him if something had happened, wouldn’t she?
It’s alright. If it was anything that bad, Suresh would’ve told him earlier. No sense worrying about it. He puts on the latest rough cut of theLord of the Fliesepisode, which he is thinking of as untitled currently, because Elle’s first thought, “Who Does It Serve to Believe Humans Are Innately Evil,” isn’t as pithy as either of them would like. It’s strange hearing her voice now. The flutter in his chest is still there, but it’s a guilty one.
Ravi relaxes into doing the dishes, scrubbing and drying, letting his ear catch on the moments where her pauses stretch or she abandons a sentence midway through. When he’s done with the dishes, he moves to the couch, and Suresh doesn’t reappear until there’s only a minute left in the audio file.
Ravi removes his headphones just as Suresh says, “Margot coming to the States.”
“Shit,” Ravi says.
Suresh sits next to him on the couch, looking straight ahead at the Roku screen saver. “Yeah.”
“When?”
“Next weekend. Veteran’s Day. I have an extra day off work, and Mia’s preschool is closed.”
“You gonna see her,” Ravi says. Not as a question—it’s clear that Suresh has already decided.
Suresh shrugs. “Don’t dam de bridge yuh have to cross,” he mumbles, sounding just like their dad.
“She coming to Portland?”
“No.” Suresh shakes his head. “Willamette Valley, touring some of the vineyards.” He pauses. “It’s better this way, neutral ground.”
Ravi nods, joining Suresh in staring at the illustrated cityscape cruising by on the TV. “So I’ll have Mia on my own next weekend?”
“I’m bringing Mia with me,” Suresh says.
