She called Arjun from Singapore that evening — called him, not waited for him to call. She asked about the baby and about his wife and about the project he had mentioned once and not elaborated on. She talked to the baby, who was fourteen months old and had recently discovered that dropping things from the high chair produced an excellent response from the adults in the room. She and Arjun laughed about this for several minutes. She told him about the Zumba class. He said: "Amma, that's brilliant," with the specific relief of a son who has been worried from a great distance and is receiving evidence that the worry can be downgraded.
After she hung up she sat at the kitchen table and wrote, on a piece of paper — the old habit of the English teacher, working through ideas by writing them — the word available.
Available for what was not yet clear. But the capacity was there, and that was different from where she had been a month ago, and different was worth something.
