[15: The girl who had stepped out of the elevator was not in uniform.]

She woke, blinded by the sunlight filtering into her room and startled by the bellow from the hallway. 

“Meera!” Uncle Ram sounded angry, but there was something else, too.

“I’m here.” she rolled out of bed, pyjamas still twisted and hair standing sideways where it could when Uncle Ram threw her door open.

“Oh good.” his usual gruff and stern demeanor was in play, but then Meera felt herself pulled toward the man and hugged tight. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

Meera gasped a little at the tight squeeze.

“What’s happened?”

Foggy details from early in the morning flitted through her head and she tried to sort out what was dream and what was memory.

“Your sister’s in hospital, and I couldn’t find you, and it happened so fast and I didn’t know where you’d gone, so I couldn’t call you and...” Uncle Ram trailed off, wheezing slightly. Meera couldn’t remember when he’d said as many words in a conversation, and certainly not in a single sentence. 

Uncle Ram caught his breath. “You scared me. You both did.”

“Ram, what happened to Sama? Why’s she in hospital?”

“She. . . She hurt herself.” The expression on his face said what he wouldn’t say aloud. The mixture of pain and despair was impossible to mistake. “She’s going to be okay.”