The day before their trip, Mrs. Krishnan dropped Sree off at his friend’s house and took Neela with her to the bookstore. “Lalitha Patti wants a book on gardening,” her mother said. In the home-and-gardening aisle, they found rows and rows of books. “How am I supposed to pick one?” “Get a bunch,” Neela said. She hated shopping with her mother. It always took forever because her mother would get sucked into a black hole of indecision. “Did you see the size of these books? How will we carry more than one in our suitcase?” Mrs. Krishnan stared at the titles as if the answer would come to her. “I’m going to the kids’ section,” Neela announced. She figured it would be a while before her mother escaped from the black hole. She was actually not in the mood to read, so she wandered through the store instead. She was too preoccupied with all she had found out in the last few days. Until she learned who Hal was, she had not even thought much about Veronica—who she was, how she’d lived, how everything had ended so suddenly for her.
