Amma Is Resting

The rules are these. Curtains in the front room stay shut until Appa opens them. Doors are closed by holding the handle down, bringing the door to the frame, and letting the handle up slowly, so that there is no click. The television may be on at volume six. Shoes off at the mat, and carried, not dropped. If the bell rings, Mihir is to get to it before the second ring and say, “Amma is resting,” and if it is the courier he can sign, because he has a signature now, which he practised: an M with a line under it that goes back on itself like a tail.

He is seven and three-quarters. He is good at the rules. He is, he thinks, probably the best in his class at closing a door.