59. The Kowalczyks, part 2.

Ed and Linda Kowalczyk were waiting in the throng of people behind a metal barricade as Sid and Nan followed the brothers Matt and Drew out of the baggage claim area.

Nan had worried briefly that they would look suspicious going through customs with no luggage, and had thought for a moment to ask Matt and Drew if they could borrow their carry-on bags (despite both brothers' refusal to let them help carry anything) just so they wouldn't be so conspicuous.

Customs, however, was a series of benches with not a soul manning them, above which a white, hand-lettered sign proclaimed that anyone having any complaints about a customs official should contact a Hotmail address. Her worry abated. Strangely, Drew and Matt hadn't asked why Sid and Nan didn't have any bags.

Ed was a pleasant-looking man with a slight sunburn, which looked redder over his pale yellow polo shirt. Linda was slightly overweight. They were both about six inches shorter than Drew, the taller of their sons. They glanced at each other when they saw that their two sons apparently had a couple of friends in tow. Ed gestured for his sons to meet him on the opposite side of the barricade.

Hugs were exchanged, and introductions made. Drew introduced his parents, who stood waiting patiently to discover who the new faces were. "Mom, Dad, this is Nan Pressman and Sid--" Drew turned to Sid. "I'm sorry, did you say your last name is Lister?"

Sid addressed Ed and Linda, who were growing more perplexed by the moment. "It's a great pleasure to meet you. I had asked Drew earlier if we could impose on you for a place to stay." As always, he framed the question so directly he might have been referring to a grocery list.

Ed Kowalczyk's eyebrows went up, but his smile didn't disappear. Linda, too, was frozen in a smile, and looked a little helplessly at Ed. Sid went on. "We're only in India for a little while. We just decided on the spur of the moment to come here, and hadn't really made any arrangements." All four Kowalczyks were watching him with rapt attention.

"So you met Matt and Drew on the plane," Ed said.

"Actually no, just in there, at baggage claim."

Ed glanced at Sid and then at Nan. "But...but you don't have any bags."

"No," Sid said, smiling. "We don't have any bags."

Nan interjected, "Well, we do have these cool little travel kits they gave us on the plane, with toothpaste, a comb, socks..."

Linda's maternal instincts won out. "What! You don't even have anything to wear?" Nan could tell that Ed's mind had already put together that travel kits with socks meant first class. He took a breath.

Sid shrugged. "I thought we'd just pick up some things once we were here."

Ed said, "But you've been to India before? I mean, I hope you didn't just decide to get on a plane and..."

"Ed!" Linda said, with a tone of mild censure.

Sid laughed. "I've been here many times before."

Ed relaxed a bit. "Well, that's good. This isn't the sort of place you can just, you know, wing it." Drew and Matt nodded in agreement.

Linda still looked concerned. "But you do know people here? I mean, of course you're welcome to stay with us, for a few days anyway, but what were you planning to do while you're here?" Ed didn't say anything, but Nan wondered if he was thinking, if these kids hop on a plane on a whim and fly first class, why can't they get a hotel? Nan had to give him that--she was wondering the same thing.

"We know some people," Sid said thoughtfully. Nan glanced at him. Was he lying? She had never known him to lie. "They might be tough to find, and I'm sure some of them aren't around just now." Oh, come on, Sid, she thought. You may not be lying, but you're skirting dangerously close. You're talking about people from other lifetimes.

Linda cocked her head, weighing what he had said. Behind Linda and Ed, their driver, his hands already poised to pick up Drew and Matt's suitcases, shifted uncomfortably. "Mostly I just wanted Nan to see India. We'd talked about it a bit, and it seemed the right time to come."

Linda looked at Ed. She had made up her mind. He didn't look like he was going to object. "Well, it'll be a tight squeeze in the car, but if you two don't mind sharing the front seat, we're only about twenty-five minutes from the airport."

Sid smiled, as did the driver, who realized that whatever negotiation was taking place had concluded. They followed him past some low concrete barricades, through a few piles of filth into an utterly dark parking area. Here and there bright dashed yellow or white lines had been painted on the asphalt, but they didn't logically lead anywhere and seemed more for decoration than any particular organizational function.

"We're in Vasant Kunj," Ed said to Sid, perhaps testing his knowledge of the city. Nan, a bit relieved that forcing themselves on the Kowalczyks hadn't blown up in their faces, savored the sound of "Vasant Kunj" (a neighborhood?) as she took in the smell of the air. Dust; some garbage, for sure; car exhaust, definitely that; something sweet; orange peels...and what was that other smell? The air has a density here, she thought. Charcoal; something cooking (but where?); a little bit of a rain smell, the way rain smelled when it fell on dry, dusty ground...but where would she have smelled that before?

Drew and Matt were chatting about who they were going to look up first. Nan had the impression they might have gone to school here, since they seemed to be talking about people their age. Stray sounds kept jutting into her attention--bicycle bells ringing, a kind of buzzing, quavering horn, the thin, tinny sound of Indian film music coming out of a little radio, a bell, so many voices...

Linda turned to Nan. "You must be so excited," she whispered. "I'm guessing it's your first time?"

Nan nodded, smiling. She liked Linda, who was much more of an archetypal mother than her own. She wondered what Isabel would do here, then remembered, a bit surprised, that her parents had been to India several times before she was born--and on one of those trips, she guessed, came up with the idea of naming her after a man, a man long dead, the Buddha's beloved disciple, who wrote down the Enlightened One's teachings, a person who had lived two and a half thousand years ago. Was she following in his footsteps?

She thought of the flower-shaped mark on Sid's heel, and accepted Linda's outstretched hand.