by Sheela Chari
“Something’s going on,” Mrs. Krishnan said. “The rock, these phone calls back and forth with Pavi, getting into trouble at school, and that boy who got in trouble, too. And don’t tell me he’s not involved. I have a note from Ms. Reese saying the two of you sit next to each other and are consistently late.”
“But that’s crazy. I didn’t choose to sit next to Matt. We were assigned. It’s just a coincidence we’re both late to school.”
“There are no coincidences,” Mrs. Krishnan said.
“Maybe you just have to trust me instead of thinking I’m up to no good.”
“I never said that,” Mrs. Krishnan said. “It’s just…” Her voice trailed off.
They looked at each other, and in her mother’s eyes, Neela saw something she hadn’t seen before: a look of sadness. She tried to ignore the twinge of guilt she felt. She had done nothing wrong. Well, maybe she had done things without asking permission. But they had been for a good reason, an important reason. Her mother, on the other hand, had seemingly given up looking for the veena, and with no good explanation—unless it was because of bad luck, which was barely a reason at all, as far as Neela was concerned. So Neela looked away and sat at her desk to do her math homework. She kept her back turned, and focused on her work until she heard her mother finally leave the room.
“We’re in for a real treat today,” Ms. Reese said. “You want to share, Amanda?”
Amanda stood up, twinkling in a powder blue sweater with glitter sewn in. “My mom’s a photographer, and she’s talking to us about what she does.”
Three seats down, Lynne suddenly started coughing, as if she’d swallowed something wrong. Neela turned, remembering the camera shop. Lynne was probably excited to see a real photographer now that she had a fancy new camera of her own. Except, as Neela watched her, excitement didn’t seem to be the right word. If anything, Lynne looked as though she was going to be sick. She shifted around in her chair and then took her glasses off, rubbing them nervously on the front of her jeans. Without her glasses, her eyes were unexpectedly large, and reminded Neela of classical Indian dancers who wore kajal, a black eyeliner, around their eyes when they performed. A few moments later, Lynne put her glasses back on and looked like the old Lynne again. Except that she seemed on the verge of a heart attack. What was the matter with her?
Just then, Matt sat down next to Neela. It amazed her that even after their punishment, he still came to class late. Today he wore a T-shirt with the words def leppard on it, and orange sweatpants that matched his hair. “Check out my dad’s old T-shirt. Def Leppard rules.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” she said coolly.
Ever since their bus trip last week, something strange had happened. The next day at school, apparently everyone seemed to know that Neela and Matt had been punished for late minutes. Maybe it was because it had never happened to anyone else before. A few kids even asked about it. Amanda came up to them and asked, “So are you guys like, BFFs now?”
Neela tried to think of a good comeback, but she drew a blank.
Matt kept it short and simple. “Bug off,” he said.
Still, Amanda had made them self-conscious. Neela suddenly remembered all the weird, space-alien stuff Matt was into, and maybe he remembered he didn’t usually speak to her outside of class. Whatever it was, Neela and Matt didn’t talk about Lynne, Harvard Square, or Sudha Auntie. It was as if the bus trip had never happened.
“Whoa, who’s that?” Matt asked.
“Amanda’s mom,” Penny said.
In front of them, Elizabeth Bones strode into class, wearing suede pants with tassels, a cream-colored silk blouse, a silver-buckled belt, and black leather riding boots. In one hand she carried a leather attaché, and in the other, an assortment of leather cases for her camera equipment. Her gear looked so complex and important that it seemed like Mrs. Bones was going on a safari or some other dangerous expedition instead of speaking to a bunch of sixth grade students.
As soon as she saw her, Neela recognized her. It was the blond photographer at Alfred Tannenbaum’s concert!
“What is she, a supermodel?” Matt asked, gawking at her.
“She’s too old to be a model,” Neela whispered, feeling catty. She hadn’t noticed the other day at the concert hall just how gorgeous Amanda’s mother was.
Elizabeth Bones pushed her straw-colored hair back. “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” she said. “Anyone hear that before?”
The class murmured yes, staring at her.
“In photography, beauty is in the hands of the photographer. The photographer controls what you see and how you see it.”
Neela had never thought of photography that way. But Amanda’s mom did seem like the controlling type. Neela remembered her rudeness at the concert.
Her heart started racing. She also remembered that Elizabeth Bones was at the café with the Indian man, asking all those questions about Guru originals, as if she had seen one before. Did Elizabeth Bones know where her grandmother’s veena might be? Maybe Neela could go up to her after class and ask, if she could only work up the nerve.
Elizabeth Bones snapped open one of the leather bags. “I’m passing around the latest Boston Living,” she said to the class. “You can look at my work while I’m talking.” She continued, describing photographs she had taken of sea life on a trip to Hawaii.
Meanwhile, Neela was trying to figure out why Lynne looked as if she were having a meltdown. Was it her imagination or was Lynne trying to slide under her desk? In just the last few minutes, Lynne had slumped down with her legs and lower body hidden away. Neela couldn’t understand it, especially when Elizabeth Bones was talking about photography. Was Lynne jealous because she wanted to be a world-famous photographer but she was only in sixth grade? Or did she have food poisoning? It was hard to tell.
Penny poked Neela in the back and handed her the magazine from behind. “There’s an India page,” she whispered.
“Really?” Neela whispered back. She flipped through the pages until she came to an article titled, “Rooms with a World View.” The photo shoot! Elizabeth Bones had gone ahead with the article. Just think, if her veena hadn’t been stolen, it would be in the magazine right now. Neela went through the photographs of rooms from Italy and France and Spain, until she came to the one with Indian decor, and a full-length photo of a veena by itself. Only…Neela stared at the photo, dumbstruck. Only it was her veena staring right at her from the inside spread of Boston Living. Without thinking, she clutched Matt’s arm.
“Huh?” he whispered. He was in the middle of sketching an electric guitar.
Neela wrote on his paper: It’s my veena. She pointed to the magazine spread.
Behind her, Penny was trying to figure out what was going on.
Matt’s eyes widened. He wrote: R U sure?
Neela nodded. Yes!!
OMG! What R U gonna do??
Talk to Mrs. B!
Penny poked Neela in the back again. Neela looked at her and shook her head mutely. It was too much to explain. For the next few minutes, she could hardly concentrate on anything. She kept staring at the photograph. There it was, the same dragon with folded wings and a tail, the same bronze frets, the same initials barely visible against the wood. At first, Neela felt a sense of outrage. Amanda’s mother had known about the veena all along! Here was proof. Had she stolen the veena herself? Or did she have a secret connection with the person who did? Maybe they were in cahoots, as part of an elaborate scheme to…to what? Take a photo for a magazine?
Neela began to slowly calm down. Because it soon occurred to her that if Elizabeth Bones had any interest in stealing the veena, the last thing she would do was publish a photograph of it in Boston Living. Or bring the magazine to her daughter’s class. There had to be another explanation. At that moment, Neela met Lynne’s stricken eyes, and she knew she had to talk to Amanda’s mother right away.
At last, Elizabeth Bones wrapped things up and began packing up her e
quipment. As soon as she had answered the last question, Neela leaped from her chair.
Amanda, who was standing next to her mother, saw Neela approaching. Even with everything on her mind, it struck Neela, as she saw them side by side, how unlike each other they were. Amanda’s auburn hair was in direct contrast to her mother’s platinum blond. “You remember Neela,” Amanda said. “The girl with the veena.”
Elizabeth Bones smiled, but with a distant, puzzled look in her eyes. “This girl?”
“She lost her veena. I told you that.”
Elizabeth Bones kept smiling. “You tell me so many things, Amanda.” She said it as if most of what Amanda told her was in between important deadlines at the office and therefore subject to being forgotten. Then she said, “But there was that other girl.”
“What other girl?” asked Amanda.
Neela finally spoke up. She had been dying to talk during the whole exchange between Amanda and her mother. “Mrs. Bones, I really like your work, but there’s something strange here about the veena photo.”
“Oh, yes?” Elizabeth Bones asked.
“Well, here’s the thing,” Neela continued. “Where did you photograph it? Because—”
“What other girl?” Amanda repeated.
“The other girl who contacted me,” Elizabeth Bones said to her daughter.
Why weren’t they listening to her? “It’s my veena,” said Neela. “In the photograph.”
“Your veena?” Amanda said. “I thought it was stolen.”
Elizabeth Bones shook her head. “It was definitely another girl’s. I would know. I went to her apartment.”
Amanda turned to her. “Mom, who was the other girl?”
“She’s in this classroom.” Elizabeth Bones pointed. “That girl right there.”
Even before she looked, Neela knew who it was.
As Neela made her way across the room, she tried to think of the first question to ask. Lynne watched her, and it seemed she slid farther into her desk, her frizzy hair spilling over in sad waves. Behind Neela trailed Amanda, while her mother talked with Ms. Reese.
Neela held up the magazine article to Lynne. “Do you know about this?”
Lynne looked nervously at the photograph. “I can explain,” she said.
“Yeah, right,” said Amanda.
Neela pursed her lips. “Let’s go somewhere else,” she said to Lynne.
“Library?” Lynne whispered.
Neela nodded.
Amanda made a move, but Neela held her back with one hand. “Maybe you can stay and tell Ms. Reese where we went.”
“I’ll come with you, Neela,” Amanda said. “In case you need backup.”
“We’ll be done in five minutes,” Neela said firmly. The last thing she needed was “backup” from Amanda.
Amanda looked insulted. But at that moment, Elizabeth Bones motioned her daughter over.
“All right,” Amanda agreed reluctantly. “But I’m totally telling Ms. Reese what you did, Lynne. I hope you get fried.”
“I hope you eat crow,” Lynne said evenly.
Neela wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but it sounded worse than getting fried. Lynne was tougher than she thought.
But once they were outside the classroom, it was a different story. Lynne’s face fell and she spoke in a rush. “I know how it looks, but I didn’t take your veena, Neela. I needed the money, and it was too good a deal to pass up.”
“Start at the beginning,” Neela said. “You said you didn’t take the veena. But Ms. Bones said she photographed it in your apartment.”
Lynne looked miserable. “I didn’t take it. Someone else did.”
“Hal.”
“Yes, Hal.” Lynne nodded, unwilling to go on.
“And who is he? How do you know him?”
Lynne gulped. “He’s my neighbor.”
“Your neighbor!” Neela exclaimed. “But why did he take my veena?”
In a tearful voice, Lynne began. Hal was an old man in her building that Lynne had befriended. He used to know a veena player a long time ago that he was still hung up over. Whenever Lynne went over to see to Hal, all he talked about was Veronica Wyvern.
“He’s a very confused, sad person. And when he found out that someone in my class was bringing a veena, he said he was sure it was Veronica’s.”
“What?” Neela’s heart started pounding. She had heard the first time; she just wanted to hear it again.
“He thought the veena belonged to Veronica.”
“And did it?” Neela could hardly get herself to say the words.
Lynne shook her head. “I tried telling him he was wrong, but he didn’t believe me.”
How would Lynne know if the veena had belonged to Veronica or not? But there was more to Lynne’s story, so Neela kept listening.
“Anyway, I wish I hadn’t told him about the instrument unit we did in the fall, because I never thought he would come to school and follow you home.”
“He followed me from school?” Neela asked. “But I never saw him.”
“You weren’t looking for him. He just snuck into the church and pretended he had been there the whole time, and, well, you know the rest.”
“I thought I heard someone behind me,” Neela mused slowly. “And that’s why he was wet, too. But he also seemed like he belonged to the church. He knew where everything was. And someone told me he volunteers there.”
Lynne shrugged. “Maybe he does.”
Neela didn’t know whether to get angry or cry. “The whole time you knew where my veena was,” she said in disbelief. “The whole time you let me believe I’d lost it, and you lied about it to me even when I asked you about Hal.”
Lynne’s face wavered. “I’m sorry. It was so wrong, I can’t say how sorry I am, except that I never stole your veena, and I always meant for you to get it back safely.” When Neela didn’t say anything, she went on. “I found the business card from Amanda on the ground. So I called her mom and pretended it was my veena, and offered it for the photo shoot. She came to Hal’s apartment to take photos, and I pretended I lived there, too. But I never meant to keep your veena. I was planning to get Hal to return it to you as soon as the photo shoot was done. It’s just that I really needed the money. There was something…special I needed to buy.”
“The camera,” Neela said flatly.
Lynne’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
Neela looked away. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I would give you the money I got from Boston Living, but I already spent it. So”—Lynne swallowed—“you can have my camera.”
Neela’s palms started to sweat. “I don’t want your camera.”
Lynne stared at the ground. “But I don’t have anything else to give.”
“I don’t want anything from you,” Neela said slowly. “I just want my veena back. So maybe if you can tell Hal to return it to me, then we can forget about the whole thing.”
Lynne shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
“But you just said you were going to get him to do that.”
“Well, I can’t anymore.” Lynne’s voice was tight.
“Then tell me where he lives. I’ll talk to him myself.”
“No.”
Neela was getting exasperated. “You can’t keep protecting Hal, and—”
Lynne looked up, tears spilling from her eyes. “He can’t give the veena back to you because he doesn’t have it anymore!”
“What?” Neela exclaimed.
“Someone else took it. I don’t know, but it’s gone.”
Neela stared at Lynne. The veena had vanished…again?
Maybe the curse was true after all.
Between sobs, Lynne finished the worst part of her story—the end. Last week, someone broke into Hal’s apartment and stole the veena. Now Hal was more upset than ever, especially at Lynne, because she was the one who had arranged for the photo shoot. He was sure that someone from Boston Living had stolen the veena.
By now Lynne’s sobs had quieted down. “They were the only ones who saw the veena in the apartment. And they arranged for the complimentary dinner.”
“What complimentary dinner?”
“I got a call later in the day from their office, saying Hal and I were entitled to a free dinner that evening at Swilley’s.”
“I love Swilley’s,” Neela said.
“I know. Their pizza rocks. But now I can’t stand the place because when I got back from there, that’s when we discovered the veena was stolen from his apartment.”
“But it could be anyone. Maybe a different neighbor?”
Lynne shook her head. “I didn’t tell anyone about the veena or the photoshoot. It had to be someone from Boston Living.”
“When you came back from Swilley’s, do you remember anything else that was strange? Any clues? Try to remember.”
“All I know is that when we came back, the living room window was unlocked, and so was the door.”
“Because whoever it was walked out the door?”
“Yeah, but he or she must have come in through the window. The apartment is on the ground floor.”
“And it was just Mrs. Bones that came that day.”
Lynne shook her head. “Oh, no. There were lots of people. A lighting guy, an assistant, someone writing notes, and an Indian guy who looked at the veena. But I didn’t get anyone’s name except for Mrs. Bones.”
At that moment, the door opened. It was Ms. Reese. “Girls. Amanda told me where you were. Please return to your seats, and save your discussions for after school.”
Back in the classroom, Neela sat at her desk, feeling drained. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Hal was Lynne’s neighbor. Not only did Lynne not tell her, she found a way to make money out of the whole thing. And most important of all, the veena was missing…again. Was it the curse that made the veena disappear twice in a row—first from her, then from Hal?
Meanwhile, Matt and Penny were looking at her expectantly.
“What happened?” Matt whispered. “Yeah, Amanda won’t stop talking about it,” Penny added.
