Mom shakes hands with everyone except Ravi and Gracie, who each get a big hug. “You’ll have to come visit us in Oakland. Right, Saundra?”
“Definitely,” Saundra says. She turns to Ravi. “You look in better shape than the last time I visited. Been working out?”
“He’s been training with the anti-trafficking unit in Kolkata,” Gracie says proudly.
“Trafficking’s bad in our town, too,” Saundra says. “Ever considered law enforcement as a career, young man?”
“Actually, yes,” Ravi says, surprising Kat and almost everyone who overhears him.
Even his parents, she thinks. His mother looks like she’s about to say something, but her husband puts a finger to his lips. Gracie, though, is smiling at Ravi knowingly. The keeper of his secrets, Kat thinks. As it should be.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rivera is frowning at how close Gracie and Ravi are on the sofa. He’s the only one who doesn’t seem 100 percent delighted to discover that they’ve become a couple. Ravi catches his eye and shifts his butt over a couple of inches away from Gracie’s. Mrs. Rivera, whose stomach is reminding everybody that another baby is due in two weeks’ time, gives Ravi an encouraging smile.
PG comes over to Kat. “I heard from Arjun,” he tells her. “The trial’s starting soon. They’re preparing Kavita to testify.”
So now it’s Kavita’s turn to fight. She’s going to win, Kat’s almost sure of it. No matter what happens in that court, though, Arjun Uncle, Miss Shireen, Mira Auntie, and the others at Asha House and the Bengali Emancipation Society will be on the mat with Kavita.
PG reaches into his bag and pulls out three sealed envelopes. They look familiar. He hands them to Kat, Gracie, and Ravi. “Open these in private, people.”
His guess is that they’ll want to be alone, but Kat wants to be with her friends. “Meet me in the Bat Cave in five,” she tells Ravi in a low voice. “And bring Firebird.”
INT. THORNTON GARAGE—NIGHT
Inside the Thorntons’ garage, the small, decrepit vehicle looks like she’s been counting the days until Ravi’s return. He and Gracie lean against her, facing Kat, and they open the envelopes.
Gracie laughs as her eyes scan what she scribbled so many weeks ago. “I hope to avoid babies,” she reads. “Well, that was dumb. What’s wrong with babies? I love them.”
Kat does, too. Maybe that church Mom’s been going to with Saundra has a nursery where she can get her fix.
“I hope to learn something new that has nothing to do with babies,” Gracie continues, reading her number two. “Oh, I definitely did that. Jiu-jitsu, thanks to you, Kat. Now I can enjoy every family party without having to hide from a two-hundred-pound lech.”
Look out, “Tío,” Kat thinks. One Kimura coming your way.
Ravi doesn’t open his envelope. “I didn’t find my birth mother, but at least I tried.” He stops. Fights the choking sound in his voice.
Gracie scooches over so she’s even closer to him. To Kat, the car they’re resting on seems as annoyed as Mr. Rivera.
“Number two was I hope to help my birth mother,” Ravi says, and his voice is steadier now. “Couldn’t do that when I didn’t find her, right? But I am going to Golden-Rule in her honor.” He flashes Kat an Amit Biswas smile.
It’s her turn. She pulls out the paper and reads her number one out loud. “I want to help Canaries fight Wolves.”
Neither of them ask what she meant when she wrote that. They’re quiet, giving her a chance to take stock, so Kat does. Her own plans didn’t work out at all. But maybe she was meant to make a difference in other ways, right from the start.
Helping Kavita to fight, but with her story, not her strength.
Teaching Gracie not to fear a big canine.
And in a few years, if she can keep grappling, going back to teach jiu-jitsu to Shiuli. And to Baby Diana, too. Maybe even Logan, if he wants to learn.
Kat reads her number two aloud. “I hope I can get over my disgust of men.”
Again, Gracie and Ravi don’t say anything. Kat looks at her friends’ faces. Especially Ravi’s. She remembers the time she was able to touch his shoulder outside the orphanage. Maybe she’s a bit better. But she’ll never be the person she was before the attack. It’s changed her life forever, in bad ways and good.
When she gets back to Oakland, she’s going to ask Mom to find her a woman counselor. Somehow they’ll figure out a way to pay for it. She needs to spar with men to get her black belt, and she’s not giving up jiu-jitsu. She thinks of Mom, Mira, Grandma Vee, Miss Shireen, Kavita, and the other Asha House girls. Maybe that’s the way healing works. No surrender. You stay on the mat. You keep fighting.
RAVI
Kat and her mother are catching a late flight to California right after the party. Deputy Saundra, though, is staying with her great-aunt an extra week. She and Ravi have already planned to meet for coffee to talk about the vocation she loves.
After giving each person at the party a goodbye namaste, Kat takes off the red scarf and offers it to Ms. Vee. The old woman smiles and fingers the chiffon, but doesn’t take it. “It’s yours to keep, child.”
Kat throws her arms around her, and then around Gracie.
Now it’s Ravi’s turn. He puts his palms together in a namaste. “See you soon, bon.” Little sister, he’s called her. Because that’s what she’s become.
“Goodbye, Dada,” she answers. Older brother.
And then she steps forward and puts her arms around him. It isn’t a full-body embrace, like the one she gave Gracie. It lasts only a second or two before she pulls away. But it’s a hug.
Ravi can hardly believe it. This is love, too, he thinks.
Turbocharged, sixteen-cylindered, mega-horsepowered love.
Kat’s mom’s eyes are teary. Ms. Vee’s expression looks like she wants to burst into the “Alleluia” chorus. And Gracie is giving Ravi that “you’re-hotter-than-Batman-or-Biswas” smile of admiration that makes him want to fly.
He’s never felt more like a hero.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Harold and Geneinde Jones, Bekah Mallory, Biju Mathew, Sally Petterson, Smita Singh, and Laura Sullivan for informing portions of this novel that depend heavily on their experiences and expertise. I’m grateful to my friends Dean and Jane Thompson for facilitating the opportunity to learn about anti-trafficking work in Kolkata.
I’m also in debt to International Justice Mission, Dear Adoption, Family Preservation 365, Jatiyo Kristyo Prochar Samity (JKPS), Mahima House, and Nancy Newton Verrier, author of The Primal Wound and Coming Home to Self. Please visit forwardmebacktoyou.com for more resources.
To my beloved agent, Laura Rennert, my kind and insightful editor, Grace Kendall, and the ultra-supportive editorial, publicity, design, and marketing teams at Macmillan—including but not limited to Elizabeth Lee, Joy Peskin, Nancy Elgin, Hayley Jozwiak, Jill Freshney, John Nora, Cassie Gonzales, Elizabeth H. Clark, Kristen Luby, Katie Halata, Lucy Del Priore, and Brittany Pearlman—bless you all.
Last but not least, I owe this story to Rob, my husband, our resilient and loving sons, James and Timothy, and my mother, who amazes me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mitali Perkins has written many award-winning books for young readers. Her most recent novel, You Bring the Distant Near, was a Walter Honor Book and a National Book Award Nominee, won the South Asia Book Award, and received six starred reviews, in addition to other accolades. Mitali was born in Kolkata, India, and has lived in Bangladesh, England, Thailand, Mexico, Cameroon, and Ghana. She currently resides in Northern California. Visit her online at mitaliperkins.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Author’s Note
Part ONE: Boston
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Kat
Robin
Part TWO: Kolkata
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Kat
Ravi
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © 2019 by Mitali Perkins
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2019
eBook edition, April 2019
fiercereads.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Perkins, Mitali, author.
Title: Forward Me Back to You / Mitali Perkins.
Description: First edition.|New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2019.|Summary: Told in separate voices, Kat and Robin leave Boston on a service trip to help combat human trafficking in India while Kat recovers from a sexual assault and Robin seeks his birth mother.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038352 (print)|LCCN 2018044414 (ebook)|ISBN 9780374304935 (ebook)|ISBN 9780374304928 (hardcover: alk. paper)
Subjects:|CYAC: Friendship—Fiction.|Voluntarism—Fiction.|Human trafficking—Fiction.|Adoption—Fiction.|Kolkata (India)—Fiction.|India—Fiction.|Boston (Mass.)—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.P4315 (ebook)|LCC PZ7.P4315 Boy 2019 (print)|DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038352
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eISBN 9780374304935
Forward Me Back to You Page 28
