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remembered the exotic creature in turquoise he’d seen on TV. The burdens of adulthood had made her look so much older now.
    ‘How was your day, Bina?’ he said as he handed her his plate.
    Bina nodded. ‘OK.’
    Radha, sitting next to Paulo, piped up, ‘It’s her birthday.’
    Amber gave a squeal of delight. ‘Bina, is it?’
    Bina looked embarrassed at the attention. ‘Yes.’
    Amber had a small plaited cord of red cotton around her wrist. She took it off, reached forwards and fastened it around Bina’s arm. ‘Friendship bracelet.’
    Bina smiled shyly, and put down the stack of plates she had been collecting. She turned her wrist, admiring it. ‘Thank you.’
    ‘It looks nice on you,’ said Amber.
    Alex watched the two girls and remembered what Amber was like when he first met her: the spoilt, rich, bitter Amber who never noticed anyone else, let alone their problems. He got out his phone, switched it to camera mode and recorded the moment for posterity.
    Bina and Amber jumped at the flash.
    ‘You rat,’ said Amber. ‘I wasn’t ready for my close-up.’ She held out her hand. ‘Let me see.’
    Alex passed over the phone. Amber inspected the picture, a critical expression on her face. ‘Hmm,’ she said. She didn’t look impressed.
    Bina, though, peered at the picture in wonder, her eyes enormous.
    Alex grinned. ‘I’ll e-mail it to you when you get computers in the school.’
    At that moment a great wind blew up, licking dust up off the road in clouds. It snatched at the girls’ saris, whipping them up around their faces and making them laugh in surprise. All the party leaped to their feet, grabbing plates, lamps and cushions. Suddenly the gathering was in chaos.
    ‘Inside!’ called Naresh, and they didn’t need telling twice. Bina and her sisters dashed for the door. The skies opened and tipped out their rain with a heavy, metallic roar.
    It was quite a crush in the little house. Hex looked out at the rain, already pouring as if through open taps from the veranda roof. ‘Great. We have to walk home in this.’
    The ground looked like a dark lake, the surface frosted with the constant blast of raindrops. Less fastidious than Hex, Alex leaped out into it. ‘Last one in the water’s a sissy.’
    Paulo grabbed Li’s arm and ran into the open, dragging her along. They nearly slipped over in the wet mud but recovered with a kind of skidding movement, like snowboarders doing a duet.
    Amber let out a whoop of delight and leaped into the nearest puddle.
    Alex looked back as they splashed across towards their own house. ‘Where’s Hex? The big girl’s blouse – is he afraid of getting his feet wet?’
    ‘I’ll get him,’ shouted Amber, waving the others on ahead. She ran back through the downpour to Naresh’s veranda and peeked inside.
    Hex was sitting at the little palmtop screen with Bina, Radha and Sami clustered around him. Naresh sat to one side but was listening too as Hex spoke. Amber looked at the scene. Behind her, Li and Paulo were having a mud fight. Their shrieks of delight mingled with the pounding of the rain. Inside, Hex was reading to three frightened girls.
    ‘Look, here’s a site set up by people who’ve donated kidneys. It says: My mother gave a kidney so that my son could live a normal life. I owe everything to her. Here’s another: My doctor said I needed a transplant, but the waiting list was two years. Without hesitation, my brother said, can I donate one of mine? Thanks to him, I have never been on a machine and am fit and well today. He is too.’
    Amber stepped into the open doorway. ‘Your mum will be all right,’ she said gently. ‘And she’s really helping somebody.’

6
    O RGAN T HIEVES
    Up on the scaffold at first light, Hex, Li, Amber, Alex and Paulo could see how the rains had changed the landscape. The parched fields were turning green. The ground, previously dry as a bone, had turned to thick mud and was crisscrossed by the tracks of people, animals