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Miss Teak reminds her of it.”
    “How come? The music?” I say, recalling the mysterious melody playing in the recording yesterday.
    “No, not the music.” She laughs a little, and I grimace at having appeared stupid once again. “It’s because psychics are very common in India. People believe what they say and talk to them for guidance, but here, nobody seems to believe in magic. They’re okay with believing only what they can see. They don’t know how special the unseen can be sometimes.”
    “Magic?”
    “Well not magic exactly, but something other-worldly that can’t be explained by science.”
    “I thought you liked science. You’re the only other sophomore in Dr. Brown’s class,” I point out.
    “I do like science, but I also like things that can’t be explained by science.”
    “Oh, okay,” I say in confusion.
    “It makes sense to me,” Simmi says, “because I grew up believing. You may take some time getting used to it all, but I think one day you’ll come to appreciate the unknown, like I do.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “Because you don’t have a choice, do you?” she says with a half-chuckle.
    Uh-oh, does she know about what’s been going on in my head? Otherwise why would she say something like that?
    I must be showing my emotions on my face again, because Simmi says, “Miss Teak’s shop is right next to your mum’s.” She jabs me playfully on the shoulder.
    A rush of calm and happiness spreads throughout my body, like getting hit with a tranquilizer dart in a really good way.
    “You’re going to encounter it every single day. You’re bound to get curious sooner or later.”
    A car honks from the parking lot.
    “I need to go,” Simmi’s voice recedes as she heads toward the door, “but I’ll be back tomorrow. Bye.” The bell jingles, and she’s gone.
    “Bye,” I whisper as her coconut hair recedes into the outside world.
    A friend. I finally made a friend.
    ***
    I whittle the days away until Friday, the last day of my suspension. Simmi has come by to bring me my schoolwork every day at four o’clock—her arrivals sync almost perfectly with the cuckooing of Mom’s old-fashioned clock. She stays while her mom chats with Miss Teak and leaves something like twenty minutes later.
    During the daytime, I work my way through The Odyssey .I’ve gotten to the part where Odysseus meets the princess and the goddess Athena makes him look especially good so the hot, young princess will like him. I wish I had a goddess doing things like that for me. Odysseus has all the luck—everywhere he goes, princesses and goddesses throw themselves at him.
    Getting jealous of some ancient fictional character is pretty lame, but I can’t help it. I don’t need a handful of women fawning over me. I just need one—Simmi. There’s something about her I can’t resist:  the way she smells, the sound of her accented voice, how she makes me feel like everything will be all right, that my problems don’t matter anymore. And, I don’t just like her because she’s the only girl—the only person—who will talk to me at school. It’s something more than that.
    Whenever I’m not reading The Odyssey or helping Mom with chores around the shop, my thoughts zoom to Simmi. She’s like a proton and my thoughts are an electron; it’s natural the two would come together. Can’t be avoided. I think about the types of things I might be able to talk to her about and just about her in general. For some reason, she trusts Miss Teak. If this weird psychic lady is good enough for Simmi, then she’s good enough for me. Besides, being forced to hang out in this strip mall all day without anything major to keep me busy, my curiosity’s gotten the better of me.
    “Hey, Mom,” I call. “I’m gonna head next door and see if Miss Teak needs help with unpacking or anything like that.” Best she knows where I am, just in case my initial instincts were spot-on and by heading in, I’m putting myself in