Summary
Mother has been mysteriously heading off in the family car, the Morris. She has an air of secrecy and business about her that makes the children worried. They began eating less. One day Lenny, Adi, and Cousin discuss what it could be that the adults are doing. Ayah finally gives in and suggests that they look in the trunk of the car. It is full of petrol cans, she says. Upon more pressure from the children, she also admits that there are gallons and gallons of petrol stored near her quarters. Mother and sometimes Electricaunt bring cans out to the car and then later carry them from the car back to near Ayah’s room. The children begin worrying even further. They know that petrol is being rationed and it is a crime to store it. They also develop the theory that their mothers are the ones setting fires all over Lahore. The children each begin praying through they have never been greatly interested in religion before. They have also grown white hairs from stress.
One day Himat Ali (Hari) walks Lenny to school. There is a bad smell near the Salvation Army wall. There is a big burlap sack there from which the smell is coming. In it lies Masseur’s dead body. He is lying on his side with the top half of his body bare. Part of his flesh has been hacked with a sharp object. Looking at his hands, Lenny thinks about the way he used his skilled fingers to massage people. Himat Ali trembles upon seeing his friend and whispers him goodbye. He strokes the Masseur’s arm “as if he is massaging Masseur.”
Analysis
This chapter picks up various threads from the narrative that appeared earlier. When Lenny’s family first bought the car, it was unclear why so much was space was given to it in the story. With it being used to transport petrol, the car clearly has an important role. The children are slowly becoming adult-like through their tendency to worry. Not only do they begin to pray like adults, they even have white hairs grow in. They are aware of adult issues such as petrol rationing and seek to find rational explanations for the mystery of Lahore’s constant arsons. Yet there is still something childish about the logic of assuming that their mothers are the arsonists, as later chapters will show.
The discovery of Masseur’s murdered corpse reveals why Salvation Army has been presented as a sinister or mysterious place since the beginning of the novel. He has been stuffed in a sack and smells strongly of death and sweetness: the smell combines “the stiletto reek of violence with the smell of fresh roses.” Even in death, the masseur is sweet. Yet the crowd gathering around him does not see him in his individuality. He is not a person anymore: “He has been reduced to a body. A thing.” Taking away someone’s personhood is shown to be one of the most tragic outcomes of violence.
